Heart Attack Risk Factors

Do you have heart attack risk factors lurking, so that you may be at risk for a heart attack in the future?
If you do, you should know that there's a lot you can do to control these factors so that your heart attack risk is minimized, if not eliminated altogether.

While it's true that there are certain heart attack risk factors you can't control, there are a lot of factors you certainly can control. It's also true that, to paraphrase a well-known saying, "Genetics can load the gun, but your own behavior is what causes it to fire." What that means is that although genetics may play a part in whether or not you have a heart attack, your own behavior is far more important, and in fact may actually set those genetic factors off, versus leaving them dormant so that they don't harm you.

What heart attack risk factors can't you control?
Okay. As we said previously, there are certain things you can't control when it comes to heart attack risk. Namely, those are your ethnic background (blacks are more likely than whites to have cardiovascular problems), your genetics (if your grandfather and father had heart attacks by the age of 53, then you as a man especially are also much more likely to have a heart attack at an early age than the general population is), your gender (to some extent) and your age. Older people have more heart attacks than young ones do, and younger men are more likely to have heart attacks than younger women are. (However, women past the age of menopause are just as likely to have a heart attack as their male peers.)

What heart attack risk factors can you control?
Basically, everything, because even the outcome of genetic forces, for example, is influenced by what you do. What does that mean? Even if your genetics, race or age are against you, it's up to you to make yourself as healthy as possible so that you don't have a heart attack anyway.

Obesity and overweight
This is by far the number one cause of heart attacks, because inherent in the condition of obesity are overweight are a number of other risk factors. For example, if you are obese or overweight, you're much more likely to be diabetic or prediabetic, a heart attack risk factor. You're also much more likely to eat less healthy (another heart attack risk factor), and I'll bet you anything you don't exercise as much as you should. That's a third heart attack risk factor, all wrapped up in a nice little label called obesity.

So if you're prone to heart attack, the first things you should do is to get your weight under control. That'll do a number of things. For one, losing weight requires you to eat healthier (if you're smart), and to get up and move. Eating healthier gives you the nutrients you need to be healthy, and you'll also see the weight begin to come off naturally. Healthier eating will also help do things like regulate blood pressure (because potassium is a natural blood pressure regulator), will work to bring your diabetes under control if you have type 2 diabetes, and simply give you the energy you need to move, which is something else when it comes to losing the weight you need to. ALL of these things will work to reduce your risk factors.

Smoking
When it comes to reducing your heart attack risk factors, of course there's the obvious: eating right, exercising, and losing the weight you need to. Smoking, too, increases your risk of having a heart attack, and it's something that just needs to be done. Simply, smoking isn't good for you, can cause you to have a heart attack, and needs to be dumped Now.

Stress
Unfortunately, all of us live in a stressful environment, and it's up to us to control the stress we're under so that we minimize our risk factors. When you're under stress, don't worsen things by eating junk, smoking, drinking, and so on. All of these things can cause heart disease and even heart attack. There's even some evidence that stress itself can contribute to cardiovascular problems. So when you're under stress, turn to healthy ways to minimize it, like deep breathing, meditation, and simply saying "no" when you can't do anymore.

No one can entirely remove all of their heart attack risk factors, but you can certainly do a lot to minimize the ones you have. Do just that, and you have a much better chance of living a long and healthy life.

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