Certain risk factors make it more likely that you'll develop ischemic heart disease and have a heart attack. You can control many of these risk factors.

The major risk factors for a heart attack that you can control include:

•           Smoking;

•           High blood pressure;

•           High blood cholesterol;

•           Overweight and obesity;

•           An unhealthy diet (for example, a diet high in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium);

•           Lack of routine physical activity;

•           High blood sugar due to insulin resistance or diabetes.

Some of these risk factors—such as obesity, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar—tend to occur together. When they do, it's called metabolic syndrome.

In general, a person who has metabolic syndrome is twice as likely to develop heart disease and five times as likely to develop diabetes as someone who doesn't have metabolic syndrome.

Risk factors that you can't control include:

•           Age. The risk of heart disease increases for men after age 45 and for women after age 55 (or after menopause).

•           Family history of early heart disease. Your risk increases if your father or a brother was diagnosed with heart disease before 55, or if your mother or a sister was diagnosed with heart disease before 65.

•           Preeclampsia. This condition can develop during pregnancy. The two main signs of preeclampsia are a rise in blood pressure and excess protein in the urine. Preeclampsia is linked to an increased lifetime risk of heart disease, including CHD, heart attack, heart failure, and high blood pressure.

•           Infections.

•           Sleep apnea.