Risk Factors for Heart Disease

Some of the biggest risk factors that can lead to heart disease you can control, like what you eat and how much physical activity you get. Making healthy lifestyle choices can help prevent high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes, which are things that raise your chance of getting heart disease.

If you have high blood pressure, you may not feel any symptoms, so it’s important to get regular checkups. You can lower your blood pressure by eating a healthy diet, having a healthy weight, getting enough physical activity, limiting alcohol, and quitting smoking and other tobacco products.

If you have too much cholesterol, it builds up on the walls of your blood vessels, making it harder for blood to flow through them. You can lower your cholesterol by making the same healthy lifestyle changes that will help your blood pressure.

Having diabetes can also increase your chances of getting heart disease. If you have diabetes, it means your body can’t use all the sugar in your blood the way it’s supposed to. Keeping track of your blood sugar, taking medication your doctor gives you, and making the same healthy lifestyle changes mentioned above can help you control your diabetes and reduce your risk of getting heart disease.

Check out the American Heart Association’s website, www.heart.org, for more information and inspiration.