The more risk factors you have, the greater your chance of having a heart attack or stroke. Some of these you can't control, such as increasing age, your family health history, race and gender. Some factors are unique to women and are important for you to know about. The major risk factors for heart disease and stroke are smoking, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, overweight and obesity, diabetes, increasing age, heredity and race, male sex and prior heart attack or stroke. Let's take a closer look at how they may affect you.
Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death.
Constant exposure to other people's tobacco smoke at work or at home increases your risk - even if you don't smoke. Yes, smoking is an addiction and a bad one. Women smokers who use oral contraceptives have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke than nonsmokers who use birth control pills. While you're smoking, the tobacco smoke causes changes that reduce blood flow and rob your heart and other tissues of the oxygen they need. Also, the nicotine damages the inner walls of blood vessels, setting the stage for atherosclerosis.