Nature versus Nurture: Even though people may have inherited genes that confer an increased risk of cardiovascular disease that doesn’t mean that there isn’t something that they can do about it. Not smoking, maintaining a normal weight, exercise and healthy eating will reduce that risk. Below is a summary of a study published in the New England of Journal Medicine in December.
Cardiovascular Disease: Genetics versus Lifestyle NEJM
December 15, 2016, Original Article:
Genetic Risk, Adherence to a Healthy Lifestyle, and Coronary Disease
Amit V. Khera, M.D., Connor A. Emdin, D.Phil., Isabel Drake, Ph.D., Pradeep Natarajan, M.D., Alexander G. Bick, M.D., Ph.D., Nancy R. Cook, Ph.D., Daniel I. Chasman, Ph.D., Usman Baber, M.D., Roxana Mehran, M.D., Daniel J. Rader, M.D., Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., Eric Boerwinkle, Ph.D., Olle Melander, M.D., Ph.D., Marju Orho-Melander, Ph.D., Paul M Ridker, M.D., and Sekar Kathiresan, M.D.
N Engl J Med 2016; 375:2349-2358December 15, 2016DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1605086
Background
Both genetic and lifestyle factors contribute to an individual-level risk of coronary artery disease. The extent to which increased genetic risk can be offset by a healthy lifestyle is unknown.
Methods
Using a polygenic score of DNA sequence polymorphisms, we quantified genetic risk for coronary artery disease in three prospective cohorts — 7814 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, 21,222 in the Women’s Genome Health Study (WGHS), and 22,389 in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (MDCS) — and in 4260 participants in the cross-sectional BioImage Study for whom genotype and covariate data were available. We also determined adherence to a healthy lifestyle among the participants using a scoring system consisting of four factors: no current smoking, no obesity, regular physical activity, and a healthy diet.
Results
The relative risk of incident coronary events was 91% higher among participants at high genetic risk (top quintile of polygenic scores) than among those at low genetic risk (bottom quintile of polygenic scores) (hazard ratio, 1.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.75 to 2.09). A favorable lifestyle (defined as at least three of the four healthy lifestyle factors) was associated with a substantially lower risk of coronary events than an unfavorable lifestyle (defined as no or only one healthy lifestyle factor), regardless of the genetic risk category. Among participants at high genetic risk, a favorable lifestyle was associated with a 46% lower relative risk of coronary events than an unfavorable lifestyle (hazard ratio, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.63). This finding corresponded to a reduction in the standardized 10-year incidence of coronary events from 10.7% for an unfavorable lifestyle to 5.1% for a favorable lifestyle in ARIC, from 4.6% to 2.0% in WGHS, and from 8.2% to 5.3% in MDCS. In the BioImage Study, a favorable lifestyle was associated with significantly less coronary-artery calcification within each genetic risk category.
Conclusions
Across four studies involving 55,685 participants, genetic and lifestyle factors were independently associated with susceptibility to coronary artery disease. Among participants at high genetic risk, a favorable lifestyle was associated with a nearly 50% lower relative risk of coronary artery disease than was an unfavorable lifestyle. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and others.
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Words written in italic are directly from Mark L. Thornton, M.D., F.A.C.P.
