Big macs are not the only ones to blame! An international group of scientists analyzed data from 14 previous studies, examining the complete genetic profile of 22,000 people of European descent with some kind of heart disease and 60,000 healthy individuals. The scientists found 13 gene variants that could have a link to heart disease. Seven are linked to levels of LDL cholestrol and one to hypertension. The others are not linked to any known heart disease risk factors, but they still are linked to heart disease, which leads one to think that there are new mechanisms that have yet to be discovered by scientists.
This could mean that in the future, when you go to see the doctor, performing a genetic profile might be routine. This could save millions of lives since heart disease is the number 1 killer in the world. If the gene variant is discovered in someone's genome early, then steps can be taken to prevent that risk factor from occuring, thus lower the risk of heart disease. However, I still feel as though that the biggest way to prevent heart disease is through a healthy diet and excercise. But, sometimes even these are not enough and one of these genes could be the reason why someone might still have high cholestrol even if they eat healthy and excercise.
So, next time you have a Mac attack and you might feel a bit guilty for eating it, remember that it is not the only reason why you might get a heart attack. It could be a gene! One criticism that I do have of this study is that the people whose genetic profile were examined were all of European descent. How about those people that do not have any or very little European ancestors? What category do they fall under?
No comments:
Post a Comment