Heart Attacks May Not Be Genetic: Study

Washington: Lifestyle factors such as poor diet, smoking and lack of exercise are more likely to trigger heart attacks than family history, a new study has warned.

Heart attacks are not as connected to family history and genetics as may have been previously believed, according to researchers at the Intermountain Medical Centre Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, U.S.

These new findings may help those with a family history of coronary disease and those diagnosed with narrow coronaries realise that heart attacks aren't inevitable and that their lifestyle choices and environment, not just their genetics, may make the difference in whether or not they have a heart attack, researchers said.

In the study, Benjamin D Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Centre Heart Institute, and his team studied patients with different severities of coronary disease who had or had not suffered a heart attack.

The research team found that while severe coronary artery disease can be inherited regardless of whether someone has a heart attack, the presence of heart attacks in people with less severe coronary disease was not clustered in families.

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