Last Updated on June 4, 2024 by Flavia Calina
Even if you do everything right to protect and improve your health, there are some things you can’t change. One of those is your genetics. While you can try to offset them to some degree by making good choices, it’s important to acknowledge that you have increased risk factors. If that’s the case for you, and there are genetic heart issues in your family, making sure you do what you can to manage and reduce those risks is a great way to protect your heart as much as possible.
Know Your Risk Factors
One of the things that Ian Weisberg points out as being very important for heart health is knowing your risk factors. If you have a lot of people in your family who have heart disease or other heart health conditions, for example, it may be that you’re more likely to have those issues, as well. It’s also important to put that into perspective, because there are many ways you can reduce your risks.
If most of your family lives a very unhealthy lifestyle and you don’t, you may have less risk than you would expect to. Still, it’s important to be clear when you talk to your doctor, so they can get a better idea of the level of genetic risk you actually have versus how much of the heart issues in your family may have other causes. Then, they can give you a better picture of what to consider and look out for.
Understand What Your Risks Mean
By talking with your doctor you can understand what it means to have a genetic risk for heart problems, says, Dr. Ian Weisberg, so you can focus on addressing those risks and taking steps to mitigate them. How serious these risks are depends on a couple of things. If your immediate family has heart problems, including your mother, father, or siblings, then you have a bigger risk of issues than if you have distant cousins, or even aunts or uncles with heart issues.
Ask Your Doctor for Advice
Talking to your doctor is the right choice to get the advice and guidance you need. That can help you see the risks of what they really are, so you don’t have to spend time worrying about them unnecessarily. The goal of finding out about these kinds of risks isn’t to be fearful of them, but to look at reducing them through taking great care of your heart. Read more exciting articles on Today World Info