Heart Disease - Risk Factors
Heart gives an image of love, strong emotions and fancy Valentine cards. Athletes have "heart" when they push through pain to win the gold medal. Music touches the "heart". But without the real, blood pumping heart, the full life with all those rich emotions ceases. With so many men and women at risk for heart disease, knowing more about the actual working heart is extremely important. Some people are born with congenital defects in the heart. The wonders of medical technology are so great that these defects are often known before birth. Surgery on infants and small children to correct congenital heart defects saves many children. For other people, a heart defect goes unnoticed for many years until extreme exertion, injury or other circumstance triggers a heart attack.
For too many people, heart disease is the accumulation of years of living unhealthy lifestyle. They have contributed to the development of their own heart disease and they must make radical changes to turn around this problem. The American Heart Association identified major risk factors and divided them into two categories; those that can be improved with lifestyle changes and those that cannot. The heart disease risk factors that cannot be changed by choice are age (over 65), gender and heredity. Men still outnumber women for heart attacks. Even though women's heart attack risk increases after menopause, it still is not as high as for men. Ethnicity is a unique factor as well. Heart disease occurs in higher percentages among American Indians, Mexican Americans, Pacific Islanders in Hawaii and some Asian Americans. African Americans have higher incidents of high blood pressure which could lead to heart disease. Regardless of ethnicity, a family history of diabetes, obesity or heart disease is a sign to beware of symptoms leading to these conditions and get treatment early. The six major risk factors for heart disease that can be managed are smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes and sedentary lifestyle. As an example of one lifestyle risk factor is smoking. Smokers (cigarette, cigar or pipe) have a 2 to 4 times greater risk of developing heart disease than non-smokers. Even non-smokers are placed at increased risk of heart disease from second-hand smoke. To stop smoking is to dramatically reduce heart disease risk. No single risk factor is better or worse than another. Unfortunately many people who develop heart disease had multiple risk factors. An overweight smoker with high cholesterol who does not exercise more than the walk to the refrigerator compounds his risk level. The American Heart Association recommends elimination, control and medical treatment of each risk factor to reduce the overall risk for heart disease. To measure potential heart disease risk factors, go to the American Heart Association website www.americanheart.org. After taking the online survey, a risk factor report with suggestions for improvements can be printed. After age 40, every adult needs to evaluate heart disease risk factors every 5 years. If there is a family history of heart disease, start measuring risk factors as early as age 20. How Do You Get Heart Disease What Is Heart Disease Heart Disease Treatment Heart Attack |