Risk factors for Coronary Artery Disease

Major risk factors include:

• Sex: male (men have a greater risk of heart attack than women)
• Age: 45 and older for men, 55 and older for women
• Heredity: strong family history of heart disease
• Obesity and being overweight
• Smoking
• High blood pressure
• Sedentary lifestyle
• High blood cholesterol (specifically, high LDL cholesterol, and low HDL cholesterol)
• Diabetes
• Depression*³

Other risk factors include:

• Stress
• Excessive alcohol use
• Metabolic syndrome -combination of high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, and insulin resistance