Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Although the term cardiovascular disease refers to a disorder of the cardiovascular system, it is usually associated with atherosclerosis, also known as arterial disease. It is considered the leading cause of deaths in the world, taking 17. 1 million lives a year. There are only a few factors that are non-modifiable, these being the persons age, gender, family history and their race and ethnicity. Although there are non-modifiable risk factors, there are multiple multiple risk factors that are modifiable that anyone can use to prevent getting any type of cardiovascular disease. These people just need to have the motivation to be able to change themselves and their lifestyles in order to better themselves and their cardiovascular system all together. There are four non-modifiable risk factors when it comes to cardiovascular diseases. The first being age. Simply getting old is a high risk factor of cardiovascular disease, the risk or heart diseases increase every decade after the age of 55. A persons gender is also important; a man has a greater chance of getting a heart disease than a pre-menopausal woman. Once past menopause though, a woman's risk is just as high as a man's. Another risk factor is a persons family history. Once a person knows that their family history has some type of heart disease in it, it indicates that their risks are higher. If a first-degree blood relative has had a coronary heart disease or stroke before the age of 55 years old for a male relative, or 65 years old for a female relative, the persons risks increases. The last non-modifiable risk factor is a persons race and ethnicity. It plays a role because it has been proven that people with African or Asian ethnicity are at higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases than any other racial group. There are a lot more modifiable risks than non-modifiable risks for cardiovascular diseases. The first being hypertension, which is also known as high blood pressure. This is known as the single biggest risk factor for stroke. It also plays a major role in heart attacks, but can be prevented and treated , only if the person has it diagnosed and stick to their suggested plan. Tobacco use also increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, whether it being smoking or chewing tobacco. The risk is particularly higher if the person started smoking at a young age, smokes heavily and/or if the person is a woman. No matter how long that person has been smoking for, stopping can make a major difference when it comes to cardiovascular diseases. Physical inactivity is also a modifiable risk factor, obesity is a big problem in many countries and it increases the risk of heart diseases by 50%. Obesity also leads people to diabetes, which is also a risk. 1% or coronary heart diseases and 11% of the strokes worldwide are due to a high diet in fats, this is a big deal in certain countries because high diets in fats are seen everywhere. Another factor is being poor. It is normal that low income will make people's lives lean towards a stressful one, one where there is social anxiety, isolation and depression, which are all reasons why a person can get cardiovascular disea ses. When someone abuses alcohol, drinking more than two drinks a day, it increases their risks as well. There are a few other modifiable risk factors, such as taking certain medications. The only behavior that is detrimental to my cardiovascular health that I would be unwilling to change would be smoking. The reason for this is because I had tried to stop smoking before and I realized that I started gaining weight. Once I realized this I started smoking again, only because I did not want to keep gaining the weight I was gaining when I wasn't smoking. After I started smoking again I realized that if I would become hungry and I would have a cigarette, I would no longer be hungry, which would stop me from eating for a lot longer. The areas in my lifestyle that I could change or improve that would promote my heart health would first of all be my lack of physical activity. I've been wanting to start working out for a while now but never got to it. The first time I went to the gym, my body was so soar the next day that I no longer wanted to do it, but I know that soon I will have to suck it up and start going to the gym, and maybe at the time I will stop smoking because I would realize that I am getting much healthier. Another area would be the alcohol abuse. People at my age love to drink, it is something that we do on the regular because we always seem to have something to celebrate. And when we feel like having one beer, it always ends up being more then that, but that is something that I am willing to change and would love to change in return for better health. All of these would affect my heart health because they are all modifiable cardiovascular disease risks. They would make me a healthier and happier person in general because I will know that my body has changed for the better. I am planning on making these changes in the future because I know myself that I need to do this to be a much healthier person, because I know that day by day I am getting less healthy. I want to see myself as a healthy person and really believe that I am that way, and know that I am the person who did that, I was motivated enough to change myself for the better. I realized that I need to stop making excuses and I need to take action in order to become healthier and to make my risks even lower.