What influences the development of coronary heart disease?

Many factors: Smoking, cholesterol (ldl, hdl, triglycerides), genetics, diet (for cholesterol), daily exercise/good fitness level, diabetes (know and control your blood sugar), medications - these are the main factors influencing the development of CAD other than other diseases that could have a tremendous impact on the progress of cad.

Risk factors: Smoking, diabetes, hypertension, high LDL cholesterol, and low HDL cholesterol, are the major ones. Age and family history of premature chd are also important risk factors but are not modifiable.