Your Heart's Health is Key to a Healthy Life

What to Know About Heart Health?

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of heart and blood vessel disorders that are the leading cause of death worldwide.² They include:

• Coronary heart disease. A disease of the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle.
• Cerebrovascular disease. A disease of the blood vessels that supply the brain.
• Peripheral arterial disease. A disease of blood vessels that supply the arms and legs.
• Rheumatic heart disease. Damage to the heart muscle and heart valves from rheumatic fever.
• Congenital heart disease. Birth defects that affect the normal growth and function of the heart.
• Deep vein thrombosis. Blood clots in the leg veins, which can break loose and move to the heart and lungs.

Common Questions About Heart Health

Heart attack and stroke

Heart attacks and strokes are often severe events. They are mainly caused by a blockage that prevents blood from flowing to a part of the heart or brain. This is mainly due to a buildup of fatty tissue on the inner walls of the blood vessels that supply the heart or brain. Strokes can be caused by bleeding from a blood vessel in the brain or from blood clots.

What are the risk factors?

Heart disease risk factors include high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and damage from smoking. About half of people in the United States (47%) have at least one of these three risk factors.³ Several other medical conditions and lifestyle choices can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease. These include:

• Diabetes
• Overweight and obesity
• Poor diet
• Little or no exercise
• Too much alcohol use

Learn how heart disease and mental health disorders are linked.

What Health Conditions Increase the Risk Of Heart Disease?

High blood pressure. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease. It happens when the pressure of the blood in your arteries and other blood vessels is too high. The high pressure, if not controlled, can affect your heart and other major organs that include your kidneys and brain.

You can lower your blood pressure with lifestyle changes or with medicine to reduce your risk for heart disease and heart attack. Learn more about blood pressure.

Get checked out

High blood cholesterol usually has no signs or symptoms. The only way to know whether you have high cholesterol is to get your cholesterol checked. Your health care team can do a simple blood test, called a "lipid profile," to measure your cholesterol levels. Learn more about getting your cholesterol checked.

Diabetes. Your body needs insulin to move glucose (sugar) from the food you eat to your body's cells for energy. If you have diabetes, your body doesn't make enough insulin. Or, your body can't use its own insulin as well as it should.

Diabetes causes sugar to build up in the blood. The risk of death from heart disease for adults with diabetes is higher than for adults who do not have diabetes.² Talk with your doctor about ways to prevent or manage diabetes and control other risk factors.

Obesity. Obesity is excess body fat. It's linked to higher "bad" cholesterol and triglyceride levels. And, it's linked to lower "good" cholesterol levels. Obesity can lead to high blood pressure and diabetes as well as heart disease. Talk with your health care team about a plan to reduce your weight to a healthy level. Learn more about healthy weight.

What can increase the risk of heart disease?

Your lifestyle can increase your risk for heart disease.

• Eating a diet high in saturated fats, trans fat, and cholesterol has been linked to heart disease and other conditions. Also, too much salt (sodium) in the diet can raise blood pressure.
• Not getting enough exercise can lead to heart disease. It can also increase your chance of having other medical conditions that are risk factors, including
  • Obesity
  • High blood pressure
  • High cholesterol
  • Diabetes

Regular exercise can lower your risk for heart disease.

Drinking too much alcohol can raise blood pressure levels and the risk for heart disease. It also raises levels of triglycerides, a fatty substance in the blood which can increase the risk for heart disease.

• Women should have no more than one drink a day.
• Men should have no more than two drinks a day.
• Tobacco use can also boost the risk for heart disease and heart attack:
  • Cigarette smoking can damage the heart and blood vessels, which can raise your risk for heart disease and heart attack.
  • Nicotine raises blood pressure.
  • Chemicals from cigarette smoke reduce the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry.
  • Being exposed to secondhand smoke can also raise the risk for heart disease, even for people who don’t smoke.

_{¹ Phelps Memorial. Love Your Heart: Know the Importance of Your Heart's Health. February 16, 2021.
² World Health Organization. Cardiovascular Diseases. Accessed February 7, 2023.
³ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. About Multiple Cause of Death, 1999–2020. CDC WONDER Online Database website. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2022. Accessed February 7, 2023.
⁴ Fryar CD, Chen T-C, Li X. Prevalence of uncontrolled risk factors for cardiovascular disease: United States, 1999–2010 (PDF).
NCHS data brief, no. 103. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics; 2012. Accessed February 7, 2023.}

_{Resource: About Heart Disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)}

_{This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care. Please always follow your health care provider’s instructions.}

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