HEARThrive – Module 10 – Genetics and Your Heart

How big a role does genetics play in your heart disease risk?

Has someone in your family suffered a heart attack or stroke or even died from a cardiovascular event?

Do you worry if there is some genetic link and that most likely you will succumb to a similar life-threatening outcome?

Has your doctor or cardiologist ever warned you to be extra careful because you have a family history of heart disease?

You’ve heard the old saying, “Sorry, you were dealt the wrong cards.”

Or phrased a more amusing way, “You should have picked better parents.”

Well, seems like you’re screwed no matter what, doesn’t it?

That’s the bad news.

Now, here’s the good news.

Looking at your genetics is useful, even important. But please remember this crucial fact, genes are not your destiny.

Yes, having certain genes may predispose you to some health problems, but that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily get sick.

Far from it. Some experts suggest that your risk for cardiovascular disease based on your genes is about 5% of the whole picture. Certainly, some genes do play a larger role in the risk of other diseases. So, you’ll want to pay attention to genetics.

But there’s another concept that plays a bigger role than genetics. It’s known as epigenetics.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), “Epigenetics refers to how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work.”

Your genes are responding to influences every moment of the day. Those responses are not permanent but rather affect how your body reads its DNA and provides your genes with various instructions.

The instructions are very basic, something like turning a light switch on and off. The result influences how the gene is expressed, which pertains to what proteins they make and how and where they occur in the cells in your body.

It sounds complicated until you realize that the biggest factors on epigenetics are things that are in your control. We’re talking about diet, exercise, sleep, exposure to toxins, and environmental factors such as cigarette smoke and air pollution.

Much of the HEARThrive program addresses these factors. If you have watched the other modules of HEARThrive, you certainly have received enough knowledge to make major positive changes in your health.

In this module on Genetics, you can learn how to make some additional health tweaks by looking at your blood test results combined with your own particular genetic variations.

You will learn about genetic variations that could affect your cardiovascular health by exploring genes that Influence cholesterol and ApoB, Lp(a), homocysteine, atrial fibrillation, hemochromatosis (high iron), triglycerides and ApoE, the so-called Alzheimer’s gene.

You will learn that it’s now possible to obtain genetic testing from companies that offer personal analyses and reports at a relatively affordable cost.

After you get genetic testing done, you’ll learn how you can input your results into an inexpensive App called Promethease to discover even more about yourself genetically.

So, grab the wheel and continue to steer yourself in the right direction as you pursue Genetics and Your Heart.