Heart Disease Risk Lower As Parents Get Older

KYW's Medical Reports Sponsored By Independence Blue Cross

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Good news for you if you have healthy parents — at least when it comes to heart disease.

A study looking at 186,000 families in the United Kingdom found that an individual's risk of death from heart disease was 20% lower for each decade that at least one parent lived beyond the age of 70.

Even when you consider other health issues beyond heart disease, the numbers get better: all-cause mortality was lower by 16% per decade of parental survival past 70.

So what do you do with this information? Well, one thing is certain, and we have known this for a while — good genes are a big help when it comes to survival.

But there is a second part of the study that is not getting attention. The researchers made adjustments for smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, ethnicity, education, and obesity.

This is very important because it shows that lifestyle can have a huge impact — both good and bad — at impacting your chances of living a long life.