Heart attacks, or myocardial infarctions, have become increasingly common in the United States. Every year, this condition kills over 600,000 people. That’s one in every four deaths in the US.

While the condition can affect anyone at any time, certain factors contribute to its onset. A primary contributing factor is having risk factors.

Risk Factors

Risk factors can be classified as modifiable and non-modifiable. Non-modifiable risk factors include age, gender, and family history.

Men are more likely than women to suffer heart attacks, and those with a family history of the disease also have an increased risk. Modifiable risk factors include smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, obesity, and diabetes.

Tobacco Use

Smokers are almost twice as likely to experience heart attacks than nonsmokers. Tobacco consumption can damage and narrow the blood vessels and raise your blood pressure, which leads to increased risk of heart disease.

High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is one of the leading risk factors for heart disease and heart attack. It puts unnecessary strain on the heart and blood vessels, leading to damage that can progress over time and result in heart attack.

High Cholesterol

High cholesterol levels contribute to clogged arteries and make it easier for a blood clot to form that can ultimately cause a heart attack.

When there’s too much cholesterol in a person’s body, the substance begins to build up within the walls of arteries, which can increase the risk of heart disease and, in particular, heart attack.

Physical Inactivity

Regular exercise and physical activity positively impacts overall health, including reducing the risk of heart attacks. It’s recommended that one should get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise weekly.

Exercise has been known to help keep the heart and circulatory system healthy, and improves blood flow while decreasing the risk factors of heart disease.

Obesity

Carrying excess weight puts an added strain on your heart, an organ which becomes especially taxing to work overtime.

The more weight the body carries, the more blood the body needs to pump, with this pushing up a person’s risk factors for a heart attack. People who are overweight also often have higher cholesterol levels, high blood pressure levels, and high blood sugar levels which add up to greater risks for heart disease and death caused by heart attack.

Diabetes

Diabetes can become a huge risk factor for heart attacks if the disease is not well-controlled.

Having high blood sugar levels can damage the blood vessels and the nerves which can lead to conditions that are major contributors to heart attack such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity. Obese people and people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes tend to have heart attacks more often than others.

Other Risk Factors

Other risk factors of heart attack include stress, unhealthy diets, and alcohol consumption.

Unhealthy diet can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, while stress can create strain on the heart and blood vessels which increases the risk of heart disease. Moderate drinking is well-known for being beneficial to the heart and blood vessels, but excessive drinking can have risky consequences such as causing damage to the heart muscle directly, leading to an increased risk of heart attacks.

Conclusion

Heart attacks can be life-altering events that happen to anyone. While there are non-modifiable risk factors, there are also many modifiable risk factors that can be managed and reduced by making simple changes to our lifestyle choices.

By preventing these heart attack risk factors from being developed or reducing their impact, we may be able to greatly decrease our risk of heart disease and heart attacks.