Doctors talk of risk factors. What are risk factors? They are a combination of behaviors (like smoking), diseases (like diabetes) and lab results (like a high cholesterol profile) which increase a person’s likelihood of having something bad happen to his health. Since we are talking about heart health, the ‘something bad’ could mean a heart attack (doctors call them myocardial infarction) or a stroke (a cerebral vascular accident).
Some risk factors you cannot change such as your age, gender, and your inherited genes.
Some risk factors you can improve with the expected result of better health. Risk factors for cardiovascular (heart, stroke and peripheral vascular) disease include high stress levels, blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, smoking, physical inactivity, being overweight or obese, being diabetic, or taking birth control pills.
Check back on this blog to learn more about these risk factors and the choices we can make to improve our health.
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