Your Personal Risks And Goals: Heart Disease

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Your personal risks and goals

What are your odds of having a heart attack or developing heart disease over the next decade? Knowing your risk for coronary artery disease is crucial to understanding what you need to do now to reduce that risk. In addition to avoiding certain risk factors, you may need to lose weight or take medications to treat cholesterol, blood pressure, and other conditions such as diabetes.

In the old days, physicians would give people ballpark assessments of their heart disease risk based on their total cholesterol level. People would be told that their risk was "low," "medium," or "high." But these rough estimates meant different things to different people. Clinical and epidemiological studies have helped to refine these estimates in several ways. First of all, it's now possible to predict who is most likely to develop heart disease and its complications. Second, treatment is tailored to your particular risk profile, and often involves a multi-prong strategy of diet, exercise, and medication.

Although there is no one-size-fits-all solution, in general, the higher your risk, the more aggressive the treatment. What follows is a five-step process to calculate your own risks, and then advice from the experts about what your treatment goals should be, based on your risk profile.

Last updated:	May 03, 2007