What's the usual risk of Heart Attack?

[moiflan]

At the docs today she said I have a 1 in 5 chance of having a heart attack due to 1)high cholesterol 2)smoking and 3)my age (60).I just wondered if anyone knows how that compares with someone without high cholesterol who doesn't smoke?

[Sqad]

Katie....LOL.........very true.

[Old_Geezer]

I suspect the risk for a particular person/lifestyle would be fairly well known, the problem is categorising the person in front of you into the right pigeonhole.

I take it that's one in five for the rest of your life, not over the weekend.

[237SJ]

Did she do it by a percentage? My mum has high cholesterol and is 82 and the doc said that gave her a 21% chance of having a heart attack. He waffled on about NICE guidelines and wanted to give her statins so that he could bring her chance down to below 20%. I rather got the impression he was being ruled by the guidelines rather than common sense. My mum refused the statins.

[murraymints]

not really rocket science..if you have high cholesterol, smoke, drink. do no exercise and are over 50 then of course your chances of cardiac probs are increased....

[wolf63]

At the end of the day you are going to die - nothing can change that

[Hopkirk]

You can do something about the first two.

[moiflan]

To Old Geezer..made me laugh that !So I have the same chances as an 82 yr old!.Yeah am gonna sort the smoking out for those mentioning it,tis not a pretty sight an old bag dragging on a fag!However I did read an article not so long ago that said those who are more careful,quiet and introspective live longer but wild, impetuous ,risk taking folk pop their clogs earlier.Not surprising really and let's face it one can't help one's personality.Thanks for the input.