Heart Disease Risks: Contributing Factors

Heart disease risks fall into either the major category or the contributing category.  Since we have already covered the major heart disease risks, this article will go over the contributing factors.

The first contributing factor thought to increase your heart disease risks is stress.  Stress is considered by many to be the number one killer in America, and it very well may be true.  The reason it’s effects on heart disease are largely unknown, is because each of us deal with stress differently, so it is hard to pinpoint it’s exact effects upon the heart.  Plus stress can contribute to other risk factors in search of comfort, such as smoking or over eating.
Sex hormones are thought to be another of the heart disease risks.  In women going around ages 40- 60, right around the time many are going through menopause, chances of heart attacks are significantly increased.  At ages 65 and up, about half of heart attack victims are women.  On the flip side, women younger than 40 rarely experience heart disease.

Birth control pills are also thought to up your heart disease risks, especially in women over 35 that smoke.  If you are younger than that, and don’t smoke, then birth control is considered safe for you.  However if you are younger and still smoke, be warned that your chances of getting heart disease are greatly increased, especially once you pass that 35 year bench mark.

One last contributing component in heart disease risks is alcohol.  Being a moderate drinker, which for men is 2 beers per day, and women only one is shown that risks are actually reduced for heart disease.  However consuming more than that per day is thought to greatly increase your risks, as most alcohol is high in calories, which ups chances of other heart disease risks, such as obesity, high blood pressure and stroke.  So it’s important to assess both the major heart disease risks, as well as the contributing heart disease risks, in order to obtain optimum health.