Who Is at Risk for Heart Disease? - Page 4

Heart disease risks you can’t change

While many risk factors for heart disease depend on your personal health and lifestyle choices, some are outside your control.

You are more likely to develop heart disease if you have family members with a history of cardiovascular diseases. This is especially true as you get older. Increased age is associated with increased risk for many kinds of cardiovascular disease in both men and women. Women become far more likely to develop heart disease after menopause due to the drop in how much estrogen their bodies produce. For the same reason, women who have had a hysterectomy are twice as likely to develop heart disease as women who have not.

Ethnicity can also affect your chances of developing cardiovascular diseases. Worldwide, if you are of Asian descent, you are more likely to develop heart disease than other ethnic groups. In the United States, African Americans are more at risk for heart disease than other racial groups, though this does not hold true for people of African descent worldwide.

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