SolveYourProblem Article Series: Heart Health
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What Are The Risk Factors For Heart Disease?

There are a lot of risk factors for heart disease, but there are six major risk factors that everyone should pay attention to. These are the most common risk factors, accounting for the vast majority of heart disease. These six risk factors are diabetes, smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

Diabetes

Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease. For a long time, the medical community has known that high blood sugar can have a detrimental effect on the heart. Patients with diabetes have double to as much as quadruple the risk of dying of heart attack or stroke that someone who has already had a previous heart attack but doesn’t have diabetes.

A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found evidence that lowering your blood sugar significantly can reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by nearly half! This is most prominent in those with Type 1 diabetes, but there’s an ongoing trial about whether or not controlling blood sugar levels could also halve the risk in patients with Type 2 diabetes. About 95% of the 20,000,000 Americans with diabetes have Type 2.

Unfortunately, a lot of people who have Type 2 diabetes don’t even realize it until it’s too late and the damage has already been done. Patients with heart disease might not even have their blood sugar levels checked, and people with diabetes may not routinely have their heart checked.

Smoking

It’s been known for many years that smoking increases your risk of all types of diseases. It’s a major cause of atherosclerosis, which is when fatty substances build up in the arteries. In patients with coronary artery disease, the arteries become narrowed, which decreases the supply of blood to the heart. This can lead to angina, and may even eventually lead to heart attack.

Peripheral artery disease is when there is atherosclerosis in the arteries that take blood to the extremities. This may cause intermittent claudication, which is a painful cramping in the legs when the patient is walking. It can also increase the risk of stroke.

Smokers are also at a much higher risk of heart attack than non-smokers. The longer a person smokes, the more that risk increases. People who smoke just one pack of cigarettes per day have more than two times the risk of heart attack than non-smokers.

Physical Inactivity

The heart is a muscle. When muscles aren’t used much, they tend to atrophy. That means they shrink and aren’t as strong as they could be. The heart can experience a similar effect. When people don’t get a lot of exercise, their heart can stop working as well.

Regular physical activity, especially aerobic exercise, can help prevent cardiovascular disease, heart disease, and stroke. Lack of physical activity is strongly linked to cardiovascular mortality. Physical activity can also control blood cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure, and it can help prevent and correct obesity.

Obesity

Obesity is a major risk factor for many types of diseases. Coronary heart disease is one of these. There are several reasons why obesity can increase the risk of heart disease. For one thing, it can raise blood cholesterol and triglycerides.

It lowers HDL cholesterol, and raises LDL. It causes hypertension. It can cause some people to develop diabetes, which can significantly increase the risk of heart attack. Even when there are no other known risk factors, obesity alone increase a person’s risk of developing heart disease.

High Cholesterol

High cholesterol is another major risk factor in coronary heart disease, which can lead to heart attack. Although cholesterol is necessary for many functions in the body, having too much of the wrong kind can lead to coronary disease.

Low density lipoprotein is the major carrier of cholesterol in the blood. If there’s too much LDL in the blood, it can build up inside the arteries. This can lead to the formation of a hard deposit called plaque, and that can clog the arteries. If a blood clot forms near a plaque deposit, it can block the blood flow to the heart and cause a heart attack. If the clot dislodges and blocks blood flow to the brain, it causes a stroke.

A level of LDL cholesterol over 160 mg/dL puts you at an increase risk of heart disease. If you already have heart disease, your cholesterol should be even lower in an attempt to prevent a heart attack or stroke.

High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, usually has no symptoms. Many people have it for many years without even knowing it. Unfortunately, this can have devastating consequences for those who have it and don’t know. People who have prolonged and sustained hypertension can develop coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, and many other diseases.

Nearly one third of American adults have high blood pressure. It’s very important to get your blood pressure checked regularly, even if you feel fine. Your blood pressure could start to rise at any time, so you should check it often.

Family History

Family history is a seventh risk factor that’s often overlooked - probably because nothing can really be done about it. People with a family history of heart disease or heart attacks are much more likely to get it themselves than someone without a family history, even if they have no other risk factors at all!

So you should be sure to ask your family about the possibility that you have heart disease in your lineage. Find out what killed the last several generations of your family, and don’t forget about aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Find out how old they were when they died, as well. The more you know about your family history, the more you can prepare for things that might happen to you later. Your doctor will want to know about your family’s heart health history as well.

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by SolveYourProblem.com : 2008

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