It is a fact that heart disease occurs at an earlier age and more frequently in some families, even though there are no risk factors. On the contrary, members of some families do not get heart disease even though they smoke and do not pay attention to their nutrition.
However, I would like to emphasize that genetics is not everything. If that were the case, we would not be afraid of those who do not have a family history of heart disease and would tell them to 'live as you wish'. However, I have seen many patients who had a heart attack even though they had no heart disease in their family. I would like to warn those who do not pay attention to risk factors by saying "There is no heart in our family"; If you do not want to encounter a surprise, "Do not trust your genetic inheritance."
Our genetic structure can play a decisive role in heart attack by affecting our blood lipids, high blood pressure, and vascular structures. For example, the blood cholesterol levels of patients we call "Familial hypercholesterolemia" are very high from birth. Dieting for these people is not enough to lower their cholesterol levels to normal, and they have a heart attack at a very young age. The stories you read in the newspapers such as "So-and-so football player had a heart attack during the match, the deceased's brother also had a heart attack at a young age" are usually behind such familial high cholesterol levels or genetic diseases related to blood clotting. For example, the inherited PLA-2 gene variant that caused the death of world-famous skater Sergey Grinkov, who died at the age of 28, is known as the "Grinkov risk factor". Apart from this, there are also genetic transitions related to some heart protein genes. For example, a disease that manifests itself as heart pump weakness, which we call cardiomyopathy, has been detected in 60 million people carrying the MYBPC3 heart protein gene, most of them in India.
Research shows that genetic transmission is more important for women than men. In other words, women whose parents have coronary heart disease should be more careful even if there is no other important risk factor.
Do I have a genetic heart risk?
Genetics To talk about a risk, one of the elders in the family must have had a heart attack at an early age. “E What I mean by "early age" is; The male family member had a heart attack before the age of 55 and the female family member had a heart attack before the age of 65. For example, it is important if your father or uncle had a heart attack at the age of 53, but if he had it at the age of 57, it is not considered early. For your mother or aunt, the age limit is 65. Problems experienced after this age should not be categorized as "early heart disease". So, the fact that your father died of a heart attack at the age of eighty-five does not indicate that you have a bad genetic inheritance. One more note; Not only your elder family member having a heart attack, but also having a stroke, having a stent placed, or having a bypass surgery is considered a genetic predisposition for early cardiovascular disease.
Let's not forget that if someone in your family has an early heart attack, it will definitely cause problems for you as well. Doesn't mean it will happen. For example, a person whose father had an early heart attack due to his cholesterol structure may have inherited his genetic structure related to blood fats from his mother. Likewise, if a father who smokes has an early heart attack, it does not pose a risk for you if you do not smoke. It should also be noted that risk factor calculations may deviate by a few points.
Should we have a genetic test?
By taking a careful family history and performing simple tests on blood lipids, we can determine our genetics. It can be estimated, albeit roughly, whether you are predisposed or not. For example, having high total cholesterol and low HDL cholesterol in someone whose father had a heart attack strengthens the possibility of a genetic risk. Knowing the blood fat levels of the parents will make this comparison even easier.
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