**2. Cardiovascular risk factors**

CVD is a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels. It includes a large number of pathologies, among which it is worth highlighting: coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, peripheral arteriopathies, and rheumatic and congenital heart disease, among others. In most of them there is a common pathological process, atherosclerosis [19, 20]. This condition occurs when fat and cholesterol build up on the walls of blood vessels or in the arteries. This accumulation gives rise to atherosclerotic plaques. Over time, plaques can narrow blood vessels and cause problems throughout the body. If an artery becomes blocked, it can lead to a heart attack or stroke [21].

Cardiovascular risk factors are those that are associated with a greater probability of suffering from CVD. It is widely described that the most developed countries' lifestyles entail an increased risk of suffering from CVD. There are many studies that showed that a significant percentage of CVD and its mortality can be prevented by acting on cardiovascular risk factors [3].

Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial disease, in which several risk factors are involved [22]. The prevalence and potency of these risk factors vary. Cardiovascular risk factors improve CVD by reducing plaque formation.

Two types of risk factors can be differentiated: modifiable and non-modifiable. Pencina et al. established the importance of both and determined that the non-modifiable factors (sex, age, and race) account for between 63 and 80% of the risk factors, while the weight of the modifiable factors is much lower. But, control of modifiable risk factors leads to substantial reductions of cardiovascular events [23, 24].
