High blood Pressure (hypertension) High blood pressure increases your risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Though other risk factors can lead to high blood pressure, you can still have it without having other risk factors. If you are obese, you smoke, or you have high blood cholesterol levels along with high blood pressure, your risk of heart disease or stroke greatly increases. Blood pressure can vary with activity and with age, but a healthy adult who is resting generally has a systolic pressure reading between 120 and 130 and a diastolic pressure reading between 80 and 90 (or below).

High Blood cholesterol One of the major risk factors for heart disease is high blood cholesterol. Cholesterol, a fat-like substance carried in your blood, is found in all of your body’s cells. Your liver produces all of the cholesterol your body needs to form cell membranes and make certain hormones. Extra cholesterol enters your body when you eat foods that come from animals (meats, eggs, and dairy products). Although we often blame the cholesterol found in foods that we eat for raising blood cholesterol, the main culprit is the saturated fat in food. Foods rich in saturated fat include butterfat in milk products, fat from red meat, and tropical oils, etc. Too much low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad cholesterol”) in the blood causes plaque to form on artery walls, which starts a disease process called atherosclerosis. When plaque builds up in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart, you are at greater risk of having a heart attack.

Diabetes. Heart problems are the leading cause of death among people with diabetes, especially in the case of adult-onset or Type II diabetes (also known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes). The American Heart Association estimates that 65% of patients with diabetes die of some form of cardiovascular disease. If you know that you have diabetes, you should already be under a doctor’s care, because good control of blood sugar levels can reduce your risk. If you think you may have diabetes but are not sure, see your doctor for tests.

Obesity and Overweight Extra weight is thought to lead to increased total cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and an increased risk of coronary artery disease. Obesity increases your chances of developing other risk factors for heart disease, especially high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and diabetes.

Tobacco use.   Most people know that cigarette and tobacco smoking increases your risk of lung cancer, but fewer realise that it also greatly increases your risk of heart disease and peripheral vascular disease (disease in the vessels that supply blood to the arms and legs). According to a recent study, more than 400,000 Indians die each year of smoking-related illnesses. Many of these deaths are because of the effects of smoking on the heart and blood vessels. Research has shown that smoking increases heart rate, tightens major arteries, and can create irregularities in the timing of heartbeats, all of which make your heart work harder. Smoking also raises blood pressure, which increases the risk of stroke in people who already have high blood pressure.

Physical Inactivity. People who are not active have a greater risk of heart attack than do people who exercise regularly. Exercise burns calories, helps control cholesterol levels and diabetes, and may lower blood pressure. Exercise also strengthens the heart muscle and makes the arteries more flexible.

Gender. Overall, men have a higher risk of heart attack than women. But the difference narrows after women reach menopause. After the age of 65, the risk of heart disease is about the same between the sexes when other risk factors are similar.

Heredity. Heart disease tends to run in families. For example, if your parents or siblings had a heart or circulatory problem before age 55, you are at greater risk for heart disease than someone who does not have that family history. Risk factors (including high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity) may also be passed from one generation to another.

Age. Older age is a risk factor for heart disease. In fact, about 4 of every 5 deaths due to heart disease occur in people older than 65.

Stress. Stress is considered a contributing risk factor for heart disease because little is known about its effects. The effects of emotional stress, behaviour habits, and socioeconomic status on the risk of heart disease and heart attack have not been proven. That is because we all deal with stress differently. How much and in what way stress affects us can vary from person to person.

Sex hormones. Sex hormones appear to play a role in heart disease. Among women younger than 40, heart disease is rare. But between the ages of 40 and 65, around the time when most women go through menopause, the chances that a woman will have a heart attack greatly increase. From 65 onward, women make up about half of all heart attack victims.

Birth control pills Early types of birth control pills contained high levels of oestrogen and progesterone, and taking these pills increased the chances of heart disease and stroke, especially in women older than 35 who smoked. But birth control pills today contain much lower doses of hormones. Birth control pills are considered safe for women younger than 35 who do not smoke or have high blood pressure.

Alcohol. Studies have shown that the risk of heart disease is lower in people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol than in non-drinkers. Experts say that a moderate intake is an average of one to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. One drink is defined as one fluid ounce (fl oz) of 80-proof spirits (such as bourbon, Scotch, vodka, gin, etc.), one fl oz of 100-proof spirits, four fl oz of wine, or 12 fl oz of beer. But drinking more than a moderate amount of alcohol can cause heart-related problems such as high blood pressure, stroke, irregular heartbeats, and cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle). And the average drink has between 100 and 200 calories. Calories from alcohol often add fat to the body, which may increase the risk of heart disease. It is not recommended that non-drinkers start using alcohol or that drinkers increase the amount that they drink.

Recent researchers say India, a country with a huge population, will likely account for 70 percent of heart disease patients worldwide by 2013. A study conducted by the Medwin Heart Foundation among Asian Indian men showed that half of all heart attacks in this population occur under the age of 50 and 25 percent under the age of 40. The major causes of heart disease are high blood pressure (hypertension), high blood cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, being overweight, tobacco use, physical inactivity, and an unhealthy diet.