If a man gets a heart attack before the age of 55, or a woman before the age of 65, it's called premature or early heart attack. Younger patients with heart diseases often have a family history of premature heart related problems.

IF A man gets a heart attack before the age of 55, or a woman before the age of 65, it’s called premature or early heart attack. According to Padma Shri and Dr B C Roy National Awardee Dr KK Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India & MTNL Perfect Health Mela, younger patients with heart diseases often have a family history of premature heart related problems.

The term ‘family history’ is used for the information related to health problems faced by a patient’s blood relatives i.e. father, mother, brother, sister.

A premature heart attack in a family (blood relatives) increases the risk in the subsequent generation by 33% and in blood relatives by 50%.

In addition to this, children of a person, who suffered from a premature heart attack, also have high coronary heart disease risk. The children could also suffer from problems, like excessive body weight, increase in level of serum cholesterol, glucose, and insulin. They are also likely to have symptoms of vascular diseases such as endothelial dysfunction and increased carotid artery intima-media thickness.

The risk of heart diseases is also high in people who either have a maternal history or a paternal history or both maternal and paternal history of heart attack, but varies in men and women accordingly.

On the other hand, a family history unrelated to conventional risk factors could account for 15% of heart attacks.