1. What lifestyle factors or choices do you think lead to an increase in blood viscosity?

Blood viscosity is the measure of how thick or 'sticky' the blood is. The thicker the blood the harder the heart has to pump to get the blood to tissues that predispose the person to cardiovascular diseases.

Certain lifestyle disease are predisposing factors;

Eating of food with high cholesterol causes the lumen of the blood vessel to decrease in diameter hence 'squeezing' blood cells and causing higher viscosity. A sedentary lifestyle also causes obesity which is also a predisposing factor for the same reasons stated above - since lack of exercise causes accumulation of fats and cholesterol even in blood vessels.