Keep cool-that is, practice stress reduction exercises. Doing so can result in lower blood pressure, less incidence of CVD, and a stronger immune system. Age, sex, and heredity As we age, risk increases. About four out of five people who die of a heart attack are over age 65. At older ages, women who have heart attacks are twice as likely as men who have heart attacks to die from them within a few weeks.
Males are more likely to have coronary heart disease than women, whether younger or older.
Finally, children of those who have had some type of CVD are more likely to develop it. If anyone has not heard of the link between smoking and heart disease, they are probably dead-if not physically, then mentally. Smokers' risk of heart attack is more than twice that of nonsmokers', and smokers' risk of sudden cardiac death is two to four times that of nonsmokers'. See No. 2. When other risk factors are present, risk increases even more.