Genetics vs Family Lifestyle for Coronary Heart Disease, comment added 9/13/2011

Comment added 9/13/2011
Note that all the people in the study lived in Sweden. So the chances are good there were many commonalities among the families' lifestyles. So this study does not really show that lifestyle has little effect.
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Note this studies the lifestyle of our parents, biological or adoptive, not of the individuals themselves. Of course, this does not mean our own lifestyle is not important. People often don't follow the lifestyle of their family. And we can't do anything about what genes we inherited, but we can make choices of our own lifestyle, and these do make a difference. And our genes probably influence at least some of our own lifestyle, like how active we are.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110826091439.htm

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2011) — It has long been known that hereditary factors play a role in coronary heart disease. However, it has been unclear whether the increased risk is transferred through the genes or through an unhealthy lifestyle in the family. A new study from the Center for Primary Health Care Research in Sweden, published in the American Heart Journal, shows that genes appear to be most important.

[...]

The risk of coronary heart disease in adopted individuals who had at least one biological parent with coronary heart disease was 40-60% higher than that of a control group. There was no increased risk in individuals whose adoptive parents suffered from coronary heart disease, not even if both adoptive parents had the disease.

"The results of our studies suggest that the risk of coronary heart disease is not transferred via an unhealthy lifestyle in the family, but rather via the genes," says Kristina Sundquist, a professor at the Center for Primary Health Care Research in Malmö, Sweden.

"But that does not mean that one's lifestyle is not a factor in one's own risk of developing coronary heart disease."

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