Question: Are heart attacks always hereditary and if they are not always, what else can be prime early symptoms or causes?

Anita Thomas answered on 16 Jun 2014:

Hello theglobe,

When people have a heart attack, the causes can be both genetic (ie hereditary) and environmental.

There are a number of factors that can be (but are not always) involved, including………………..
gender (men have them earlier than women)
age (young people have fewer than older people)
diabetes
family history (ie there are several people in your family that have had incidents)
hypertension (high blood pressure)
high plasma lipid levels. This is not as simple as high levels of cholesterol in your blood. There are good lipids (called HDL) and bad lipids (eg LDL) that go to make up the total cholesterol in your blood. Medical staff usually prefer to use a ratio of the HDL to total cholesterol as a better indication of risk.
smoking
being overweight
There are others too, but I can’t think of them at the moment. I’ll keep your question in mind and perhaps get back to you.

People who get a heart attack do so because one or more of the arteries in their heart are (at least partly) blocked. There are some tests that measure additional factors that can give an indication that the patient may be heading towards (or is more likely to have) a heart attack. These include
high levels of inflammatory factors (blood sample)
indication of blockages in screens of arteries (angiogram etc)
high levels of clotting factors (blood sample).

I hope that this answers your question,
Cheers,
Anita.