-heart disease risk factors-

Cardiovascular disease can take many forms: high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, stroke, or rheumatic fever/rheumatic heart disease

Major risk factors;

High Blood Pressure (Hypertension). High blood pressure increases your risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Although other risk factors can lead to high blood pressure, you can have it without having other risk factors. If you are obese, smoke, or have high blood cholesterol levels along with high blood pressure, your risk of heart disease or stroke greatly increases.

Blood pressure can vary with activity and age, but a healthy adult who is resting should have a systolic pressure below 120 and a diastolic pressure below 80.

Smoking. Most people know that cigarette and tobacco smoking increases your risk of lung cancer, but few realize that it also greatly increases the risk of heart disease and peripheral vascular disease (disease in the vessels that supply blood to the arms and legs). According to the American Heart Association, more than 400,000 Americans die each year of smoking-related illnesses. Many of these deaths are because of the effects of smoking on the heart and blood vessels.

Research has shown that smoking increases heart rate, tightens major arteries, and can create irregularities in the timing of heartbeats, all of which make your heart work harder. Smoking also raises blood pressure, which increases the risk of stroke in people who already have high blood pressure. Although nicotine is the main active agent in cigarette smoke, other chemicals and compounds like tar and carbon monoxide are also harmful to your heart in many ways. These chemicals lead to the buildup of fatty plaque in the arteries, possibly by injuring the vessel walls. And they also affect cholesterol and levels of fibrinogen, which is a blood-clotting material. This increases the risk of a blood clot that can lead to a heart attack.

source by: Texas Heart Institute

created:Heart information center