Since 1960, age-adjusted mortality rates for cardiovascular disease (CVD) have declined steadily in the United States due to multiple factors, but remain the a leading cause of morbidity and premature mortality. global. Better control of risk factors and improved treatments for cardiovascular disease have contributed significantly to this decline (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). In the United States alone, it costs approximately 830,000 each year and accounts for 1/6 of all deaths under the age of 65 (Weiss and Lonnquist, 2011). Based on mortality rate data from 2007, an average of one death every 37 seconds is due to cardiovascular disease (Lloyd-Jones et al., 2009). Controlling and reducing risk factors is crucial to saving lives. There are a number of contributing risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which can appear in the form of hereditary, behavioral and psychological factors, all of which converge on social or cultural factors. Hereditary risk factors for cardiovascular disease are primarily those that individuals are unable to control those with which they were born. These risk factors would include an individual's gender, race, age, and genetics. One in five men suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease and the same goes for women. More women than men suffer from cardiovascular disease in this country, but this is only because there are more women in the U.S. population (Weiss and Lonnquist, 2011). In percentage terms, men are at higher risk than women. There is a somewhat reduced likelihood of women experiencing cardiovascular disease before menopause. Medical researchers and scientists believe this is directly related to natural hormones... middle of article...... J. (2009). Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics - 2010 Update: A Report from the American Heart Association. Journal of the American Heart Association. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.192667Lynch, J. W. (1996). Do cardiovascular risk factors explain the relationship between socioeconomic status, all-cause moral risk, cardiovascular mortality and acute mycardial infarction? American Journal of Epidemiology, 144 (10), 934-942. Schmid, T.L., Pratt, M., & Howze, E. (1995). Policy as intervention: environmental and policy approaches to cardiovascular disease prevention. American Journal of Public Health, 85(9), 1207-1211. Weiss, GL and Lonnquist, LE (2011). The sociology of health, healing and illness (7 ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall. William, W.D. (2004). Culture and disease risk. British Medical Bulletin, 69, 21-31. doi: 10.1093/bmb/ldh020