Who is at risk of heart disease or stroke?

The UK has one of the highest rates of death from heart disease in the world with one British adult dying from the disease every three minutes.

Cardio and vascular diseases such as a heart attack, stroke, diabetes and chronic kidney disease, affect the lives of over four million people, causing 170,000 deaths a year.

Many people assume that heart disease and a stroke occur in the heart and are similar in nature, when in fact they are totally different but share similar traits.

A stroke actually occurs when blood vessels burst or blood clots occur on the brain. In both cases the brain is starved of oxygen, damaging or killing cells.

The heart pumps 100,000 times a day, 2.5bn in an average lifetime. If this process is interrupted it can cause serious illness or instant death.

Even though they occur in different parts of the body, the causes of the two deadly diseases are exactly the same.
There are three major risk factors in the industry which cannot be changed when it comes to these diseases, including age, hereditary and gender.

From the age of 65 most people are prone to heart problems and need to take extra care with their diet and lifestyle.

Unfortunately if it runs in the immediate family you can be at a higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke, or if you have had one before you can also be at a greater risk of it happening again.

Heart problems are generally more common in men than women however more than half the total stroke deaths occur in women.

Some of the most common causes of heart disease or strokes include smoking, poor diet, little exercise, drug taking and drinking alcohol excessively.

These problems can be tackled through small changes in lifestyle which can be a massive improvement to your health and extending your life.