Know Your Heart Disease Risks and How to Reduce Them

Heart disease kills more women in the US than any other single cause. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is responsible for one out of every four deaths among women nationwide, according to the National Institute of Health. Women experience heart disease differently from men. While chest pain is the most common symptom of a heart attack in both men and women, women more often exhibit the less common signs of a heart attack like heartburn, weakness and coughing. Heart attacks are also fatal more often in women than in men.

Understanding the risk factors for heart disease and making lifestyle changes can reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease and increase your chances of a full recovery if heart disease or a heart attack does strike. While the contributing factors for heart disease are complex, actions to reduce the risk factors are the same: maintain a healthy weight, be active and eat a healthy diet, with lots of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and little saturated or trans fat.
One of the major risk which is not preventable is family history. If your parents or grandparents have or had CVD disease, you are at a greater risk of CVD. However, other factors for heart disease are largely preventable through diet exercise and lifestyle. A few major risks factors are discussed below:

Gender-Dependent Risk Factors
Men and women undergo heart surgery at different rates. Women undergo fewer bypass surgeries than men. There are several reasons for this, some of them are fairly obvious.

Vascular size
Compared to women, men are generally taller, weigh more and have a larger body surface area. This means that men generally have larger coronary arteries, which do not clog readily as the smaller arteries in women. And the smaller size of women’s coronary arteries presents a greater technical challenge for cardiac surgeons performing angioplasty or bypass surgery.

Hormones
Because estrogen is thought to protect against cardiovascular disease, women are rarely affected by cardiovascular disorders (CVD) before menopause. As such, most women are older and in worst overall physical condition when they do require treatment.

Finally women are more likely to have complications including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, obesity and cerebral or peripheral vascular diseases. African-American and Latina women tend to have more of these complications, so the NIH suggests that women of color pay particular attention to their cardiac health.

General Risk Factors
In addition to gender-related risks, a number of other factors can put both men and women at risk for cardiovascular disease. Risk factors are divided into major and contributing factors. The major risk factors have been proved to increase the risk of heart diseases. Contributing factors are those that doctors think can lead to an increased risk, but exact role played by them is not defined.

Smoking
Cigarette smoking has been medically determined to be a major risk factor for coronary artery disease. Smokers have 200 times the risk of developing coronary heart disease as compared to nonsmokers. Smoking clogs coronary arteries, which heightens the risk of blood clots resulting in a heart attack. Smoking also increases LDL, the “bad” cholesterol, while decreasing HDL, the “good” cholesterol. Smoking will kill your heart; do not smoke.

High cholesterol
Cholesterol is one of the groups that make up the fatty or lipid compounds in the bloodstream. Cholesterol is produced by the liver. The amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood is also affected by weight, diet and exercise. Losing excess weight, limiting intake of saturated fat and trans fats, increasing fiber intake through whole grains and plant foods, and exercising regularly can keep cholesterol in check.

Most cholesterol is transported to the body’s cell in small particles called low density lipoproteins (LDL). High level of LDL are associated with increased risk for heart diseases, earning it the designation of “bad cholesterol”. They deposit on the walls of the arteries as plaque. Over the period of the time, plaque can cause obstruction or occlusion of an artery, triggering a heart attack.

Diabetes
In the US, 6 percent people have diabetes. Factors like the inaccurate information about food and consumption people get on TV, plus personal behavior such as over eating and too much fat in the diet are primarily at fault in the soaring numbers of adult diabetic patients. Women with polycystic ovary disease are at greater risk for diabetes.

People with diabetes also tend to have other traits that make them more at risk for developing heart problems. These include obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Hypertension
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is the leading cause of stroke and a major risk factor for heart attack and kidney failure. There are no typical symptoms for hypertension. Without regular, periodic blood pressure screening you may be unaware of its presence. Many drugstores and pharmacies have self-service blood pressure test stations that you can use to monitor your blood pressure between visits to your doctor’s office, or you can get an inexpensive home blood pressure monitor. Normal blood pressure should be below 120/80. Readings above 140/90 indicate hypertension. Regular exercise, such as walking 20 to 30 minutes per day, can reduce your risk of hypertension and may help lower borderline blood pressure.

Obesity
Obesity is defined as a body mass index greater than 30. Calculate your BMI with this handy tool. Obesity is directly related to heart diseases including hypertension, diabetes and vascular diseases. Weight reduction - even a 5% reduction, equivalent to losing 10 pounds if you weigh 200 pounds - can help lower your risk of heart disease.

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