Heart disease: Prevention and risks
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Preventing heart disease
There are many different ways to make healthy lifestyle changes that can reduce your risk for heart diseases and conditions. These include:
- eating a variety of healthy foods
- being physically active regularly
- maintaining a healthy weight
- quitting (or not starting) smoking
- managing stress
- limiting alcohol use
If you have already had a heart attack or stroke, these changes can reduce the risk of having another.
Follow your health care provider's plans for managing your heart disease or condition to prevent it from developing further.
Learn more:
- Stroke
- Heart attack
- Tobacco and stroke
- Tobacco and heart disease
- Heart disease: Managing heart conditions
- Health effects of smoking and second-hand smoke
Guidance
Healthy eating
Physical activity
Healthy weight
Manage stress
Limit alcohol use
Risks of heart disease
Physical effects of heart diseases and blood circulation conditions can include being unable to perform your usual physical activities. This means you may not be able to work or travel due to:
- chest pain
- fatigue (tiredness)
- shortness of breath
- medication side effects
If you need surgery, and depending on how invasive it is, you may experience:
- pain
- chills
- fever
- swelling
- bleeding
- feeling generally unwell
Living with heart disease, having a heart procedure or surviving a stroke may cause you to feel:
- fear
- anxiety
- sadness
- depression
- pain or an increase in pain you already have
- fatigue or becoming more tired than you already are
These may worsen if you have another heart attack and must return to the hospital. This could further damage your heart muscles and lead to unexpected death.
Learn more:
- Improving your mental health
- How to cope with stressful life events
- Depression (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health)
Risk factors for heart disease
Some health factors can also put you at higher risk of developing heart disease. These include:
- being overweight and obesity
- having high cholesterol
- having high blood pressure (hypertension)
- having sleep apnea (trouble breathing during sleep)
- having a family history of heart diseases and conditions
However, there are many different ways to reduce your risks, such as:
- being physically active regularly
- eating a variety of healthy foods
- limiting alcohol use
- managing stress
- quitting (or not starting) smoking
- avoiding recreational drugs
Guidance for preventing heart disease
Diabetes also increases your risk for getting heart disease, so you may also need to be screened for it. This is especially important if:
- a family member has diabetes
- you had diabetes while pregnant
Some population groups tend to also have a higher risk of heart disease, such as those who are:
- South Asian
- African
- Hispanic
- Indigenous
- Chinese
Environmental factors such as air pollution can also contribute to heart disease.
The older you are, the higher your risk of developing heart disease.
You’re also at higher risk if you have gone through menopause or use estrogen-based contraceptives. Estrogen-based contraceptives can increase the risk of high blood pressure and blood clots, but the risk is even greater if you also:
- smoke and are over 35 years old
- already have high blood pressure
- already have a blood clotting problem
The more risk factors you have, the greater your chance of having a heart disease or condition.
Learn more:
- Diabetes
- High cholesterol
- Tobacco and stroke
- Tobacco and heart disease
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Health effects of smoking and second-hand smoke
- Social determinants of health and health inequalities