Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/BTotDqF8O1U   Even if your parents suffered a heart attack at a young age, you can avoid that fate.  Lack of exercise, smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes are more important than genetic factors when it comes to the early development of cardiovascular disease.     This conclusion stems from a Portuguese study just presented to the European Society of Cardiology.  The researchers analyzed data from just over 1,000 mostly male patients under the age of 50 half of whom had developed premature coronary artery disease.  The tabulated results showed that 73% of those who did fall ill had at least 3 of the 5 risk factors versus only 31% of the healthy controls.  The probability that a young person will fall victim to heart disease rises even higher by a factor of 3 with the addition of 1 more risk factor, escalates 7 fold with two more factors,, and soars 24 times higher with 3 additional factors.   Since lifestyle factors far outweigh any genetically-controlled family histo