Coronary heart disease is the most common cause of heart attack, which can be life-threatening. Fortunately or unfortunately, the biggest risk factors of heart disease are in your control. Knowing about them and following a lifestyle to keep all these risk factors at bay can prevent you from developing any kind of heart disease or heart attack.
Here are all the risk factors that can prevent you from having a heart attack:
1. High Blood Pressure:
High Blood Pressure is the major risk factor for heart disease. It happens when the pressure of the blood flowing in your arteries and other blood vessels is too high. This can affect your heart, kidneys, brain, and other major organs. You can manage your blood pressure with healthy lifestyle changes or medication if prescribed by your doctor.
2. Drinking too much alcohol:
Having more than three drinks of alcohol in one sitting can temporarily raise your blood pressure. This high blood pressure can put a strain on your heart muscle over time, putting you at risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and stroke.
3. Inactive lifestyle:
An inactive lifestyle characterized by a lack of physical activity can put you at risk of heart disease, even if you have no other risk factors. Lack of physical activity can also put you at risk of other heart disease-causing factors, such as obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes.
4. Unhealthy diet:
An unhealthy diet high in salt, fat, and sugars can increase the levels of cholesterol in your body. Extra cholesterol can build up in the walls of your arteries, including those of your heart. This can harden and narrow your arteries, decrease the blood flow to the heart, and increase your risk of heart attack.
5. Smoking:
Smoking is very harmful to your heart health. It increases your risk of developing heart disease by increasing the formation of plaque in your blood vessels. This reduces the flow of blood to your heart and increases your risk of heart attack.
