Tuesday, April 1, 2025
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Tag: urban health disparities

How Lifestyle Factors That Contribute to Heart Disease Increase Risk Over Time: What Science Says About Preventable Causes

Heart disease rarely announces itself overnight. Rather, it unfolds silently over years, shaped by a constellation of lifestyle decisions that seem minor in the moment but prove monumental over time. The gradual accumulation of poor habits—such as an unhealthy diet, chronic stress, lack of physical activity, smoking, and poor sleep—lays the groundwork for atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and metabolic dysfunction. These subtle shifts in health markers, often undetected until late stages, are directly influenced by behavioral patterns that could have been adjusted decades earlier. Recognizing how lifestyle factors that contribute to heart disease include seemingly innocuous choices, like skipping workouts or favoring processed foods, is essential to reversing this trend before damage becomes irreversible.