Heart disease is often mistakenly perceived as a disease that affects older people, but heart attacks can and do occur at any age. 

Major risk factors for heart disease include high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, obesity or being overweight, smoking, physical inactivity, heredity, and age. Factors that could lead to an increased risk include stress and excessive alcohol consumption. For women, that means more than one drink a day.

Your best bet for fighting heart disease is to know which risk factors affect you. The more risk factors you have, the greater your risk for heart disease. Starting at age 20, women should know their blood pressure and cholesterol levels. One red flag is a high level of LDL ("bad") cholesterol, which clogs arteries, and a low level of HDL ("good") cholesterol, which clears arteries.

Knowing your risk factors empowers you to make simple lifestyle changes to keep your heart healthy:

• Reach and keep a healthy weight. You'll reduce your blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes risk, hitting three key risk factors at once.
• Trim saturated fat and salt from your diet. When you can, trade butter for heart-healthy canola or olive oil. Swap red meat for seafood, a good source of omega-3 fats that help reduce triglycerides, clotting, and blood pressure.
• Move more. Exercising at a moderate to high intensity for 40 minutes on average, 3 to 4 days a week, can lower your blood pressure, strengthen your heart, decrease stress, and result in weight loss.
• Quit smoking. Smoking is the most common risk factor for women and triples your heart attack risk.
• De-stress daily. Finding ways to defuse stress will help slow your breathing and heart rate as you lower your blood pressure.