A risk factor is a condition or habit that makes a person more likely to develop a disease. Risk factors can also increase your chances that an existing disease will get worse. Fortunately, you have the power to change a number of important risk factors for heart disease:

• high blood pressure
• high blood cholesterol
• smoking
• being overweight
• being physically inactive

Some changes may require help and even medication from your doctor. But some are changes in your behavior. For example, smoking can put a woman at risk for a heart attack 19 years earlier than women who don’t.

Other risk factors are beyond your control. But being aware of them can give you an advantage in watching for early warning signs of heart disease. These risk factors have more to do with heredity and the changes your body goes through with age.

• A family history of heart disease can increase your risk.
• Women age 55 and over have an increased risk .
• Women who have gone through menopause or have had an hysterectomy are at increased risk.

African-American Women
African-American women are at a higher risk for heart disease.

• Adjusting for age, African-American women have a 72% higher rate of heart disease.
• African-American women between 55 and 64 are twice as likely to have a heart attack as a white woman of the same age.

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