Tags : Heart Ailments, research
Lifestyle, More Than Genes Vital In Managing Heart Ailments
Edmonton, Alberta (AHN) – Genetic researcher Dr. Robert Hegele stressed lifestyle, and not genes, play a more vital role in managing heart ailments. Hegele, director of the Martha G. Blackburn Cardiovascular Genetics Laboratory of the Robarts Research Institute said only about 5 percent of patients have genes too powerful they cannot do anything but contract heart diseases.
But for the remaining 95 percent, a healthy lifestyle could prove more powerful than genetic predisposition toward certain heart ailments.
Hegele, who spoke at the ongoing Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, said in a statement, “Even if you’ve been dealt a bad hand of genes, it’s not a life sentence for most people. Simple actions – basic things like smoking cessation, following a healthy diet, and physical activity -are the key to overturning genetic predisposition.”
However, he did not discount the value of drug treatments for some heart patients.
Hegele is at the forefront of a research to develop within the next decade DNA testing that could foretell heart disease and strike risk. But he maintained more knowledge about genetic sciences only confirm the value of lifestyle choices made and socioeconomic circumstances.
In the same cardiovascular convention, University of Alberta Ross Tsuyuki urged Canadians over 40 who experience pain in the legs to be tested for peripheral artery disease, which could be an indicator of a heart problem.
The test compares blood pressure on the leg and arm. If the leg blood pressure is 90 percent or less than that in the arm, the person likely is suffering from PAD, which is caused by narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the legs.
Symptoms of PAD include leg cramps while engaged in physical activities, coldness or numbness on both legs and leg sores that do not heal. People at highest risk for PAD are current or ex smokers, diabetics and with other heart ailments like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, Tsuyuki said.
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