By Saman Razzak, MD
Tanner Primary Care at Mirror Lake
News reports of research involving health and heredity can make it sound like some health problems are inevitable.
However, even if one or more of your close relatives has had cancer, diabetes or heart disease, that doesn’t mean you’re sure to have the same disease someday. Yes, you’re at higher risk; these chronic illnesses, like many others, do tend to run in families. But to a large degree, you can take control over your future.
The secret to beating bad health genes is to begin with a realistic sense of your health risks. Once you know your risks, you’re on the way to learning the best ways to lower them.
If you suspect you might be at risk for a chronic illness, don’t hide your head in the sand or live each day in fear of every ache, pain or skipped heartbeat. Instead, do some detective work. Find out if any close relatives — such as your mother, father, brother or sister — have a disease that may be genetically linked. For example:
- A man whose father or brother had prostate cancer, or a woman whose mother or sister had breast cancer, runs an increased risk of having the same disease. Colorectal, pancreatic and other cancers also can run in families. This is because some cancers are linked to mutated genes in the body’s cells that can be passed from one generation to the next.
- If a close relative has had a heart attack, especially before age 65, you may be at an increased risk for coronary heart disease.
- A family history of diabetes increases your risk for diabetes. In this case, the heightened risk is most likely due to both shared genes and similar lifestyle habits.
Take a close look at your other risk factors. A family history of heart disease becomes a more serious concern if you smoke, don’t get much physical activity or aren’t keeping your weight and cholesterol levels under control. The more risk factors you have, the more likely you are to get the disease.
To confront these elevated risks, start by choosing the lifestyle change with which you know you’ll have the most success. Perhaps it’s shedding a few pounds, cutting back on fat or calories, lowering blood pressure or walking a little more each day. Any success you achieve becomes part of your learning process. You can apply what you’ve learned to the next change you’re ready to make.
Here’s some advice for lifestyle changes that can help you lower your risk for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and many other chronic diseases:
- Quit smoking. If you’re a smoker, by far the best lifestyle choice for your health is to quit smoking. Ask your doctor for advice on kicking the habit.
- Stay physically active. Are you prepared to make physical activity a high priority and schedule it into your daily routine? If so, you have a pretty good chance for success. You don’t have to get in all your exercise at once. You can aim for 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there.
- Lose a few pounds. If you’re going to modify just one habit in order to lose weight, begin by reducing your portion sizes and cutting out snack foods and sugary sodas. This can bring relatively quick results. From that success, you may gain some momentum for increasing your physical activity.
- Choose healthy foods. Besides helping you lose weight, a healthier diet can independently lower your blood pressure and your risk for certain cancers. Check out the DASH diet, an eating plan low in saturated fat, cholesterol and total fat that emphasizes fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products.
While many people use medications to help control such problems as high blood pressure or cholesterol, making the right lifestyle changes is at least half the battle.
Dr. Razzak is a family medicine provider with Tanner Primary Care at Mirror Lake. Learn more online at www.PrimaryCareMirrorLake.org or by calling 770.812.3839.