Do you know how these controllable risk factors affect your risk of heart disease, stroke and metabolic syndrome?

• smoking
• high blood pressure
• high cholesterol
• diabetes
• being overweight or obese
• physical inactivity

It’s essential that you measure your risk of heart disease and make a plan for how to prevent it in the near future.

Click here to take the American Heart Association’s Heart Attack Risk Assessment.

Heart Attack Symptoms and Warning Signs

If you think you’re having a heart attack, call 9-1-1 or your emergency medical system immediately.

Some heart attacks are sudden and intense — the “movie heart attack,” where no one doubts what’s happening. But most heart attacks start slowly with mild pain or discomfort. Often people affected aren’t sure what’s wrong and wait too long before getting help. Here are signs that can mean a heart attack is happening:

• Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.
• Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
• Shortness of breath. May occur with or without chest discomfort.
• Other signs: Breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, lightheadedness

As with men, a woman’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.

If you or someone you’re with has chest discomfort, especially with one or more of the other signs, don’t wait longer than a few minutes (no more than five) before calling for help. Call 9-1-1 … Get to a hospital right away.