Lower your risk of heart disease with six steps

If I told you six ways to help prevent heart disease, would you follow them? I'm just a writer -- so maybe, maybe not. Fair enough. But what if the leading heart disease experts told you six ways to stave off this leading cause of death, would you listen then? Cool. I was hoping you would.

According to a recent WebMD article, if everyone in the U.S. were to follow only a few easy-to-follow steps, it could prevent more than 27 million heart attacks and about 10 million strokes over the next 30 years.

Step One - Quit Smoking

Step Two - Lower your Body Mass Index (BMI) out of the range considered obese

Step Three - Rein in your LDL ("bad") cholesterol

Step Four - Lower your blood pressure to a safe level

Step Five - Get your blood sugar under control, especially if you have diabetes

Step Six - Take aspirin if your physician tells you to due to your heart attack risk

The article goes on to say that 78 percent of U.S. adults aged 20-80 do not currently follow at least one of these steps when necessary.