Want to stack the cards in your favor and reduce the risk of developing heart disease? There are 11 basic risk factors that can increase your risk of developing coronary heart disease and having a heart attack. You can control eight of them. Houston Northwest Medical Center is here to help.

Preventing Heart Disease
The choices you make today will impact your life tomorrow. This may sound like advice parents give their children, but it is especially true when it comes to taking care of your heart.

Weight Loss
Most people know that being overweight is not healthy, yet losing weight can be difficult. This guide will help you through the weight loss process by explaining how successful weight loss really happens. If you’ve tried to lose weight before, don’t view past efforts as failure. Instead, learn better weight-loss strategies, try again, and make this time different!

Check out our online Weight Management Guide.

Understanding High Cholesterol
Have you had your cholesterol levels checked lately? High cholesterol is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke – and which kills more men and women each year than any other illness.

High blood cholesterol has no warning signs. People diagnosed with high cholesterol often feel fine and therefore may not take their condition seriously.

Have your cholesterol levels checked regularly. If your level is high, there are a lot of steps you can take to lower it.

Check out our online High Cholesterol Guide.

Exercise Guide
Exercise can greatly reduce your risk of many chronic diseases and improve your overall health. For many people, however, getting more physically active – or sticking with it – is difficult. How can you make regular exercise a part of your life?

This guide is designed to help people, step by step, put a successful exercise plan into place. The health benefits will begin almost immediately!

Check out our online Fitness Guide.

High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) Guide
Nearly 50 million Americans have high blood pressure. That’s one in every four adults. It is referred to as the "silent killer" because it often has no warning signs.

Many people are surprised to find that they have high blood pressure. But it is a serious condition – one of the leading causes of stroke and heart disease. If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, take it seriously.

Check out our online High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) Guide.

Diabetes Guide
Type 1 diabetes is a condition where glucose levels in the blood are too high. To manage diabetes, insulin must be used daily and lifestyle carefully planned. The good news is that with proper management, a person with diabetes can live a full, active, healthy life.

Over 18 million Americans have diabetes and almost one-third are not aware that they have it. Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, leg infections, and other serious health problems. In fact, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the United States.

Check out our Type 2 Diabetes Guide.