Cardiovascular disease can take many forms: high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, stroke, or rheumatic fever/rheumatic heart disease. Risk factors are divided into two categories: major and contributing. Major risk factors are those that have been proven to increase your risk of heart disease. Contributing risk factors are those that doctors think can lead to an increased risk of heart disease, but their exact role has not been defined. The more risk factors you have, the more likely you are to develop heart disease. Some risk factors can be changed, treated, or modified, and some cannot. But by controlling as many risk factors as possible, through lifestyle changes and/or medicines, you can reduce your risk of heart disease. Major risk factors include:High blood pressure (Hypertension), high blood cholesterol,diabetes,obesity, smoking,physical inactivity,gender,heredity and age. Contributing risk factors include:Stress,sex hormones,birth control pillsand alcohol.