Lowering Your Risk Factors

Risk factors for heart disease are all increased by certain health conditions, lifestyle choices, age, & family history. Now we may not have control over EVERY risk factor (like genetics & family history), but choices we make every day certainly has an enormous impact on the rest.

Yesterday I had a post on IG about risk factors for heart disease:

47% of all Americans have 1 of 3 key risk factors: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking.

Lifestyle changes you can make to can help decrease your risk factors:

- Eating healthier

- Moving more

- Reducing Stress

- Getting regular check-ups with your doctor

Getting exercise & eating better can both help lower our blood pressure & cholesterol, help control diabetes, improve mood, body composition, & help manage stress. Having regular check-ups with your doctor can help with early detection as well as quicker interventions helping reduce your risk factors.

Try it

Take an honest look at the list of risk factors above and give yourself your own personal evaluation of risk factors:

• How many do you have?

• Which one effects you the most?

• Which one do you struggle with most?

• Is there a particular one that would be most impactful on your overall health if you were to improve it now?

Now examine the interventions:

• What is the smallest and easiest change you could make?

• Do you have support systems or resources? If not, where could you look?

Choose one place to start. Start small and simple. Make yourself accountable & say it out loud- better yet, post it in my comments below!