It’s no mystery that you can credit your parents for many of your physical attributes, such as the color of your eyes, your hair, and your body shape. Heredity not only influences you on the outside, but it can play a large role on what goes on inside your body.
To get right to the point of this month’s blog post — heredity, genetics, and family history can also very much influence your cardiovascular health. In fact, a recent study found that more than 30% of heart disease risk stems from genetic factors. Given that heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women in the United States, it’s worth your while to fully understand your risks for heart disease.
To help, the team at Advanced Cardiovascular Specialists explains below how a family history of heart disease might increase your risks for the same.
When medical providers refer to a family history, we’re referring to close relatives who have developed certain health issues. For example, if you have a brother who has had a heart attack, that’s a family history. Or, perhaps your father or your mother has a heart arrhythmia, which should definitely be plugged into your family history equation.
The existence of heart-related issues in your immediate family isn’t the only thing you should go by — we’re also interested in when and how your family member encounters a cardiovascular issue.
For example, if you have an immediate family member who’s had a stroke or heart attack, but they’re a 70-year-old smoker, there might not be any heightened genetic risk. If, however, this same family member was in great health and had a heart attack or stroke under the age of 50, then this might point toward a genetic propensity toward premature heart disease.
Family history not only encompasses inherited genetic factors, but also environmental ones. For example, if you were raised in a family that was highly active and only ate healthy foods, your risks for heart disease may be lower. On the flip side, if your family was fairly sedentary and tended to favor junk foods, this lack of exercise and poor nutrition are both risk factors for heart disease that’s fueled by a family history of less-than-healthy lifestyle choices.
So, family can influence your cardiovascular health in two important ways — genetics and environment.
Now let’s look at a more direct route to family-related heart disease that stems from genetic mutations. For example, the six conditions below are associated with certain genetic mutations that can place you at greater risk:
If you inherit the genetic mutation for these diseases, this can place you at far greater risk for developing them than someone who hasn’t inherited the mutation.
If you’re trying to figure out whether family history or heredity might play a role in your developing heart disease, we’re here to help.
Please know that even if you have a strong family history of heart disease, it is far from a foregone conclusion that you will experience the same. In fact, if you’re reading this, it's a good first step toward minimizing your risks.
If we find that your risks for heart disease are elevated because of a family history, we can work with you to find ways to reduce these risks by addressing any other risk factors you might have. As examples, carrying too much weight, smoking, and not exercising enough are three major risk factors for heart disease that are within your control to change and improve. And these changes can often be enough to offset the family history risk.
The best way to sort through your risks for heart disease is to sit down with one of our heart health specialists. To get started, please contact our office in Mountain View, California, to schedule a consultation.
