Heredity links heart disease instances
NORMAN — Kyle Toal recently was amazed, but not surprised, by the disconnect a patient had between heart disease and his family’s medical history.
Charting one’s family history
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests people learn about their family’s history with heart disease and other medical issues as a way to prevent or delay illness. Here’s a way to get started:
* Write down the names of your relatives, starting with parents, siblings and children, and then branching outward.
* Ask them if they had any chronic illness, such as heart disease or diabetes, or a serious illness like cancer or stroke. Also find out how old they were when having the illness.
* If possible, also learn about ancestry — where the family came from, how long grandparents and great-grandparents lived, and their ages and causes of death.
“I just had a guy in my office last week who was 52, 53, a heavy tobacco user and a little overweight, but a real good guy, a nice working man,” recalled Toal, a cardiothoracic surgeon for the Norman Regional Health System.
“I talked to him about heart disease and he said, ‘Oh yeah, my dad and brother both died when they were 50-something,’ and you want to just thump them on the head and say, ‘Did you ever think that there is something to that?’ ”
The American Heart Association is clear with the connection: “Children of parents with heart disease are more likely to develop it themselves.”
The Web site goes further by stating the percentages of heart disease among blacks, American Indians, and people of Mexican and some Asian descent are higher due to higher rates of high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.
Because heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States — almost 700,000 deaths per year — Toal said everyone should be mindful of heart health, but it’s especially true for people with one or more relatives with heart disease.
Of course, it’s tough to know one’s family history with heart-related or any other disease unless the person takes the time to learn.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites a survey that found “96 percent of Americans believe that knowing their family history is important. Yet the same survey found that only one-third of Americans have ever tried to gather and write down their family’s health history.”
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