Heart Disease Risk Factors, Continued

There are many heart disease risk factors out there that you should know about.  The last article covered a couple of the major risk factors, and this article will cover the last of the major risk factors.  After that we will go into the contributing risk factors of heart disease.

So we know about obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.  Another of the major heart disease risk factors includes diabetes.  Diabetes is a disease that effects blood sugar levels, and many victims who suffer from diabetes end up dying from heart problems of some kind, especially those who suffer from the severe form of diabetes known as Type II or Adult Onset Diabetes.  It’s important to see your doctor for testing if you think you may have diabetes but are not sure, so that you can start a treatment plan and reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke.

Smoking in another of the huge heart disease risk factors.  The AHA says that more than 400,000 U.S. citizens die from smoking related illnesses, and most of these are caused by the strain smoking puts on the heart and accompanying blood vessels.

Physical inactivity and age are also major heart disease risk factors.  Exercise reduces obesity, controls cholesterol levels and diabetes, and even might lower blood pressure.  It also makes the heart muscle itself much stronger and your arteries much more flexible.  Any regular exercise can really help increase your odds of preventing heart disease, but especially vigorous cardio exercise.  Also, if you are 65 or older, 4 out of 5 deaths from heart disease occur within this bracket.  So if you are older you need to be taking extra special care of your heart.

Finally, heredity and gender are also major heart disease risk factors.  Men have an increased risk than women until they reach menopause. After the the gap narrows, and once you reach age 65 the levels are about the same.

Also, when assessing heart disease risk factors, note that heart disease tends to run in the family, and that some forms of heart disease are more common in certain ethnicities than others.  So all of these things should be considered when discussing with your doctor your heart disease risk factors.

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