With the new treatments and medications available to treat heart disease, it sometimes appears that a strong family history of heart disease can be overcome.
That’s not always the case.
In this piece from The New York Times, Michael Winerip does all the right things, including exercising, closely following up with a cardiologist, and undergoing stress tests and angiograms, but still was diagnosed with significant heart disease at the same of as his male relatives, most of whom died at an early age from heart attacks.
Despite the data that has shown a marked decrease in heart disease over the years, Mr. Winerip notes that, “on the micro level, individual by individual, it’s more fuzzy.”
Cardiologist Alice Jacobs puts it best: “You can modify the major risk factors, but you can’t modify family history.”
Indeed.
(via Amy Tuteur)
