Heart Attack: We Are Not Victims of Our Genes!
Heart attacks may not be strongly associated with genes or family history, but bad lifestyle habits may be responsible for heart attacks.
Previous studies have revealed that genes are linked with heart attacks. However, a new study conducted by the researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City suggest that genetics may not be largely responsible for heart attacks as previously thought.
The latest study may give a sigh of relief to people who have family history of heart diseases and they can avert heart attacks by adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Several lifestyle behaviors such as poor diet, obesity, lack of physical activity, stress, smoking and excessive consumption of alcohol can also lead to the development of heart diseases.
The study included examination of data for 700,000 patients with different severities of coronary disease. These patients have had or never had heart attacks. The study found that an individual can inherit severe coronary artery disease regardless of someone has a heart attack. The researchers also found that people can experience heart attacks even with less severe coronary disease, which suggests that heart attacks are not clustered in families.
Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, the director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, who also led the study, explains that heart attacks and coronary diseases are very closely related. This close link had led some researchers to believe they are the same. Previously, some experts believed that if a person suffered from coronary disease, that person will also have a heart attack.
However, the latest study points out that people should realize that they can avert heart attacks by adopting a better lifestyle.
“This link between the registry and the medical records allowed us to look at information about both heart attacks and the degree of coronary disease,” says Dr. Horne. “That means we can compare heart attack patients to people with coronary disease who were free from heart attacks.”
The study reaffirms that a balanced diet and regular physical exercise can also help to deter some medical conditions.
via Don’t blame bad genes causing heart attack, blame bad lifestyle : LIFE : Tech Times.
We are not victims of our gene
This is a significant finding and good news for many families. As having a family member with heart disease (family risk factors) is not automatically a blight on the next generations. Most importantly it gives us hope by letting us know that we are “masters of our own destiny”.
Another related exciting research area is called “Epigenetics”. This area of research shows that genes that are passed on to the next generation are not “hard-wired” /fixed or “cast in stone”. There is a layer above the gene (Epi = layer above) that determines if the gene is active or not. This layer acts like a “switch” that signal the gene to be active or not. Research further shows that this switch can be influenced by the cell’s environment. The cellular environmental factors in turn are influenced by our diet, hormones in our blood including stress hormones i.e. cortisol & adrenaline (controlled by psychosocial factors), smoking, external environmental toxins and others. This is exciting since, although it may appear that we are predisposed to certain chronic illnesses at birth, such as heart disease through our genes we inherit, we have the ability to turn them on or off by our lifestyle and behavior (psychosocial factors).
Adopting healthy lifestyles, eating right, not smoking, being active etc. can go a long way in preventing chronic disease. Psychosocial risk like anger, stress – anxiety – depression (SAD), behavior not only changes our blood chemistry (hormones) but also can influence bad lifestyle choices. For example we tend to not eat right when we are stress-anxious or depressed. One may also smoke, drink or be inactive when in these mood states.
Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the video below to learn more on Epigenetics – (warning some unsavory language 🙂 ). Please let us know what you think , share your comment below
Heart attacks may not be strongly associated with genes or family history, but bad lifestyle habits may be responsible for heart attacks.
