Reduce Your Heart Disease Risk

If you’ve got a heart, heart disease could be your problem. Heart
disease affects women just as much as it does men. But everyone can
take steps to reduce their chance of developing the disease.

How? By preventing or controlling behaviors and conditions known to
increase its risk. They’re called “risk factors,” and there are two
types—those you can change and those you can’t. Luckily, most of
them can be changed. These are smoking, high blood pressure, high
blood cholesterol, overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, and diabetes.


Those you can’t alter are your age (45 or older for men; 55 or older
for women) and having a family history of early heart disease (a father
or brother diagnosed before age 55, or a mother or sister diagnosed
before age 65).

Start now to improve your heart-health profile. For instance, following
a heart healthy eating plan helps prevent or control high blood
pressure, high blood cholesterol, overweight, and diabetes. Here are
some other steps you can take to help protect your heart health:

• Stop smoking. If you can’t quit the first time, keep trying.

• Lower high blood pressure. Have your blood pressure checked
regularly (once every 2 years if it is normal, more often if it is not).
Also, maintain a healthy weight and limit your intake of alcoholic
beverages—to one drink a day for women and two for men.

• Reduce high blood cholesterol. Maintain a healthy weight and
get your cholesterol level checked once every 5 years (more often,
if needed). The test measures the level of cholesterol circulating in
the bloodstream.

• Aim for a healthy weight. To lose weight and keep it off, adopt
a lifestyle that combines sensible eating with regular physical
activity.

• Be physically active. Do at least 30 minutes of a moderate-intensity
physical activity, such as brisk walking, on most and preferably
all days of the week.

• Prevent or manage diabetes. The steps that lower your risk of
heart disease also reduce your chance of developing diabetes.
If you already have diabetes, be sure to manage it.