You take care of your health by going to the gym, eating right and getting enough rest. But when an illness or disease runs in your family, that’s sometimes not even enough. You need to know the signs of these illnesses so that you can identify the symptoms early enough that you can control them and live a long, healthy life. Heart disease is one of those illnesses.
Heart disease very commonly runs in families and people don’t always know the symptoms or how to combat it. Here are some of the things to consider about heart disease that runs in families so that you can be as prepared as possible.
Heart Attacks in Families
When you have certain risks, like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, the risk of heart attack goes up. Because both high blood pressure and high cholesterol can be inherited through generations you have a higher risk of having heart attacks in a family if people have had them before. The same goes if someone has had a young heart attack. The higher the risk of their children having heart disease or a heart attack earlier in life. However, there are many ways that modern medicine has worked to reduce the amount of heart attacks in a family, including medication and monitoring.
Medication and Monitoring for Heart Conditions
When you monitor for heart disease in families, you’re lowering the risk of people in that family suffering a heart attack. The younger you are, the quicker you’re able to catch any issues and be put on potentially lifesaving medication. This medication can include things like statins that reduce your cholesterol levels, and medication to lower your blood pressure. All these treatment plans, when they begin early enough, can lower your risk of heart attack and can help you live a longer life.
Early discovery is key to preventing heart attacks in a family. The more you know, the more that you can prevent something like a heart attack or stroke from happening and the better your quality of life you will live. Understanding your family history of heart disease and heart issues can put you on the road to better health and earlier intervention into any potential issues so that you don’t have as many problems later on in life. The earlier you discover a problem, the earlier you can treat it, and the less it will affect the rest of your life.