• Question: Is a heart failure or anything that faults your heart something in the genes throughout the family?

    Asked by DonaR to Praveen, Cristina, Gemma, Loan, Michael on 12 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by Blanca V, Sofia Masiello, Cristina Riquelme, Asier García, 786hrtd33, Andreajalo.
    • Photo: Cristina Villa del Campo

      Cristina Villa del Campo answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      Hi Dona (and Blanca),

      That is a very good question and I could be writing about it for hours!
      The short answer is yes, but I will explain.
      Some heart diseases are congenital and inherited, which means that you are born with a mutation that makes your heart not work properly. When these mutations happen your heart is not formed properly (you might have for example a connection between ventricles).
      Other heart diseases are more complicated. Diseases like heart attack can have some component that is inherited, like some people have high cholesterol no matter what they eat. Many times there are things that run in families but we don’t know the genes that cause it. Usually people have a tendency, which means that for them the environmental factors like tobacco or cholesterol are more dangerous than for other people.
      I hope I answered your question, it is a good one I think!

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