Will you need these to battle your genes?
The next time you sit down with your doctor to discuss your medical risks, what should you bring up? What determines your risk? Here are 4 of the most common factors:
- Heredity – If everyone in your family has a heart attack when they are young, it is smart to worry about heart disease early. If they all lived to be 100, then not so much. Some diseases are more significant to have in your family tree than others. Colon cancer, for example, has a strong genetic link, whereas leukemia is not as clearly genetic.
- Lifestyle – Do you smoke? Do you drink? Do you spend your time in front of the TV eating cookie dough ice cream? Do you work around asbestos or lead? All of these facts need to be discussed because they can affect your health.
- Your Medical History – Diabetes, high blood pressure, past history of cancer, or prolonged use of certain medications will play a big part in determining what has to be monitored or watched out for long term.
- Age and sex – people who are in their 20’s are more likely to die from accidents than they are of cancer. Men have heart disease earlier than women, but women are much more at risk for breast cancer. As much as we would like to ignore them, age and sex are huge factors in determining your health risks.
