These are the big three for the development of heart and vascular disease. Although each is not a disease, they are the risk factors for the development of diseases. Heart attacks, strokes, kidney problems, aortic aneurysms and gangrene are all caused by these problems. The big surprise though is that none of them cause any warning signs for many years. High cholesterol could be an inherited problem – the youngest person I have started on cholesterol lowering medication was 13 years old. His father died suddenly from a heart attack at 42 years of age. If you smoke then you can do so for probably 20 years before noticing the health changes. But you cannot reverse these changes and the problems accelerate with age. High Blood pressure needs to be extremely high to cause headaches. Usually it causes no symptoms until you one day have your Doctor check it. By then it could have been high for many years damaging vital organs slowly. If you smoke or have a family history of high blood pressure, heart problems or high cholesterol then subscribe to the Comprehensive level to find out when and what you should be doing.