Your risk of heart disease and stroke can be affected by the genes and lifestyle that you share with your close relatives. So, knowing your family history is important. You can’t change it, but you can take steps to reduce your risk.
What is family history?
In simple terms, your family history means information about any health conditions experienced by your close relatives — siblings, parents and grandparents.
You have a family history of heart disease or stroke if any of your close relatives experienced one of these conditions. Having a family history increases your own risk.
Your risk is higher if your family member was diagnosed at an early age. This typically means before age 55 for men, and before age 65 for women.
Knowing your family history can help you and your healthcare provider assess your risk and work together to reduce it.
How can I learn about my family history?
Start by talking to family members. Try to answer these two questions:
- Which close relatives have or had a heart condition or event, stroke or TIA (mini-stroke)?
- What was their age when the event occurred, or they were first diagnosed?
It’s also helpful to find out if any relatives have experienced health conditions related to heart disease and stroke, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The more you can learn about the health of your grandparents, parents and siblings, the better. But don’t worry if you are not able to get complete information.
How does my family history affect my risk of heart disease and stroke?
Your family history affects your risk in two ways.
First, the genes that you inherited from your parents influence everything about your biology — including your risk of heart disease or stroke.
For example, genes can play a big role in the development of high cholesterol and high blood pressure — both risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
Second, your family may share factors in your lifestyle or environment that can affect your health, such as smoking, lack of access to healthy food, chronic stress or generational trauma. The impact can extend from one generation to the next.
What should I tell my doctor?
It’s important to tell your healthcare provider as much as you can about your family history of heart disease or stroke, including recent changes.
Even if just one relative had heart disease or stroke, that is information worth sharing.
What should I do if I have a family history of heart disease or stroke?
Your family history is only one factor influencing your risk of heart disease and stroke. And there are many things you can do to reduce that risk.\ In fact, up to 80% of premature heart disease and stroke can be prevented through healthy behaviours, including:
- eating a healthy diet rich in vegetables and fruit
- getting regular physical activity
- maintaining a healthy weight
- being smoke free
- managing your stress
- managing your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
Your healthcare provider can help you work toward adopting these healthy behaviours.
Depending on your family history, they may also prescribe measures such as regular tests or medication to control your blood pressure, cholesterol or other risk factors.
And remember: Even if one or more family members had premature heart disease or stroke, that doesn’t mean it will happen to you.
What if I don’t have contact with my birth family?
If you’re not in contact with close blood relatives, you will not be able to learn about specific health risks related to your genes.
It’s still important to share this information with your healthcare provider. They can work with you to adopt healthy behaviours and monitor other potential risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
