Essay from the year 2003 in the subject Medicine - Internal Medicine, grade: 1.1 (A+), Oxford University (New College), language: English, abstract: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and therefore many scientists are interested in finding both ways to prevent and to treat it. It is a multifactorial disease and thus is being influenced by a variety of environmental and genetic factors and therefore it is difficult to establish the most important risk factors involved in the development of the disease. The term risk factor describes those characteristics found, in healthy individuals, to be independently related to the subsequent occurrence of cardiovascular disease and, where modifiable, to be reversible. This term includes modifiable lifestyle and biochemical and physiologic characteristics as well as nonmodifiable personal characteristics such as age, sex, genetic makeup, early life influences and family history of premature cardiovascular disease. When a person develops cardiovascular disease, the modifiable risk factors continue to contribute to the progression of the disease and prognosis. Risk factors include smoking, hypertension, changes to lipid levels (e.g. raised total cholesterol), raised blood glucose, obesity, family history of premature cardiovascular disease, female hormonal status, dyslipidemia, diabetes, etc. Except for female hormonal status, no risk factor has been recognised as acting on one gender but not on the other. [...]
