Life insurance isn't exactly the most popular of subjects with people. Talking about anything related to death is always a bit awkward, but it is a necessary task. That being said, taking the time to consider what life insurance companies look at when evaluating the risk of insuring you can also tell you what the biggest risks are to your health.

What is a life insurance company doing when it writes a policy on you? It is placing a sophisticated bet that it will either gain all the premiums without you dying during the term of the policy. The more likely it is that you might pass away, the higher your rates will be for the policy. If it is very likely you will pass away, then you might not get a policy at all.

You can learn a lot about the real risks to your health by understanding what life insurance companies look at. Remember, they have people whose sole job is it to analyze reams and reams of data to identify trends regarding what kills people and what doesn't. With this in mind, here is what you need to know according to their analysis.

The first thing to understand is smoking really does kill you. It is such a big issue with insurers that they actually classify their policies as "smoker" if you huff on a cancer stick. Not only can smoking give you cancer, but it also contributes to the second biggest factor they look at - heart health.

Heart disease is the biggest killer in our country each year. Heart disease is somewhat of a catch all term, but we are basically talking about any problems related to the heart muscle and movement of blood through your body. The two factors that life insurance companies always focus on are your cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Perhaps you should as well!

So, what do life insurance companies tell us about the three biggest health risks we face? It is simple. We should not smoke. We should also focus on cutting our cholesterol and blood pressure levels. You should speak with your doctor regarding the last two, but the solution usually comes down to exercise and diet. Get them under control and your statistical chance of living a long, happy life go way up.