When flow of blood is restricted to heart muscle, the lack of oxygen causes the muscle to die, which leads to a heart attack. While this may seem the overt cause of heart attacks, it is not the root cause. Following are some of the root causes for heart attacks, which if dealt with would lead to preventing the attack.

Hypertension

When the blood pressure is substantially more than normal, it is a case of hypertension, which is a cause of heart attacks. This leads to increase in pressure on the walls of the artery, which causes the inner lining of the artery to tear. Such tears to the inner lining are great places for accumulating cholesterol and platelets, which lead to formation of plaque. When plaque is formed it often leads to blocking the arteries, which is causes heart attacks.

Cholesterol

Another root cause of heart attacks is cholesterol. Unhealthy eating leads to large amounts of bad cholesterol in the body or low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. This cholesterol actually contributes towards plaque formation in the arteries rather than prevent it. High density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, on the other hand, is good cholesterol that prevents such plaque formation. In order to avoid heart attacks, it is important to have high levels of HDL cholesterol while nil to low levels of LDL cholesterol.

Diabetes

This is a condition where the sugar level in the blood is above normal, which leads to plaque formation, which results in heart attacks. Reducing your blood sugar level is important for preventing attacks as well as other diseases.

Obesity Or Uncontrollable Weight Gain

When you have gained weight unnaturally, it could be the cause for various ailments, including cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes. Obesity causes increase in the level of triglycerides in the body, which when combined with cholesterol results in plaque.

Smoking Or Tobacco

Nicotine present in the tobacco causes increase in the levels of LDL cholesterol as well as triglycerides in the blood stream. This in turn results in plaque formation, resulting in heart diseases. Therefore, smoking is another root cause of heart attacks and should be avoided for healthy heart.

From the above, it can be discerned that unhealthy lifestyle and habits are the sole cause of heart attacks.