Heart disease may run in families, but so can prevention

If you have a family health history of heart disease, you are more likely to develop heart disease. Different types of heart disease and related conditions, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, can run in families. 

Therefore, discussing your family’s history with your primary care provider (PCP) is important to create a clear picture of your family’s heart health. Be prepared to:

• Share what you know about the health of your parents, siblings, children, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts and uncles.
• Include family history from both your mother’s and
  father’s sides.
• Identify relatives who have had heart disease, related conditions or procedures and the age at which they were diagnosed or treated.
• Record the age and cause of death of family members.
• Regularly update your family health history and alert your PCP to any new diagnosis, condition or procedure.
• Tell your PCP if a parent or sibling had a heart attack before age 50. This may increase your risk of heart
  disease, heart attack and stroke.

Knowing your family’s history is essential for heart disease screening, as conditions like hypertension, arrhythmias, high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, heart failure and even congenital heart defects often run in families.

This knowledge helps your cardiologist determine your risk of cardiovascular disease, allowing for more personalized and effective prevention strategies.