Health Conditions

What are the risk factors?

A high fat diet, lack of exercise, and a family history of high cholesterol or heart disease will all increase your risk for high cholesterol and heart disease. If you have high cholesterol, the additional risk factors for developing heart disease include the following:

• Increasing age: Being male greater than 45 years old or being female greater than 55 years old (or having premature menopause without estrogen replacement therapy)
• Heredity: A family history of heart disease at a young age(that is, having a father or brother who had a heart attack or died of heart disease before the age of 55 years or having a mother or sister who had a heart attack or died of heart disease before the age of 65 years)
• Currently smoking cigarettes: Smokers' risk of heart attack is more than twice that of nonsmokers. Cigarette smoking is the biggest risk factor for sudden cardiac death: smokers have two to four times the risk of nonsmokers.
• High blood pressure: High blood pressure increases the heart's workload, causing the heart to enlarge and weaken over time.
• Low HDL cholesterol (less than 40 mg/dL): High levels of HDL or "good cholesterol (greater than 60 mg/dL) help to lower risk for heart disease.

Additional Factors that May Increase Risk

• Diabetes: Two-thirds of people with diabetes die of some form of heart or blood vessel disease. If you have diabetes, it's critically important for you to monitor and control any other risk factors you can.
• Obesity/Overweight: People who have excess body fat are more likely to develop heart disease and stroke even if they have no other risk factors. Obesity is unhealthy because excess weight increases the strain on the heart.
• High homocysteine levels: Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood. Initial studies have found an association with high blood levels of homocysteine and an increased risk for heart disease. Homocysteine levels are strongly influenced by dietary intake of folic acid and B vitamins. Insuring adequate intake of these vitamins may help lower homocysteine levels. Ask your doctor if you should have your homocysteine levels tested. Homocysteine testing is done via a simple blood test.

Metabolic Syndrome, a collection of several health risks and problems, can place you at greater risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. It is estimated that 1 in 5 Americans has metabolic syndrome, including 43.5% of people 60 to 70 years of age. Although the cause is unknown, researchers believe that it's related to many factors including diet, family history, and the amount of exercise a person gets. Diagnosis of this syndrome includes 3 or more of the following risk factors:

• A waistline more than 35 inches for men or 30 inches for women measured across the belly.
• Blood pressure of 130/85 mmHg ("130 over 85")or more
• A triglyceride level more than 150 mg/dL
• A fasting blood sugar level more than 110 mg/dL
• A high density lipoprotein level (HDL; also known as the ?good cholesterol?) less than 40 mg/dL for men or less than 50 mg/dL for women

People with established heart disease and metabolic syndrome are considered to be at ?highest risk? for heart problems. This risk is increased even more in people with diabetes. Many of these very high risk patients have a more aggressive LDL (bad cholesterol) goal of less than 70 mg/dL compared to less than 100 mg/dL to 160 mg/dL for healthy individuals.