Your lifestyle, age, family history and your other health condition can dictate your risk to develop a heart disease. However, the three key risk factors are- smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Learn about the risk factors and see if you are at risk:

1. High blood pressure: It is an important factor for many diseases. Blood pressure, if not controlled, can lead to heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and other organ system disorders. Decreasing blood pressure by lifestyle changes and medication can greatly reduce your risk for heart disease.

2. High cholesterol: Did you know that our hardworking liver can generate all the cholesterol that our bodies need? But we all do take in extra bad cholesterol from diet. These bad cholesterol tend to get deposited in our blood vessels and cause heart disease.

3. Smoking: Cigarette smoking damages your heart and blood vessels. Nicotine present in cigarette smoke also reduces the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry. Not only that, if you smoke, the people around you are also at a higher risk of getting heart disease.

4. Obesity: Obesity is linked with high level of bad cholesterol level and low levels of good cholesterol levels. Obesity is not only a risk factor for heart disease, but also increases risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.

5. Diabetes: People with diabetes or high blood sugars are at greater risk of having heart disease than those who don’t have diabetes.

6. Unhealthy diet: Oily, junk foods which are high in bad cholesterol, saturated fats and trans fats an can increase your risk of heart disease. Foods that are very salty(have high sodium levels) can also increase your risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.

7. Physical inactivity: Physical inactivity increase your risk of having high blood pressure and diabetes and eventually heart disease.

8. Alcohol: Excess and frequent alcohol intake can increase the risk of high blood pressure and hypercholesterolemia. Ideally, women shouldn’t have more than 1 drink a day and men shouldn’t have more than 2 drinks a day.

9. Family history: Genetic factors seem to play a role in conditions like high blood pressure and heart diseases. However, it is also likely that the members of the family sharing common external environments and culture may be exposed to the same set of risk factors for heart diseases.

10. Age: The risk of heart disease increases as the a person ages.