Imagine you are walking across campus when you begin to experience a discomfort that feels as if someone is squeezing your chest. The squeezing is accompanied by pain that spreads from your jaw down your neck. You begin to slow your pace as light-headedness and shortness of breath overcome you. Even though your pace has decreased, you find you are breaking out in a sweat. According to the American Heart Association, these are many of the warning signs a person experiences when having a heart attack.

Although the average twentysomething ISU student is not in grave danger of having a heart attack, they should be aware of risky lifestyle behaviors that could lead them to a heart attack later in life. In fact, age is the one variable that nobody can escape.

“You really start to develop problems from the time you are a little kid, but it doesn’t cause problems until you are older,” said Tim Moran, fitness specialist at the Wellness Center in the Thielen Student Health Center and graduate student in health and human performance.

The American Heart Association lists three major heart attack risk factors that a person has no control over: increasing age, heredity and male gender.

Other risk factors, such as physical inactivity, alcohol consumption and tobacco use, are controllable with lifestyle changes.

According to the American Heart Association, controlling risk factors will reduce the risk of having a heart attack.

Risk factor: Physical inactivity

Explained: Physical activity strengthens the heart and makes it more efficient. This allows the heart to pump blood more easily and quickly.

Myth: I am only 20 years old, so I don’t have to worry about being active now.

Fact: “Everything you do leads up to what happens later,” said Moran.

Amount: Begin with 20 to 60 minutes, three times per week, then gradually increase the time you are physically active.

Resources: Wellness Center at Thielen Student Health Center, 294-1868; Personal Training Services, 294-6905

Advice: Start exercising now to avoid problems later in life.

Risk factor: Alcohol consumption

Explained: A small amount of alcohol every day has shown to be good for your heart, however binge drinking is detrimental to heart health.

Myth: If I don’t drink during the week, I can drink as much as I want on the weekend.

Fact: Judith Trumpy, Wellness Center nutrition therapist, said you can’t save drinks for the weekend.

Amount: Safe daily consumption of alcohol is recommended for females at one drink per day and males at two drinks per day (one drink equals one beer, one glass of wine or one highball).

Resources: Wellness Center at Thielen Student Health Center; health promotion coordinator Ray Rodriguez, 294-2722

Advice: “People who have one drink a day tend not to experience heart disease,” Trumpy said. She also said not to start drinking if you don’t already consume alcohol.

Risk factor: Tobacco use

Explained: When a person breathes in tobacco smoke, the heart has to work harder to get oxygen to the rest of the body.

Myth: I’ll quit smoking when I’m done with my stress.

Fact: “You are not going to be done with stress,” said Ray Rodriguez, health program coordinator at Thielen Student Health Center’s Wellness Center. Rodriguez said after school stresses, students will then have job and family stress – it’s a never-ending cycle.

Amount: No amount of tobacco use is safe. Rodriguez said tobacco products are the only known substance that will kill you when used properly.

Resources: Wellness Center at Thielen Student Health Center; free smoking cessation counseling, 294-1868

Advice: Rodriguez said students should recognize that tobacco use is an addiction and users should seek help with cessation.