What are the risk factors for coronary heart disease?
Coronary heart disease or coronary artery disease is associated with a number of risk factors, some of which we can do something about and some of which we can't. Things we can't do much about are age. There's much more coronary heart disease (or coronary artery disease) in older people than in younger people, although coronary disease actually begins in the teens and twenties but is often seen only later in life. We can't do much about changing our gender. Men do develop coronary disease at an earlier age than women, so that's an inevitable risk factor. We can't do anything about our family history. You can't choose your ancestors. However, there are many risk factors that we can do something about. Right at the top of the list is smoking. So to prevent coronary artery disease (or coronary heart disease) and of course many other diseases, it's clear that people shouldn't smoke and should stop if they smoke now. High cholesterol levels are associated with and cause coronary artery disease or atherosclerosis. High blood pressure is also associated with atherosclerosis. Those are two very treatable risk factors. In addition, and people don't often think about these, having poor nutrition and being overweight or obese, and being physically inactive, are also major modifiable risk factors for coronary artery disease or coronary heart disease, and those are things we can do something about. Diabetes is one of the most powerful risk factors for coronary disease and, while you can't change that if you develop it early (if you have Type 1 diabetes), you can certainly try to treat it as effectively as you possibly can. You can also try to prevent yourself from getting Type 2 diabetes by staying lean and active, because Type 2 diabetes associated with insulin resistance is very commonly present in people who have become obese.
