Know your family risk factors for heart disease

Recently, I interviewed Gloria, a vibrant former soldier and athlete who, at 40, is busy training to run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. She is slender and fit, and, by looking at her, it is impossible to tell that she underwent coronary bypass surgery three years ago to avoid a potentially fatal heart attack, but that is indeed the case.

In fact, the cardiologist that she consulted laughed at her. But, thankfully, he also took her seriously, even though he was surprised when her test results showed she did have severe coronary heart disease.

What Gloria and her doctor didn't realize at the time was that, although she was slender and fit, her family medical history showed that she was indeed at serious risk for a heart attack.

"It turned out that everyone on my mom's side had heart disease, high blood pressure and/or diabetes. Out of my mom's eight siblings, only two have survived. The rest all died between the ages of 37-65," she says.

Gloria's experience shows the importance of knowing your family history. Family history is a very important clue to the possibility that you may have inherited a tendency for heart disease. And, as I note in my book, "Beat Your Risk Factors," when you do your family medical history, keep in mind these key points:

1) Both your relatives on your father's side and your mother's side count.

2) Divide your relatives into first-degree (parents and siblings), second-degree (grandparents, aunts and uncles) and third-degree relatives (first cousins and great-grandparents). First-degree relatives generally count most.

3) Pay attention to age. Generally, the earlier a disease occurs, the more likely it is there may be an inherited component. Typically, women develop heart disease 10-15 years later than men, so their risk increases when they reach 55-60 years old. So pay attention if you have close female relatives who suffered heart attacks or were diagnosed with heart disease significantly younger than that.

Knowing your family history provides you with the opportunity to take steps to make sure that you don't die from what killed your parents.

I discuss family history in the talks I give throughout the country on Preventing Heart Disease in Women. For more information, visit Women's Health Hot Line.