February is American Heart Month — Dr. Eric Herzog, M.D., a family medicine physician at Banner Churchill Community Hospital, shares some heart health tips.

Three of Hearts — Don’t gamble with your ticker. know the risk factors for heart disease and how to prevent them.

If you don’t believe the old adage that prevention is the best medicine, consider this: the power to control — and maybe even prevent — three of the biggest risk factors for heart disease lies in your own hands.

Those three risk factors are diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. just having one of these conditions increases the odds that you’ll develop heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

Even more significant, people with one of these conditions are more likely to be diagnosed with one or both of the others. and the risk of death from coronary heart disease increases 65 percent in people with all three conditions, according to a recent study conducted by the Heart Disease Prevention Program at the University of California, Irvine.

Fortunately, modern medicine offers excellent treatments for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

But nothing is as effective as the steps you can take on your own to control or prevent these conditions — steps that echo the same kind of good advice your mother may have given you when you were a child.

Why are people with diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure more likely to develop the other two? Researchers have pinpointed a constellation of risk factors — including these three conditions — that will cling together in one person at the same time. this is known as metabolic syndrome.

They’ve also determined that the underlying problem in people with metabolic syndrome is insulin resistance. in the simplest terms, this means the body isn’t using insulin properly and secretes increased insulin as a result, which can lead to type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other conditions.

“Being overweight is the most powerful predictor of becoming insulin resistant. It’s more powerful than your genetic influences,” says Herzog. “And 64 percent of this country’s population is overweight.”

Diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure are all exacerbated or can be caused by being overweight. as people gain more weight, they become increasingly insulin resistant, which, in turn, makes it tougher to lose the extra pounds. It’s a vicious cycle that takes some determination to escape.

It’s worth the effort, however, considering the serious damage that can be done. Uncontrolled diabetes can cause vascular disease, which narrows the arteries that carry blood from the heart. it can also lead to macrovascular disease, which can block blood vessels. Ultimately, with either condition, the heart has to work harder to do its job.

This is the same problem caused by high LDL cholesterol (commonly referred to as “bad” cholesterol), which leads to the narrowing of blood vessels. High blood pressure enlarges and weakens the heart, making both the heart and the arteries more susceptible to injury.

Don’t just Sit There

Knowing that you can personally influence your own health is the good news. but for many people, that’s also the bad news.

“People always look for high-tech solutions, but it really comes down to what your grandmother told you: Get off your butt and don’t eat so much,” says Herzog

However, it isn’t always easy to convince people that they need to be vigilant about preventing diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, largely because the conditions generally don’t produce symptoms until they’ve progressed to a dangerous level.

Herzog emphasizes that lifestyle and diet are the best ways to conquer insulin resistance, which is proven to lower cholesterol, blood pressure and the high blood sugar associated with diabetes.

He advocates a “right foods” diet and regular exercise to help keep diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure at bay — not to mention a host of other health concerns, including cancer.

“Exercise is the closest thing we have to a magic bullet in terms of disease prevention,” he explains. “And people can protect themselves against our nation’s chronic diseases by harnessing the power of the right foods.”