Controlling Cardiovascular Risk Factors

You can't control all your cardiovascular risks, but you can control many of them. You can improve your heart health by changing how you live, your diet and how you exercise.  

Start by talking to your doctor. You will get good advice on changing your diet, becoming more active and getting a handle on other cardiovascular risks.

The cardiovascular risks you cannot control
No matter what you do, you cannot change your family, sex, race, or age. But knowing these cardiovascular risks will help you and your doctors improve your long-term health.

• Your family
  If a family member has heart disease, it is more likely you will have it in your lifetime, too. 
• Your race 
  Some hereditary risks come from your race. For example, African-Americans have an increased risk of high blood pressure.
• Your sex 
  While men are more likely to have heart attacks than women at any age, heart disease is the number-one killer of women. After menopause, the risk for women increases.
• Your age
  The risk of heart disease increases with each year a person lives. As women age, they are more likely to die within the first year after a heart attack.  
  

---

Cardiovascular risks you can control and reduce
By controlling your cardiovascular risks, you can improve your quality of life. For example, exercise improves your cardiovascular system and your mood; losing weight just plain makes you feel better. 

Below are common cardiovascular risk factors and some ideas on what you can do to avoid and reduce them.

• Smoking 
  Quitting smoking makes it easier for your heart to work. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you do, quit. If you've tried to quit but can't, get help. Talk to your doctor about ways to help you stop smoking. 

• High blood pressure
  High blood pressure forces your heart to work harder. The higher your blood pressure, the higher your risk for heart attack or stroke. For many people, changing their diet and exercise reduces their risk. If those changes don't lower your blood pressure enough, there are effective medicines available. Be sure to take them as your doctor prescribes them. You may have to take more than one medication to lower your blood pressure.

• High cholesterol 
  In their blood, many people have too much of a fat called cholesterol. If you have high cholesterol, you have a higher risk of having a heart attack or a stroke. You can reduce your cholesterol with diet, exercise and, for some people, medicine.

• Weight   
  Being overweight can cause of many different threats to your heart. These include:
  
  • high blood pressure,
  • high cholesterol, and
    
  • diabetes
  The solution is to eat fewer calories and exercise more. Often, the hard part is to motivate yourself. Your doctor or Priority Health can suggest good ways to start a diet and exercise program.
  • Alcohol 
    More than one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men can raise blood pressure, cause heart failure and increase fats in the blood.
  • Diabetes 
    If you have diabetes, your risk of many heart-related diseases is much higher. Seventy-five percent of people with diabetes die of heart or blood vessel disease. Therefore it is very important to work closely with your doctor to control your blood sugar levels to reduce your risk of diabetic and cardiovascular complications.