Family history of heart disease
Family history of heart disease
If you think you have a heart disease family history then what you will read here is important to you.
First let us look more closely at what the medical profession consider as a family history of heart disease. There are three areas to look for:
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Is there at least one family member who has shown signs of premature heart problems. Premature is not well defined and would be different for a male and female family member. In this case we can consider premature to mean the family member’s age when they had their first symptom of heart disease was younger than would normally be expected. Heart problems can include stroke, heart attack, peripheral vascular disease (PVD) or cardiovascular surgery such as a bypass or stint.
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Is this relative, or relatives if more than one, a near relative to you. How near a relative is to you is easily measured as follows: Parents, brothers and sisters and your children are the nearest of your relatives. Grandparents together with aunts and uncles are the next nearest. Cousins are the next nearest and anyone else in the family is less significant for consideration here.
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How many of your family members can you count in the above categories.
Using these ways of looking at your family history of heart disease you can see if you might have a concern that requires further investigation. Since every family is different with some family members having different heart problems and at different ages it is difficult to get a simple yes no answer to having a heart disease family history.
One way to get an overview is to draw a family tree or what the medics call a pedigree drawing. Lets look at this example:
Consider yourself to be the person Peter in this family. You can find Peter with the black arrow pointer. The principal works just as well for females. Peter is aged 48 and has an older brother Bret and an older sister Ann. Peter, Bret and Ann have parents Henry and Rachel. Henry had heart problems that started with peripheral vascular disease at 45, he suffered a heart attack at 48 and shortly afterwards had cardiovascular surgery. He lived for another 2 years and died aged 50. Henry’s mother Martha died from a heart attack aged 49. Fortunately Peter’s mother Rachel has so far not shown symptoms of heart disease although her father Ralph had a stroke aged 79.
The family tree also records the medical conditions of the family members, for example Peter, Henry and Rachel have diabetes. Peter, Henry, Martha, Rachel and Bret have hypertension (high blood pressure). Peter has cholesterol problems and is overweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 26.
Although this family tree has been drawn up for Peter’s benefit it is also useful to Bret and Ann and their children Joyce, Susan and John.
When Peter shows this family tree to his doctor or healthcare advisor they will be able to help Peter to better understand his family history of heart disease because most of the information is included without the need for Peter to go away and talk to his relatives.
MyHeartRisk has a simple way for you to enter data about yourself and your family members to be able to print out your own family tree as seen in this example. This is called a risk assessment and not only will you be able to print your family tree you also get risk charts and a detailed personal report with health recommendations
If you have the feeling that your family history of heart disease needs investigating then here is the right tool for you. You will look back and see that it was worth it and hopefully you will be able to continue looking back for many more years to come.
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This is part of the MyHeartRisk (My Heart Risk) series on how to prevent heart disease including:
- Family history of heart disease
- How is your heart like your car?
- My heart risk score
- Your heart disease risk calculator and report writer
- Heart attack risk
- BMI and heart disease
MyHeartRisk mission: To help users better understand their personal heart disease risk factors and how to advocate for themselves with their health care providers for a more healthy and potentially longer life. To ask the question ‘What is my heart risk’ and get not only a personalized response but to have a partner on the road to improved health and longevity.
Join our MyHeartRisk online family by taking our newsletter then we can keep you informed and to get you started you will receive a free ebook
‘Preventing your heart disease’
Take the time to investigate your family history of heart disease while you still have time!
