Understand Your Risks! Your heart is in your hands. Heart disease and stroke are largely preventable if you work to lower your risks. It's important to know that there are a range of factors that can raise your risk of heart disease and stroke. The more risk factors you have, the greater your chances of developing heart disease and having a heart attack or stroke. Risk Factors You Can Control or Treat These risk factors can be controlled or treated with help from your healthcare professional. You can modify others by changing your lifestyle. Risk Factors You Can't Control Unfortunately, there are a number of factors such as age, family history and race, that you can't control. That's why it's so important to understand all of your risk factors, discuss them with your healthcare professional, and address the risk factors that you can control or treat. Lower Your Cholesterol! Cholesterol is a soft, fat-like substance found in the blood and in all the body's cells. A high cholesterol level is bad because cholesterol can build up with other substances in the inner walls of arteries. This buildup, called plaque, can narrow the arteries and reduce blood flow. Plaques that rupture can cause blood clots that can totally block blood flow in the artery. Clots also can break off and travel to another part of the body. If a clot blocks an artery that feeds the heart, it causes a heart attack. If it blocks an artery that feeds the brain,