Obesity, Unhealthy Diet, and Physical Inactivity. Compared to those at a normal weight, people with overweight or obesity are at increased risk of heart disease and stroke and their risk factors, including high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, and type 2 diabetes.
Men older than age 45 and women past menopause have the highest risk of a heart event. A family history of heart disease is a risk factor that you can't directly control but that you should be aware of.
Women are officially having more heart attacks than men. This doesn't mean it is destined to happen to you, but chances of suffering from a heart attacked are increased if you are female. Cardiovascular disease is the top cause of death in women worldwide.
Adults age 65 and older are more likely than younger people to suffer from cardiovascular disease, which is problems with the heart, blood vessels, or both. Aging can cause changes in the heart and blood vessels that may increase a person's risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Atherosclerosis, which causes diseases of the arteries, is a very common process. One of the biggest risk factors for atherosclerosis is age, so it is more common among people in their 60s and 70s, although there are many elderly people who don't have significant atherosclerosis.
Electrocardiogram. An electrocardiogram (ECG) is a test that records the electrical activity of the heart. The ECG reflects what's happening in different areas of the heart and helps identify any problems with the rhythm or rate of your heart. The ECG is painless and takes around 5-10 minutes to perform.
Overall, it appears that men's coping with stressful events may be less adaptive physiologically, behaviorally, and emotionally, contributing to their increased risk for CHD.
The traditional risk factors include smoking high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, body mass index, and lack of physical activity, but an important but often overlooked sign is erectile dysfunction.
Premature coronary artery disease (PCAD) is defined as CAD occurring in men and women younger than 45 and 55 years respectively, but these cut-offs tend to vary from 45 to 65 years of age, as evident in different studies. Early-onset CAD is used interchangeably with PCAD or often termed as CAD in young adults.
In addition, having close blood relatives with heart disease can make you more likely to get heart disease. Finding and treating familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) early reduces coronary heart disease risk by about 80%.
The most common inherited heart conditions are cardiomyopathies and channelopathies. Inherited cardiomyopathies: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. dilated cardiomyopathy.
Many people who have coronary heart disease do not have any symptoms and therefore do not know they have problems with their heart. As a result, they do not take the proper medications that could help prevent a heart attack, stroke, or death.
A CT coronary angiogram can reveal plaque buildup and identify blockages in the arteries, which can lead to a heart attack. Prior to the test, a contrast dye is injected into the arm to make the arteries more visible. The test typically takes 30 minutes to complete.
Seemingly healthy people are “suddenly” having heart attacks because, as it turns out, their arteries are not perfectly healthy and they don't know it. With the proper noninvasive tests, these diseased arteries would have been identified, and the heart attacks wouldn't have happened.
Heart disease — a term used to refer to any disease affecting the heart muscle or the blood vessels of the heart — affects more than 30 million Americans and is the leading cause of death for both men and women. Yet, Black Americans are 30% more likely to die from heart disease than white Americans.
90 Percent of Heart Disease is Preventable through Healthier Diet, Regular Exercise, and Not Smoking.
Chest discomfort.
Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes – or it may go away and then return. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.
About 82% of people who die of coronary heart disease are 65 or older. At older ages, women who have heart attacks are more likely than men to die from them within a few weeks. Men have a greater risk of having a heart attack than women do, and they have attacks earlier in life.