Three Major Risk Factors for Heart Disease
Three Major Risk Factors for Heart Disease
Although most heart attacks occur later in the life cycle (55 percent after 65 years of age), the processes responsible begin quite early, often before adolescence. Atherosclerosis is responsible for about 80 percent of all heart attacks. It is the result of interactions between genetic factors and lifestyle behaviors.
Certain lifestyle behaviors were identified by the Framingham Heart Disease Study as risk factors for coronary heart disease. The risks are generally categorized as those that can be changed and those that cannot.
Age
The statistical probability that a person will die from heart disease increases with advancing age. In fact, 55 percent of all heart attacks occur after 65 years of age, and 85 percent of all fatal heart attacks occur after 65 years of age.
Male Gender
Men are, and have been, the primary candidates for heart disease. An alarming trend has surfaced in recent years though: Morbidity (the sick rate in a population) and mortality (the death rate in a population) have been increasing steadily in premenopausal women. The prime contributor is cigarette smoking, and when it is coupled with taking oral contraceptives, the risk increases substantially. By age 65, a woman’s risk is approximately the same as a man of the same age. On average, women tend to get heart disease about 10 years later than men, so men are at higher risk at younger ages. But the risk equals out and eventually reverses at and beyond 65 years of age.
Women have a more favorable blood-fat ratio that protects the arteries from atherosclerosis. Vulnerability to heart disease for women increases after menopause because estrogen production decreases and then stops, and blood-fat ratios change so they resemble the masculine profile.
Heredity
Children whose parents have heart disease or atherosclerosis have an increased tendency to develop these problems themselves. A family history of heart disease is confirmed when (a) a father or first-degree male relative (grandfather or brother) has had a clinically diagnosed heart attack or dies of heart disease prior to 55 years of age, and (b) a mother or first-degree female relative (grandmother or sister) has had a clinically diagnosed heart attack or dies of heart disease prior to 65 years of age. Having a family history increases an individual’s estimated risk by approximately 25 percent, which is about one-tenth as dangerous as cigarette smoking.8 This is not intended to imply that a positive family history is insignificant but, rather, that its effect should not be overestimated.
Other risk factors can be changed. These include cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, elevated serum cholesterol, physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes, and individuals’ responses to stress.