Preventing a Heart Attack

There are a variety of things that can increase your risk of having a heart attack. You can change most of these risk factors, and therefore decrease your chance of ever suffering from a heart attack.

Risk factors that you can change:

• Smoking and exposure to second hand smoke
• High fat diets
• Poor physical shape and inactivity
• Excess weight for height and body type
• Excessive alcohol use

Risk factors that you can usually change:

• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol level
• Uncontrolled diabetes
• Stress

Risk factors that you cannot change:

• Genetics -men generally have an increased risk of having a heart attack before the age between the ages of 40-60 however after this age women and men have an equal chance of having a heart attack
• Increasing age
• Ethnicity
• Family History