escape your family history of heart disease

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your family tree and heart disease

What we do know is that your risk of having heart disease increases:

• If your brother, father, or grandfather had a heart attack before age 55.

• If your sister, mother, or grandmother had a heart attack before age 65.

Having a sibling with early heart disease may be an even stronger predictor of your own risk than having a parent with the same problem, according to recent research findings.

“Siblings not only share the same genes, but also share more similar life experiences and environments with each other than parents do with their children,” explains Dhananjay Vaidya, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

Your family history also affects your risk for stroke. Your risk is increased if a sibling, parent, or grandparent has had a stroke. Race is a factor as well. For example, African-Americans have a higher-than-average risk of developing high blood pressure, which increases the chance of having a stroke or heart disease.