Heart Disease Prevention and Risk Reduction

Heart disease can be prevented by routinely visiting your doctor and living a healthy lifestyle. The biggest factors that contribute to heart disease are smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, family history and age. You and your family doctor can assess your risk through a series of tests and questions, and make a plan to avoid potential problems. Although you can't do much about your family history or your age, you can make lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, controlling your cholesterol and blood pressure, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, managing diabetes appropriately and knowing your family history. If you are at risk for developing heart disease, you and your doctor can create a plan of care to help reduce your risk of future health complications.