by Jennifer Cole

                      

How much does family history actually affect your health? Which relatives on your family tree are the crucial links and what can you do about this information? Basically, the closer the relative, the greater your risk for heart disease. If you have a ‘first degree relative’ (your mom, dad, sibling, or even a son or daughter) who had heart disease at an early age, that increases your risk of developing heart disease yourself. ‘Early age’ for any cardiovascular disease would be a man under 55 or a woman under 65.  The more family you have with these conditions, the higher your risk. A frightening fact is that if you have more than one first degree relative with early heart trouble, your risk is now doubled. An MD out of Cleveland Clinic says that if they see a patient that is young and looks healthy but who has multiple first-degree relatives with premature cardiac problems, they start to consider aggressive measure to manage any risk factors. An example might be to shoot for a level of less than 130 for your bad cholesterol (LDL) and actually have you aim for 100 or lower. If you do have a particularly strong family history of heart disease, you may be put on aspirin earlier than usual. Or even blood pressure medication for even borderline blood pressure.

 

You may be wondering about distant relatives and their relationship to you in all of this. The data is less clear on how exactly they can affect your risk but some doctors feel it still plays a role. Just how much is still up in the air but many feel it’s a ‘further shade of gray away’.

 

Obviously you can’t eliminate genetic factors. However, if you can adopt a healthy lifestyle – eating well, exercising and really working on lowering your cholesterol – you really can reduce your risk. Here are some risks that you should take into consideration

Stress - too much stress over a long period of time and unhealthy responses to it

(Example – you react to stress by overeating or you start to smoke)

Birth Control Pills – even though the pills that are on the market today carry a much lower risk of heart disease and stroke, you still need to be careful. If you smoke or have high blood pressure, you’re at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Taking the Pill and smoking greatly increases your risk of a heart attack.

Drinking too much alcohol – alcohol raises your blood pressure and cause heart failure, which can lead to stroke. As well as adding calories it contributes to obesity and that obviously makes it harder to lose weight.

Illegal Drugs – Intravenous drug abuse carries a serious high risk of ‘endocarditis’, which is an infection of the heart’s lining or valves, and stroke. Cocaine has been linked to strokes and heart attacks and any illegal drug can be fatal for even first time users. So just say no!

 Healthy eating should be number one on your list if you’re trying to take control of your lifestyle. A diet that would be considered heart healthy would include low-saturated fat protein sources – lots of fresh fruits and veggies, healthy fats, including omega-3 essential fatty acids, and replace some of your carbs with healthy proteins or healthy oils. You can reduce your blood pressure and your cholesterol levels by replacing some carbohydrates with either protein or monounsaturated fat. The end result can be a substantial reduction in your overall risk of heart disease. A simple diet to follow if your serious about your health and future well being would be the ‘Dermathol No Nonsense Diet’.

If you do have a strong family history of heart disease, don’t think that you can sit back and wait until your older to start taking better care of yourself. The longer you take in taking charge of your lifestyle, the more your body will benefit. So the younger you are, the more you stand to gain from getting your healthy way of life underway right now.