Is heart disease inherited from mother or father?
Can I inherit family ( mother or father ) traits that lead to heart disease? The most common genetic abnormality that underlies severe heart disease (often called “premature heart disease”), which can occur even in ages as young as thirty years, is a condition where the total blood cholesterol is usually over 300 and the low density cholesterol is over 220. This disorder is called familial hypercholesterolemia, or FH, and occurs in about one in every 400 individuals. FH responds to a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol but most often requires the addition of cholesterol lowering medications for its control. Fortunately there are now many such medications and new ones are being discovered. The second most common inherited problem is now known as insulin resistance, or IR, a disorder in which the body resists the action of insulin in removing glucose from the blood. Those with IR are susceptible to later developing Type 2 diabetes, especially given the weight gain and decr...