Heart Disease:
Know your risk

What is heart disease?
Heart disease is a term that describes a number of abnormal conditions affecting the heart and the blood vessels in the heart.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and is a major cause of disability. Almost 700,000 people die of heart disease in the U.S. each year. That is about 29% of all U.S. deaths. The most common heart disease in the U.S. is coronary heart disease, which can lead to heart attack.

Heart disease is often perceived as a "man's disease" but it is the leading cause of death among women aged 65 years and older, the 3rd leading cause of death among women aged 25–44 years, and the 2nd leading cause of death among women aged 45–64 years.

Learn your risk factors

• Heredity. If one or both of your parents have had heart disease, you are more likely to develop it too.
• Smoking. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), cigarette smoking is the single greatest risk factor for sudden death by heart attack. Smoking promotes deposits of cholesterol in the arteries and may damage artery walls.
• High blood pressure. According to the AHA, one in four American adults has high blood pressure. Of those, nearly one-third do not know it.
• High blood cholesterol. Cholesterol can damage and thicken the walls of the arteries, making it more difficult for blood to reach the heart.
• Physical inactivity. A sedentary lifestyle increases your risk for heart disease and contributes to other risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and low levels of healthy cholesterol.
• Extra body weight. Being overweight or obese puts extra strain on the heart. Even if you have no other risk factors for heart disease, extra body fat increases your risk.
• Diabetes. Two-thirds of people with type 2 diabetes die of some form of heart or blood vessel disease, according to the AHA. If you have diabetes, good disease management can reduce damage to your heart and arteries.

Take the AHA Heart Disease Risk Assessment and learn more about what you can do to lower your risk of heart disease.

Resources: American Heart Association, 4Women.gov

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