What Are Heart Disease Risk Factors?

Heart disease risk factors are conditions or habits that raise your risk for coronary heart disease (CHD; also called coronary artery disease) and heart attack. These risk factors also increase the chance that existing heart disease will worsen.

CHD is a condition in which a fatty material called plaque (plak) builds up on the inner walls of the coronary arteries. These arteries carry oxygen-rich blood to your heart muscle.

Plaque narrows the arteries and reduces blood flow to your heart muscle. This can cause chest pain, especially when you're active. Eventually, an area of plaque can rupture, causing a blood clot to form on the plaque's surface.

If the clot becomes large enough, it can mostly or completely block the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the part of the heart muscle fed by the artery. This causes a heart attack.

Overview

There are a number of known heart disease risk factors. You can control some risk factors, and others you can't. Risk factors you can control include:

• High blood cholesterol and high triglyceride levels
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes and prediabetes
• Overweight and obesity
• Smoking
• Lack of physical activity
• Unhealthy diet
• Stress

The risk factors you can't control are age, gender, and family history.

Many people have at least one heart disease risk factor. Your risk for heart disease and heart attack increases with the number of risk factors you have and their severity. Also, some risk factors, such as smoking and diabetes, put you at greater risk for heart disease and heart attack than others.

Many heart disease risk factors start during childhood. This occurs even more now because many children are overweight and don't get enough physical activity. Some heart disease risk factors can even develop within the first 10 years of life.

Researchers continue to study and learn more about heart disease risk factors.

Outlook

Heart disease is the #1 killer of both women and men in the United States. Following a healthy lifestyle can help you and your children prevent or control many heart disease risk factors.

Because many lifestyle habits begin during childhood, parents and families should encourage their children to make heart healthy choices. For example, if you maintain a healthy weight, follow a healthy diet, do physical activity regularly, and don't smoke, you can reduce your heart disease risk.

On average, people who have a low risk for heart disease live up to 10 years longer than people at high risk for heart disease.

If you already have heart disease, lifestyle changes can help you control your risk factors. This may prevent heart disease from worsening. Even if you're in your seventies or eighties, a healthy lifestyle can lower your risk of dying from heart disease by nearly two-thirds.

If lifestyle changes aren't enough, your doctor may recommend other treatments to help control your risk factors.

Your doctor can help you find out whether you have heart disease risk factors. He or she also can help you create a plan for lowering your risk for heart disease, heart attack, and other heart problems. If you have children, talk to their doctor about their heart health and whether they have heart disease risk factors.

March 2009