The Top 5 Risk Factors for Heart Disease

While we dislike using scare tactics to open a conversation about your health, when we’re discussing heart disease, it’s hard to avoid them. 

For starters, heart disease is responsible for 1 of every 5 deaths in the United States and a person dies every 33 seconds from cardiovascular disease.

Now, let's shift our focus to another, more positive angle — 90% of heart disease is preventable.

The first step on the road to preventing heart disease is to understand, and address, your risk factors. To that end, our team of cardiology experts here at LaSante Health Center, assembled the top five contributors to heart disease below. Then, at the end, we’ll address how you can best address these risk factors.

1. High blood pressure

Let’s first start with high blood pressure, which is a chronic condition in which the force of the blood against the walls of your arteries is too high. Over time, this pressure can damage the blood vessels and leave you more susceptible to heart attack and stroke.

Unfortunately, nearly half of adults in the US — about 116 million — have high blood pressure, or hypertension.

2. High cholesterol

The cells in your body need cholesterol, which is a waxy substance in your blood. When your cholesterol levels are too high, fat can build up in your blood vessels, causing them to narrow.  As you can imagine, narrower blood vessels aren’t conducive to optimal cardiovascular health and place you at much greater risk for heart disease.

3. Smoking

Absolutely no good comes from smoking, which inflicts a good deal of damage on your blood vessels and your lungs.

4. Obesity

When you have obesity, you’re placing more pressure on your cardiovascular system, which can lead to premature heart disease.

5. Physical inactivity

Your heart and blood vessels are designed to circulate the blood in your body three times every minute. When you lead a sedentary lifestyle, not only are your muscles weak, so, too, is your cardiovascular system, making you much more vulnerable to heart disease.

Reducing your risks for heart disease

In the beginning of this blog, we mentioned that 90% of heart disease is preventable. The second part of this statement is that most heart disease is preventable through healthier diet, exercise, and quitting smoking.

These three steps can reduce your blood pressure, get your cholesterol levels in check, and boost the overall health of your cardiovascular system enormously.

We know that these three actions are easier said than done and we’re here to help you get started. One step at a time, we can work together to greatly reduce your risks for heart disease.

To get on a heart-healthy path, please contact our clinic in Brooklyn, New York, today to schedule an appointment. We serve the Flatbush and East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Park Slope, Little Haiti, Little Caribbean, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens communities.