Know If You Are Developing Risk For Heart Disease?

Non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular and heart diseases have become prevalent all across the world. The important thing to note is these diseases can be prevented, and yet they are growing in numbers and crossing all age limits. Awareness and appropriate knowledge go a long way in the prevention and management of such diseases. With the advent in technology, you now have various ways to know your risks for cardiovascular and heart diseases. Just remember, prevention is the best cure! Make sure you are regular with your health checkups and you take the one-time genetic test to find your susceptibility towards various diseases.

 Let’s see all the factors that indicate if you are at risk for heart or cardiovascular diseases.

Basic health indicators from regular preventive health checkups

• Blood pressure
• Cholesterol
• Body Mass Index
• Waist size (circumference)
• Blood glucose level

Your family’s health history

Having a family history of heart diseases is an important wake up call for you and your doctor. You need to be extra careful and proactive with your preventive healthcare.

Age

Age is an important risk factor. Many tend to develop risk factors for heart disease in their middle age, and many women after menopause. If your parents developed heart disease in the older ages, you might be at a higher risk.

Addictions and bad health habits

Smoking or tobacco intake, drinking too much alcohol, having a sedentary lifestyle with no physical activity, stressful life and not eating healthy are some changeable factors that affect your risk for developing heart or cardiovascular diseases.

Genetic predispositions towards heart or cardiovascular diseases

Understanding the role of your genetics can empower you to make an effective plan to keep your heart protected and healthy. You can take a genetic test to know your predispositions or susceptibility to heart diseases. Your genes/genetics/DNA are inherited from your parents and are unchangeable. Hence, it becomes doubly important to take a genetic test if you already have a family history of heart diseases.

How to prevent cardiovascular and heart diseases?

Your family history and genetics are unmodifiable - still you can work on planning a personalized lifestyle that is healthy for your heart. Genetic testing is the first step. A genetic test can reveal your risk scores for CVD related factors like - Atrial Fibrillation, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), High HDL (Good) Cholesterol Levels, High LDL (Bad) Cholesterol Levels, Hypertension,  Hypertriglyceridemia, Myocardial Infarction, Stroke. Based on your genetic test report, you can plan:

• Your own nutrition and workout
• Heart related health checkups to detect the disease before it gets fatal
• Your course of treatment/management with your doctor

Want to know more about personalization of lifestyle according to the genetic needs? Click here.