"Prevention What is a Risk Factor? Part of learning how to take charge of one’s health requires understanding risk factors for different diseases. Risk factors are things in life that increase your chances of getting a certain disease. Some risk factors a re beyond your control. A person may be born with them or have exposure with no fault assigned. Some risk factors that you have little or no control over include: • Family history of a disease • Sex/gender — male or female • Ancestry Some controllable risk f actors include: • What you eat • How much physical activity you get • Whether you use tobacco • How much alcohol you drink • Whether you misuse drugs In fact, it has been estimated that almost 35 percent of all U.S. early deaths in 2000 could have been avoided by changing just three behaviors: • Stopping smoking • Eating a healthy diet (for example, eating more fruits and vegetables and less red meat) • Getting more physical activity A person can have one risk factor for a disease or he/she can have many. The mo re risk factors a person has, the more likely he/she will get the disease. For example, if people eat healthy, exercise on a regular basis, and control blood pressure, their chances of getting heart disease are less than those of diabetics, smokers, and se dentary people. To lower"