Studies suggest that the root cause of the vast majority of heart attacks can be connected to one or more of the following: smoking, bad cholesterol, diabetic issues, blood pressure problems, stress, being excessively overweight, sedentary lifestyle, ingesting too few fruits and vegetables, and you may not be aware - avoiding alcoholic beverages! Disease of the heart can also be due to a inherited issue with the heart, by infections such as rheumatic fever that cause damage to the heart valves, or more often than not by atherosclerosis.

Reported by the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease causes 12 million casualties in the world on a yearly basis and accounts for one half of all fatalities in the United States Of America and other developed countries. Adult men are more prone to have heart disease than females and experience heart attacks at a more youthful age.

Let's have a look at the risk factors that have a critical role in your probability of experiencing heart disease. The risk factors are separated into two categories: major and contributing. Major risk factors are those that have been shown to increase your risk of heart disease. Contributing risk factors are those that medical doctors think can bring about a greater risk of heart disease. The greater number of risk factors you have, a lot more likely you are to develop heart disease. Some risk factors can be changed, treated, or modified, and some cannot. But by removing as many risk factors as is possible, through life-style improvements and/or prescription medicines, you can reduce your risk of heart disease.

Major Risk Factors

* High Blood Pressure (Hypertension). High blood pressure increases your risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Although other risk factors can lead to high blood pressure, you can have it without having other risk factors. If you are obese, you are a cigarette smoker, or you have high blood cholesterol levels along with high blood pressure, your risk of heart disease or stroke goes up substantially.

* High Blood LDL Cholesterol. One of the major risk factors for heart disease is high blood Ldl cholesterol. Although we often blame the cholesterol found in food that we ingest for increasing blood cholesterol, the biggest culprit is the saturated fat in food. Blood is the fluid of life that helps to keep your body power plant running. Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that your blood carries around your entire body. Produced in your liver and by individual cells in your body, cholesterol is required for proper digestion and functioning of every cell in the human body - it is the body's repair substance. A sobering note about Ldl cholesterol is that it is one of the most critical factors leading to heart diseases.

* Diabetes. Heart problems are the leading cause of death among people with diabetes, mainly in the case of adult-onset or Type II diabetes (also known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes). Certain racial and ethnic groups (African Americans, Hispanics, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans) have a bigger risk of having a diagnosis of diabetes. The American Heart Association estimates that 65% of patients with diabetes die of some form of cardiovascular disease. If you are aware that you have diabetes, you ought to as of now be in medical treatment, because really good management of your blood sugar levels can shrink your risk. If you think you may have diabetes but are not sure, visit your physician for lab tests.

* Obesity and Overweight. Obesity increases your probabilities of having other risk factors for heart disease, especially high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and diabetes.

* Smoking. Few people realize that using tobacco seriously expands your risk of heart disease and peripheral vascular disease (disease in the blood vessels that supply blood to the arms and legs).

* Physical Inactivity. People who are not physically active have a larger risk of heart attack than do people who exercise regularly. Working out melts away calories, helps to control Ldl cholesterol levels and diabetes, and may lower blood pressure.

* Gender. Overall, men have a higher risk of heart attack than women. But the difference shrinks after women reach menopause. After the age of 65, the risk of heart disease is approximately the same between the genders when other risk factors are comparable.

*Heredity. Heart disease tends to run in families.

*Age. Older age is a risk factor for heart disease. In fact, about 4 of every 5 deaths due to heart disease occur in people older than 65.

Contributing Risk Factors

* Stress. Stress is considered a contributing risk factor for heart disease because very little is understood about its impact. That could be because we all deal with stress differently.

* Sex hormones. Sex hormones appear to play a role in heart disease. Among women younger than 40, heart disease is rare. But between the ages 40 and 65, around the time when most women go through menopause, the probabilities that a woman will have a heart attack grows greatly. From 65 onward, women account for roughly 50 percent of all heart attack victims.

* Birth control pills. Birth control pills today contain much lower doses of hormones. Birth control pills are considered safe for women younger than 35, who do not smoke or have high blood pressure.

* Alcohol. Studies have shown that the risk of heart disease in people who drink reasonable amounts of alcoholic drinks is lower than in nondrinkers. Professionals think that sensible consumption is typically one to two drinks daily for men and one alcoholic drink per day for women.

It is never too late or too early to get started on trying to improve your heart health. Some risk factors can be managed, while others cannot. But, by getting rid of risk factors that you can change and by properly managing those risks that you are not able to control, you may dramatically bring down your risk of heart disease. Make a start today to make sure you are able to are familiar with early symptoms of a heart attack in men and women. There are many causes of heart attacks so being familiar with the warning signs could be saving a your life by minimizing the time to ask for medical assistance.

Become knowledgeable of the early signs of a heart attack.