GETTING OUT OF YOUR GENES: THE LIFESTYLE THAT FITS

Apr
23
2009

Posted by: admin in Categories: General health.
Using Tags: General health

Scientists recently have found a bad bit of DNA floating around in the genetic coding of mankind. If you inherit it from one of your parents, this dangerous DNA can increase your risk for having a heart attack by 50 percent. Inherit it from both your mother and your father, and your risk doubles.

This is just the latest in a slew of findings from geneticists who are reporting that a man’s susceptibility to common killers such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and prostate and colon cancer can be passed down to him at birth, putting him in a high-risk category from the moment the cord is cut. This news-coming as it does after a decade of doctors telling us that a healthy lifestyle was all we needed to bypass most life-threatening conditions-has left many wondering how much control we actually have over our own health.

The answer: a lot. Scientists are investigating these genetic connections not to dole out death sentences but, rather, to show people what may lie down the road so that they can take the proper measures to head it off at the pass. Lifestyle changes can have an enormous impact on decreasing your risk for diseases, says Dr. Walter M. Bortz II of Stanford University School of Medicine.

Researchers at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and the University of Texas Health Science Center, both in San Antonio, found that among 1,236 Mexican-Americans who were part of 42 extended families studied, genes accounted for only 15 to 30 percent of various risk factors for heart disease. So in most cases, Dr. Bortz says, our risk for the diseases that commonly kill men is determined by how we live.