In an article from WebMD, a study done in Sweden evidently demonstrates that the risk of coronary heart disease passed from mothers is greater than the risk from fathers. Here's an excerpt:
Sons had a 41% greater risk of developing heart disease if their dads had heart disease and a 55% greater risk if their moms did, the study shows. Daughters had a 17% increased risk of developing heart disease if their dads had a history of heart disease and a 43% increased risk if their moms did.For my sister, Ruth, and I, those numbers quantify what we've been hearing from our respective family physicians. Ruth is being treated for hypertension; I'm being treated for high cholesterol and hyperlipidemia, which is too much "fat" in the blood.
Children with two parents with heart disease had an 82% increased risk of developing it themselves, the study shows. What's more, children whose parents developed heart disease at an early age (before they turned 55) had a 300% greater risk of developing the disease.
Our mother had her first heart attack at the age of 52. (Ruth is 51 while I'm 53.) Mom died at the age of 63 from her second myocardial infarction. Her father, our Grandpa Rebsch, died at the age of 49 also from a heart attack. I never knew him.
Sometimes, in my more despairing moods (call me an Eeyore!), I have the sensation of tiptoeing through an age-related minefield of heart attacks and strokes waiting to go off. It's a scary sensation to say the least!
Thankfully -- this is focusing on the cup as HALF FULL -- Ruth and I are very close and provide lots of moral support and fervent health cheerleading for one another! We speak often of growing old together as sisters, sitting on a porch somewhere, overlooking a lake.
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