What I wish I knew back then: “Did my family history of heart disease lead to my heart attack?”

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥    @HeartSisters

A young 30-something in one of my Heart-Smart Women presentation audiences asked an intriguing question while we were discussing women’s cardiac risk factors.  She was worried about her own risk for developing heart disease one day because of her family history.  Her mother, she explained, had died several years earlier from a heart attack while only in her 40s. But then this young woman added a few additional facts about her Mum.  For example, her mother had also:

• been significantly overweight
  
• rarely exercised
• lived with poorly managed Type 2 diabetes
• been a heavy smoker for over two decades

This young woman, however, shared none of those risk factors.  Should she still be concerned about this family history of heart disease?   

The World Heart Federation helps to answer this question by reminding us:

“You can protect yourself by taking care of your heart, as the development of cardiovascular disease involves many different risk factors, not just your family history.

“We know that people often behave and act as their parents and siblings do. As a result, the genes and habits that cause us to be sedentary, to smoke, to be overweight/obese, or to follow poor diets often tend to cluster in families.”

It’s important to remember that not everybody who has a strong family history of cardiovascular disease will develop a cardiac event, and not everybody with cardiovascular disease has a family history at all. Mayo Clinic cardiologists add:

“ A family history of heart disease can increase your own risk, especially if a parent or sibling developed it at an early age (before age 55 for a close male relative such as your brother or father, and before age 65 for a close female relative such as your mother or sister).”

And if both parents were diagnosed with heart disease before the age of 55, your risk of developing heart disease can rise significantly compared to the general population.

Some heart rhythm disorders can also run in families. Alicia Burns, founder of Brugada Girl™, experienced distressing cardiac symptoms for 14 years that were misdiagnosed or dismissed entirely before finally being correctly diagnosed as Brugada Syndrome. Her Dad had died suddenly of cardiac arrest at age 55 (now believed to have also been caused by Brugada). Her whole family also knew that her Dad’s mother had lived with frequent fainting spells – one of the most common symptoms of Brugada. Yet it was only after her own diagnosis at age 34 that Alicia’s father/grandmother’s experiences began to make sense. Alicia finally had a cardiac defibrillator implanted in her heart to help prevent sudden cardiac arrest. A busy mother of seven, Alicia takes all of her children for regular cardiac testing.

Some heart valve disorders can also be inherited. A study in Denmark reported that the risk of aortic stenosis (one of the most common heart valve diseases in the elderly) doubles when a first degree relative also had the disease. This study also found that aortic stenosis risk increased by eight-fold in patients who have both heart disease and a family history. (2)

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“What I Wish I Knew Back Then”  is a back-to-basics summer series of posts here on Heart Sisters that will revisit some of the most frequently asked questions from new heart patients. You can find more of these posts here.