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Heart Attack Risks

Most common risk factors of heart attack are having coronary heart diseases, already had angina episode, and have high cholesterol, high pressure, diabetes, and/or overweight.

Controllable Heart-attack risk factors

  • Smoking – plan to quit
  • High blood pressure – try to keep it near normal range
  • Hyperlipidemia - try to keep it at the safe range
  • Overweight and obesity – workout to reduce in steps
  • Physical inactivity – increase physical activity by exercising regularly
  • Diabetes – keep it in control with medication and therapeutic lifestyle changes

Uncontrollable Heart-attack risk factors

  • Age – growing older increases the risk for men over 45 years and for women over 55 years (mostly after menopause)
  • Family history of early coronary heart disease - risk increases if father or brother diagnoses with coronary heart disease before age 55, and mother or a sister was diagnoses before age 65.

A person with metabolic syndrome has twice the chance to develop heart disease and five times the chance to develop diabetes as someone without metabolic syndrome.