Cardiac Risk Factors

Heart is one of the most important organs of our body. If you want to lead a healthy life you must keep your heart healthy. And you can do this by keeping all the risk factors at bay which can give you heart diseases. Whether you have a chance of developing coronary artery disease or not can be predicted by identifying the cardiac risk factors.

By limiting these cardiac risk factors you can minimize the risk of heart diseases. Some major cardiac risk factors are mentioned below.

The uncontrollable risk factors are heredity, age and gender. Children of parents who had heart disease at an early age are at a greater risk of developing coronary artery disease. If you have a family history of coronary heart disease then you are twice more prone to heart disease. With increase in age the risk of coronary artery disease also increases. So if you are 60 years of age you must quit smoking. This will increase your life by 5-7 years.

Men are at a higher risk of heart attack than women and they get it about 10 years early in life than women. But now as more and more women are entering the workforce the younger women are becoming heart disease victims at an earlier age due to their lifestyle changes.

Some of the avoidable risk factors are obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, stress, excessive intake of salt and alcohol, physical inactivity, diabetes and high blood cholesterol. Even if you are free from other risk factors but have excess body fat especially at your waist then you will be more prone to develop stroke and heart disease. You will be able to lower your risk of heart disease if you manage to lose even 10 pounds of weight. If you are suffering from diabetes or hypertension then your risk of developing heart disease and stroke seriously increases.

If you are a moderate alcohol consumer then you are at a lower risk than nondrinkers but if you consume too much alcohol then it will give rise to high blood pressure, high triglycerides and obesity and will ultimately lead to heart failure and stroke. If you smoke then you have 2-3 times more risk of dying from heart disease. Avoid even passive smoking.