Siblings' Heart Disease Ups Risk

If a brother or sister of yours has heart disease, your risk of getting it rises as much as 45 percent, according to a new study.

The research, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association, means your parents' heart histories aren't the only ones that could serve as a predictor of your getting the disease, concludes cardiologist Dr. Nieca Goldberg.

On The Early Show Wednesday, she

"Recently, it's been very common in my practice for a woman to come in and say, my sister sent me in because she had a heart attack and told me to get checked out.

"This study shows, if you have a sibling with heart disease, it actually predicted you might have heart disease early in life, in your 40s."

Goldberg, who is affiliated with Lennox Hill Hospital in Manhattan and is a spokesperson for the American Heart Association, says the findings will "absolutely" change the questions she asks her patients: "Instead of just asking about your parents' history, we're going to ask about your brothers and sisters. Now, in part, it's genetic. And in part, it's because we all share (within our families) environmental factors, like how we eat and whether or not we exercise."

Asked whether researchers know if genetic factors or learned behaviors matter more for heart disease, Goldberg said, "Right now, we don't. But what's particularly interesting in the study, in the people who did have heart disease, it was very common for them to have risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. These are risk factors that are shared amongst family members."

Risk factors that come into play here include smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes, Goldberg pointed out.

"I think one of the things about smoking that's very important, it's something that kids observe," she notes. "And in fact, if you're a smoker, you actually increase the risk of heart disease in your family by exposing them to secondhand smoke.

"It's very common that watching the parents and the behavior of the parents (could lead to its being copied). I mean, parents really influence their children, that they may smoke."

Goldberg concludes, "The best present that your family can give you is actually to share their history, their medical history with you, so you make an appointment and get checked out."