Back in 1948, the group called National Heart Institute began a study to assess the risk factors that lead to heart attack and stroke. They followed 5,000 participants throughout their lives.

Today, we look at the list of top risk factors that the study was able to compile over the past 70 years and how easy they can be to control, giving you everything you need to eliminate your risk, naturally.

…and it’s easier than you think!

The Framingham, MA, study that started back in the 40s didn’t stop with the original 5,000 participants. Over the years, the institute grew, becoming the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, or NHLBI, and it continued the Framingham Heart Study.

In 1971, it expanded to include the children of the original study group and their spouses as well.

In the 70 years of the study, several risk factors were uncovered, listed below. Now, assessing your risk is as easy as checking off the list and taking action where needed:

Age and Gender-

As we age, our risk of heart disease increases. As well, men are more likely to develop heart disease than women. These risk factors are the only ones that you can’t control. You are what you are, and there is no way to turn the clock around. Therefore, people over 45 should be considering the other risk factors and how to control them.

Cholesterol and Blood Pressure-

This tag-team of danger has long been held as key factors in heart health. Blood pressure that is chronically over 120/80 for long periods can stress out blood vessels, which keep the heart healthy. The heart also has to work a lot harder to keep blood moving. The cascade of negative effects of hypertension all contribute to HBP causing heart failure.

As well, plaque build-up in the vessels cause the heart to have to work much harder than it should. Stroke is a common danger of uncontrolled high cholesterol, so if your numbers indicate HDL lower than 40 mg/dL and overall readings of 240 mg/DL, it’s time to act.

This easy, step-by-step plan helps you control your cholesterol to get the healthiest readings you have had in your life in as little as 30 days…

Stop worrying about your blood pressure and relax using this 3 step system…

Other Preventable Diseases like Diabetes

Type two diabetes has officially become an epidemic, and not just in the US where 1 out of every 4 people is estimated to developed it by 2030. Diabetes stresses out every inch of your body, inside and out.

That kind of stress is a direct cause of high blood pressure, and we all know what happens there. People with type 2 diabetes are almost guaranteed to develop hypertension unless they can reverse it. As well, toxins in the blood are very damaging to all the organs in the body which are vital for health.

Here is the roadmap to completely reverse type 2 diabetes in 28 days or less…

Smoking

Many of the above conditions hinge in some part at least on family history and living environment. This one in particular doesn’t have to.

Choosing to smoke, as we now know, is the single most damaging, PREVENTABLE insult you can deliver to your own body. The ravages of this killer are many, and the list of diseases smoking causes is much longer than cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, vascular damage, and blood clots.

If you smoke, stop. There are too many tools out there now that will help you overcome the powerful addiction for you to not at least try- or keep trying if you’ve slipped up. Keep at it.