Risk Factors & Heart Disease

In another post, I discussed the causes of heart disease that are under your control.  In this post, I want to give you the risk factors of heart disease that are not under your control. These are risk factors that we are born with and cannot change.  However, just because you have risk factors that you cannot control, does not mean that you want to ignore the factors that you can control.  Here is a list of the risk factors that you can’t change:

1. Age – the older you are, the more at risk you are of developing heart disease.  After age forty-five, the amount of males with heart disease is greater.  For females, this number increases after age fifty-five.
2. Family History – If you have a family history of heart disease, this puts you at increased risk, especially if someone had a stroke before fifty-five years old or before menopause occurred.
3. Male – Simply being a man puts you at increased risk of heart disease.  However, the risk for females increases after menopause.
4. Race – African-Americans, South Asians, Mexican Americans, and Aboriginal people have a higher chance of developing heart disease than Caucasians.  In Canada, for example, the Aboriginals have a high rate of diabetes in their population.  This then increases their chances for heart disease too.

This list is what is known as the uncontrollable risk factors of heart disease.  We cannot change any of these risk factors, as we are born with them.  That is why it becomes increasingly important that you control the risk factors that you can change – things such as quitting smoking, avoiding overindulgence in alcohol, controlling your blood pressure and diabetes, increasing your activity level, and eating better and controlling your cholesterol and fat intake.