Age
Heart disease becomes more prevalent with age. Simply put, older people have more heart attacks than younger people do. About 80 percent of people who die from heart attacks are over age sixty- five. In America, the risk for heart attack begins to accelerate in men after they reach the age of forty-five and in women after age fifty-five.
Family HistoryCoronary artery disease runs in families. While families share genes, they also share lifestyles such as smoking, diet, inactivity, or stress. Which is to blame, genetics or lifestyle? Both.
About a dozen genetic abnormalities have been identified that seem to increase the risk for different kinds of heart problems. For instance, defects in nine different genes can cause cardiomyopathy, a form of heart failure in which the heart is unable to pump blood efficiently. In 2002, researchers reported in the journal Circulation that a variant of a gene called the peroxisome proliferator alpha may predispose people to develop a dangerously enlarged heart after intensive exercise or as a side effect of high blood pressure. Genetic research is in its infancy, but the hope is that genetic testing will enable doctors to identify people at high risk for heart problems and perhaps help them avoid heart disease with preventive treatment.
But, in any case, genes are not the final word in determining who will develop heart disease. Researchers for the Framingham Heart Study, a long-term observational study that has tracked the health of more than five thousand people in a Massachusetts town since the late 1940s, estimate that having a family history of heart disease increases an individual’s risk by about 25 percent. To put this in perspective, smoking increases your risk ten times this rate. Moreover, not every family history is equally worrisome; it takes a strong history (for example, a father or brother afflicted before age fifty-five or a mother or sister stricken before age sixty-five) to increase your risk.
Many people with a family history of coronary artery disease have early signs of the disease. The American Heart Association now recommends that everyone undergo cholesterol profile screenings for heart disease at age twenty. If you have a family history, it’s vital for you to address risk factors like high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, and to adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle in your youth.
But, in any case, genes are not the final word in determining who will develop heart disease. Researchers for the Framingham Heart Study, a long-term observational study that has tracked the health of more than five thousand people in a Massachusetts town since the late 1940s, estimate that having a family history of heart disease increases an individual’s risk by about 25 percent. To put this in perspective, smoking increases your risk ten times this rate. Moreover, not every family history is equally worrisome; it takes a strong history (for example, a father or brother afflicted before age fifty-five or a mother or sister stricken before age sixty-five) to increase your risk.
Many people with a family history of coronary artery disease have early signs of the disease. The American Heart Association now recommends that everyone undergo cholesterol profile screenings for heart disease at age twenty. If you have a family history, it’s vital for you to address risk factors like high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, and to adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle in your youth.
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