Physical idleness. Inactive persons have a higher risk of
having a heart attack than people who exercise regularly. Exercise burns
calories to maintain a healthy weight, helps control cholesterol levels then
diabetes, and possibly lowers blood pressure. Exercise too strengthens the
emotion muscle and makes the arteries more flexible. People who actively burn
between 500 and 3,500 calories per week, whether at work or exercising, have a
higher life expectancy than sedentary people. Even moderate power exercise is
beneficial if done regularly.
Sex. In over-all, men are at higher risk than women for a
heart attack. The difference is less when women enter menopause, because
research shows that estrogen, one of the female hormones, helps protect women
from heart disease. But after age 65, the cardiovascular risk is roughly the
same in men and women when the other risk factors are similar. Cardiovascular
illness affects more women than men, and heart attacks are generally more
serious in women than in men.
Inheritance. Heart disease is often hereditary. For example,
if the parents or siblings had a heart or circulatory problem before the age of
55, the person has a higher cardiovascular risk than someone who does not have
that family history. Risk factors such as high blood weight, diabetes, and
obesity can also be passed from one generation to the next.
Certain forms of cardiovascular disease are more common
among certain racial and ethnic groups. For example, studies show that blacks
have more severe hypertension and are at higher cardiovascular risk than
Caucasians.
Age. Older people are at higher risk for heart disease.
About 4 out of 5 deaths from heart disease occur in people over 65 years of
age.
With age, the activity of the heart tends to deteriorate.
The walls of the heart can thicken, the arteries can become hardened and lose
their flexibility, and when this happens, the heart cannot pump blood as
efficiently as it used to to the muscles of the body. Due to these changes,
cardiovascular risk increases with age. Thanks to their sex hormones, women are
generally protected from heart disease until menopause, which is when their
risk begins to increase.
Contributing
factors
Stress. Stress is believed to be a contributing factor to
cardiovascular risk. The effects of emotional stress, habits, and socioeconomic
status on the risk of heart disease and heart attack are still being studied.
Researchers have discovered several reasons why stress can
affect the heart.
• Stressful situations increase the heart rate and blood
pressure, increasing the heart's need for oxygen.
• In times of stress, the nervous system releases more
hormones (mainly adrenaline). These hormones increase blood pressure, which can
damage the inner lining of your arteries. As the walls of the arteries heal,
they can harden or thicken, thus facilitating the accumulation of plaque.
• Stress also increases the concentration of clotting
factors in the blood, thus increasing the risk of a clot forming. Clots can
completely block an artery already partially blocked by plaque and lead to a
heart attack.
• Stress can also contribute to other risk factors. For
example, a person suffering from stress may eat more than he should to comfort
himself, he may start smoking, or he may smoke more than normal.
