When it comes to heart disease and stroke, prevention is critical. Reducing cardiovascular risk factors with lifestyle change and/or medication is very effective at reducing risk. There is a really nice tool to assess your 10 year odds of heart disease and stroke that is free to use. It is called the ASCVD Risk Estimator and you can find it here:
https://tools.acc.org/ascvd-risk-estimator-plus/#!/calculate/estimate/
You will need a
number of lab values to fill out this assessment, so make sure to have handy
your most recent blood work.
This includes:
total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and blood pressure.
Once you plug in
all of the data you will get a score that estimates your chance of having a
cardiovascular event in the next 10 years.
Here is what the
number says about your 10 year risk of having a heart attack or stroke:
Less than 5% = Low
risk
5-7.4% =
Borderline risk
7.5-19.9% =
Intermediate risk
Greater than 20% =
High risk
With this
information, you and your doctor can come up with a plan combining lifestyle
modifications and medications to lower your risk and help prevent a
cardiovascular event. Take advantage of this free tool and find out your ASCVD
score.
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