Risk Factors

Risk factors are the factors that increase the chances of developing a disease condition. Heart diseases are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. These risk factors may be the lifestyle habits or other underlying disease conditions that pose the risk of an individual developing a cardiovascular disease. The chances of developing a disease condition increases with presence of more numbers of risk factors and/or with higher the level of each risk factor. The risk factors are of two types, modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors.

Modifiable risk factors: These are the risk factors that can be modified, treated or controlled. The modifiable risk factors of heart diseases include:

• Smoking
  
• High blood cholesterol
  
• High blood pressure
  
• Sedentary lifestyle/reduced physical activity
  
• Obesity and overweight
  
• Diabetes mellitus

Non-modifiable risk factors: These include those that cannot be modified, treated or controlled. They are:

• Increasing age
  
• Gender (more in males)
  
• Family history

In addition to the above, some other factors that are considered to increase the risk of heart disease in an individual include:

• Sleep apnea
  
• Elevated C-reactive protein – a marker of inflammation
  
• Elevated homocysteine – a building block of proteins in the body
  
• Increased fibrinogen – a protein associated with blood clot
  
• Lipoprotein (a) – a substance formed when low-density lipoproteins binds to a protein, interferes in the body’s ability of dissolving the blood clots