Which is more likely to cause heart disease: lifestyle or genes? The latest study says that genes seem to be more important than lifestyle, in the risk for developing heart disease.
This study, from the Center for Primary Health Care Research in Sweden, didn’t include information as to why people in some primitive cultures (e.g., tons of exercise, no processed foods) have virtually no heart disease, and why some countries have markedly low rates of heart disease (like Japan).
The rate of heart disease increases when peoples from these lands then take up residence in the Western World. Thus, we can’t conclude that genes make these cultures resistant to heart disease.
The CPHCR study followed over 80,000 adopted men and women (all born in 1932 or after) and compared them to their adoptive and biological parents. They developed heart disease between 1973 and 2008.
Is heart disease determined more by genes or by lifestyle?
In the adopted subjects who had at least one birth parent with heart disease, the risk of the illness was 40-60 percent greater than that of a control group. And, there was no elevated risk of heart disease in subjects whose adoptive parents had the condition.
“The results of our studies suggest that the risk of coronary heart disease is not transferred via an unhealthy lifestyle in the family, but rather via the genes,” states Kristina Sundquist, lead study author. “But that does not mean that one’s lifestyle is not a factor in one’s own risk of developing coronary heart disease.”
Heart disease: lifestyle vs. genes
I’m a certified personal trainer whose mother underwent quintuple bypass surgery for dangerously blocked arteries. My father has never had symptoms of heart disease, but his coronary calcium score is nearly 1,200!
Two of my brothers had their calcium scores taken; one has heart disease (according to the score), and the other’s score was zero. My own calcium score, very recently taken, is zero. Over the years, have there been lifestyle differences between all five of us that can explain why two of the offspring of people with severe heart disease have a calcium score of zero? YES!
My mother did not exercise. That alone is a potent risk factor for heart disease. Her diet was the standard American diet: Though she was never a big eater, her diet was mostly that of processed foods – the same processed junk that most everyone else in the U.S. eats. According to an article in the American Journal of Cardiology (online), heart disease is a food borne illness.
My father’s diet is even worse in that he eats a lot of bakery and other white-flour-based foods like pancakes. He also has a big appetite for things like bratwurst, candy, gravy, butter and sugary jams. So why hasn’t he needed any bypass surgery, even though he’s four years older than my mother? Maybe this is where genes come in.
But genes or not, a calcium score of 1,200 is frightening. My father has been exercising for about 30 years, but it’s always been pretty much the “go through the motions” caliber of exercise. Despite using machine weights all these years, he never developed a physique that looked like he worked out; he’s always had a “reverse V taper,” no visible muscle in the arms, and no sign of muscle development in the legs.
He has never been one to jog or power walk, and only much later in life did he take up pedaling a stationary bike. So just because someone “works out,” doesn’t mean that the intensity is sufficient enough to produce significant fitness and health benefits. Nevertheless, not pushing through a workout and instead staying in a nice comfort zone is far better than doing absolutely NO strength training, like my mother.
My brother with the heart disease was never much into exercise, though once he learned of his calcium score, he took up exercise. He says he has changed his diet to help halt the progression of coronary plaque. However, every single time he visits or I visit him, I witness him eating no healthier than the average American.
My zero-calcium brother has been exercising vigorously for years and years (weights, and more recently, “Insanity” and martial arts), has been taking supplements all along, and claims to be very conscious about nutrition, though again, whenever I see him, I don’t see much evidence of this.
I have always worked out like a warrior, take a lot of supplements daily, and have practically eliminated trans fats; won’t touch processed meats; eat very little red meat; hardly touch processed foods.
As you can see, lifestyle appears to be a pretty strong factor in whether or not someone in my family has heart disease. So though this particular study points to genes being more important than heart disease, statistics (e.g., very little heart disease in Okinawa) don’t lie.
Sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110901093250.htm
http://www.heartattackproof.com/Esselstyn_Caldwell_Article.pdf
UN Chronicle: The Atlas of Heart Disease & Stroke