Empower Your Genetic Health: Understanding Heart Disease and Family History

Do cardiac conditions run in your family? It can be helpful to know a little bit about your family and yourself.

TFD – Dive into the crucial connection between genetic health, heart disease, and family history. Learn how to proactively manage your well-being through informed decisions and preventive actions.

Most of the time, symptoms alert you to the impending issue when you are sensitive to an illness or condition. However, how do you manage an inherited illness that is likely developing inside of you without your awareness?

For example, since you inherit half of your DNA from both parents, you can inherit the risk of heart disease from them.

Heart disease, however, cannot be directly inherited; instead, a combination of genetic variations and lifestyle decisions greatly contributes to its development. Therefore, rather than inheriting heart disease itself, what you really inherit is a higher risk of acquiring the ailment. Although heart disease cannot be directly inherited, a variety of genetic variations and lifestyle decisions can greatly contribute to its development.

Therefore, even if you don’t have any outward symptoms, it’s imperative to have regular exams if heart disease runs in your family.

Heart diseases that parents may pass on to their offspring

If heart problems run in your family, there are a few cardiac issues you should be aware of.

Cardiomyopathies: Heart muscle illnesses that have the potential to cause heart failure. The most typical kinds consist of:

• Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM): This condition causes the heart muscle to thicken abnormally, potentially obstructing blood flow and leading to various complications, including sudden death.
• Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM): In contrast to HCM, DCM leads to thinning and weakening of the heart muscle, impairing the heart’s ability to pump blood efficiently.
• Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) and other forms of cardiomyopathy also fall under this category.

A hereditary condition known as familial hypercholesterolemia causes high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol from an early age, greatly raising the risk of coronary heart disease. About one in every 250 persons has familial hypercholesterolemia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Channelopathies: These are hereditary disorders that impact the electrical system of the heart, resulting in potentially fatal arrhythmias.

Additional prerequisites:

• Cardiac amyloidosis: A condition where protein accumulates in the heart tissue, affecting its function.
• Heart valve disease: Some valve problems can be inherited.
• Familial thoracic aortic aneurysm syndrome: This condition makes your aorta weak. The aorta is the large artery carrying blood out of the heart.
• Pulmonary hypertension: High blood pressure in the arteries to the lungs can sometimes be inherited.

What you ought to do

India Today was given the following advice by Dr. Aparna Jaswal, director of electrophysiology and cardiac pacing at the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Delhi, regarding how to strive for a healthy heart:

Make routine check-ups: First things first: routine medical examinations are essential. You must determine whether you currently have a problem and, with a doctor’s assistance, can take steps to get well. If everything is in order, schedule a complete physical examination every six months to monitor your heart health. Every six months, schedule a complete physical examination to monitor your heart health. (Image: Unsplash)

Keep up a healthy diet: It’s advised to eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, as well as fish and other seafood, which are good sources of protein. To assist lower blood pressure, eat foods low in salt and limit your intake of saturated fats.

Exercise: Getting regular exercise keeps the heart healthy. Aim for 150 minutes a week or 75 minutes a week of strenuous activity or moderate aerobic activity.

Control your stress: Prolonged stress might negatively impact your heart’s health. Stress can be effectively managed by engaging in activities you enjoy, exercising, spending time with loved ones, and learning relaxation techniques.

Know your family history: It’s important to be aware of the medical history of your family. It can be helpful to discuss any heart diseases, strokes, or other pertinent health issues in the family with relatives or to acquire information about them. Making educated decisions regarding your heart health with your physician might be facilitated by being aware of your hereditary predisposition.

Things not to do

Ignore symptoms: Early warning indicators of heart disease, such as chest pain, breathlessness, extreme exhaustion, or an irregular heartbeat, should not be disregarded. Seek medical guidance as soon as possible.

Skip routine check-ups: Regular health screenings might be skipped, which can result in lost chances for early intervention. Make sure you show up for all of your visits, particularly if you’re older than 45.

Undervalue the significance of diet: Eating poorly can dramatically raise your risk of heart disease. Steer clear of foods heavy in salt, trans fats, and saturated fats. Steer clear of foods heavy in salt, trans fats, and saturated fats. (Image: Unsplash)

Adopt a sedentary lifestyle: Being inactive raises the risk of heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and other conditions. Steer clear of prolonged sitting and incorporate exercise into your everyday regimen.

Self-medicate or disregard medical advice: Your heart health can deteriorate if you self-medicate or if you don’t follow doctor’s orders when treating chronic illnesses like diabetes or hypertension.

Alcohol and smoking: Drinking too much alcohol and smoking can both be harmful to your heart. Reduce your risk by cutting back on alcohol use and quitting smoking.

According to Satjit Bhusri, MD, FACC of Upper East Side Cardiology in New York City, “the risk for heart disease can increase even more when heredity combines with unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as smoking cigarettes and eating an unhealthy diet” (February 2022).

Conclusion

If your family’s health history is replete with instances of heart disease, you may feel as though you’re bearing a great burden that will never go away.

The problem is that, even though we are powerless over our genetic make-up, there are many things we can do to dramatically influence the course of our health story.