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Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. It is also one of the leading risk factors for heart attack. It’s important to understand your cardiovascular risk factors so you can work towards reducing them and keeping your heart healthy.
What is a cardiovascular risk assessment?
The American Heart Association has guidelines and recommendations that can help you estimate your risk of developing cardiovascular (heart) disease.
Risk assessment is extremely important since it shows if you are at a high risk of cardiovascular disease. It also helps you identify things to do to lower the risk of developing heart disease.
If you are wondering what your heart attack risk is, doctors can do a risk assessment to determine your likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease, heart attack or stroke in the future.
Risk factors
Medical professionals calculate risk scores using a number of factors. Some of the factors that they look at include:
- Age
- Gender
- Race
- Cholesterol levels
- Blood pressure
- Diabetes
Alcohol use and smoking status also contribute to heart attack risk, so they are included, as well. Using these risk factors, doctors can estimate your risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the next ten years.
If you are between the ages of 40 and 75, then you should have doctors calculate your 10-year risk for cardiovascular disease. This can help you identify changes that you can make to reduce your chance of developing heart disease.
Where can I get a cardiovascular risk assessment?
Take control of your cardiovascular health by stopping into any Nao Medical urgent care clinics for a simple yearly lab. Through the results, we can calculate your 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk and explore potential treatments or lifestyle changes to help reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Note: For cholesterol levels to be accurate, you must fast for 8-12 hours before the test. Drinking water is allowed.
