Smoking also causes deposition of fat in the main arteries of your body. These arteries are particularly important serving the heart and the brain and problems with them may cause heart attacks and strokes. I am sure you have all seen the adverts on television. Smoking greatly increases the chance of having a heart attack, especially when combined with other risk factors - you are strongly advised not to smoke.

Your blood pressure is classified in two types - a top one and a bottom one e.g.130/80. It is the bottom one that is important - i.e. the eighty level. If this pressure level is over 95 it puts a back pressure on your heart. This may cause an "early pump failure" in other words, a heart attack

Your cholesterol level has absolutely no relation to whether you are overweight or not. People who are very fat can have normal cholesterol, and people who are very thin can have very high cholesterol. It all depends on your family genes.

Similar to cholesterol, if your blood sugar is raised, the excess gets deposited on the sides of the arteries, leading to heart attacks, and strokes.

Any members of your own family having had high blood pressure, a stroke, heart attack, or a cholesterol or sugar problem gives you a Family History, which becomes a risk factor. If there is any one in the family who has had any of these complaints, then if you have not had your own risk factor checked (e.g. cholesterol, sugar or blood pressure), then you should have it checked.

It has recently been proven that a BMI of 35 or more is another major risk factor for heart disease (heart attacks). Those with a BMI of 30 – 35 have an increased risk of developing heart disease. As well as affecting your heart arteries and blood pressure being obese also increases your chance of arthritis of your back, hips, knees at a much younger age, thus affecting your work: It is like carrying a couple of extra suitcases around all the time and so wears the joints out much faster.

To lose weight with a BMI of 35 gastric banding is practically the only solution and could be life-saving.

Stress - There is a lot of stress around these days and this can cause a release of a chemical into the blood stream called Adrenaline which can cause problems as in those mentioned above. There are many ways of controlling stress such as hobbies, sports, relaxation tapes or counselling.

One other word of advice: - if you have a temperature do not exert yourself as the virus can go to the heart, possibly causing death in a young person, with no risk factors for heart (coronary artery) disease.

Simple fitness (work or sport) is not enough to prevent heart attacks. Whilst checking for heart disease there are a number of other factors related to other types of sickness, cancers and muscular and ligament damage, many of which can be predicted, discovered early and possibly cured - all to the better health of the worker.

Women have been trained for years to have regular visits to the doctor for screening tests. Men who do not go for checks are usually those who insist their cars are serviced regularly on the dot, yet never go in to get their body serviced at any time and yet expect it to keep running efficiently. It does not always do that. What is the difference?

I suggest all males over the age of 45. This is because the risk of heart attack increases and becomes statistically significant at this age. This could prevent a lot of heart disease or other medical problems that will occur without people being aware of the risks.