Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. This module will cover several basic elements of heart anatomy and physiology. You will see the difference between healthy hearts and diseased ones and you will learn what you can do to prevent this most common disease.

Coronary Risk Factors:

A Coronary Risk Factor is a predictor of your chances of having coronary heart disease. Kind of like gambling, in which chance favors certain bets. With heart disease it seems that disease is most common in those people who display certain risk factors. Since this is true, it means that the more risk factors you display in your life, the greater the likelihood that you will end up with heart disease. This doesn't mean that you will end up with heart disease if you have these risk factors, and it doesn't mean that those without risk factors are immune from disease. Risk factors are meant to warn some people with the highest risk so that they can make changes in their lives in order to prevent disease.

Risk factors can be of two types: controllable and non-controllable. There is nothing you can do to modify non-controllable risk factors, but you can modify the risk factors that are related to lifestyle choices. These are the controllable risk factors and you would do well to choose to modify them in positive ways.

Non-controllable:

1. Age. Men 45 years or older and women 55 years or older have an increased risk of suffering from heart disease.
2. Family history. Diagnosed heart disease before age 55 years in father or male sibling, or diagnosed heart disease before 65 years in mother or female sibling.

Controllable:

1. Cigarette smoking.
2. High blood pressure. Systolic pressure above 140 mm Hg and/or diastolic pressure above 90 mm Hg.
3. High cholesterol. Above 200 mg/dL.
4. Diabetes. Type I (insulin dependent) or Type II (noninsulin dependent).
5. Sedentary lifestyle (physically inactive).