You have an overweight parent: limit excess
It’s not difficult to know if you are the one in the family who will have to watch your weight all your life: as soon as you overeat, you gain pounds and have trouble losing them!
If one of your parents is obese, you have a 40% risk of becoming obese. However, these statistics do not take into account the preventive measures that can be taken during the lifetime. Likewise, it is possible to fight against the family tendency to coat yourself a little too much.
But be careful, wanting an hourglass figure if you tend to be a little plump is an inexhaustible source of disappointment. On the other hand, maintaining an average weight is quite possible, as long as you do not fall into the madness of repeated restrictive diets, which end up installing pounds which it is increasingly difficult to get rid of. “The only diet that works in the long term is a balanced diet, combined with regular physical activity,” recalls Dr. Jean de La Tullaye, nutritionist in the Paris region.
A simple instruction but not so easy to observe, as family habits are sometimes deeply imprinted on us. “If you belong to a family where you walked in the woods after the Sunday meal, you will undoubtedly continue to go out on Sunday afternoon at no cost to you”, continues this specialist. But if spending the afternoon in front of the television seems normal to you, it is necessary to fight against this bad habit.
As for meals, it’s the same. Eat everything, but not too fat, favoring fruits, vegetables and starchy foods that stall, so as not to crave sugary products between meals, these are habits that we adopt early on. Or that we must adopt. Otherwise, beware of the blues that follow the weight gain.
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Cancers: think about screening early
Between 5 and 10% of cancers are linked to an inherited genetic predisposition. This news is still difficult to hear, which should lead to specific screening examinations.
When several members of the same family develop cancer, it is logical to wonder if there is not a link between these diseases. It is moreover by studying such families that scientists have been able to highlight predisposition genes. They have identified, so far, in three cancers: breast cancer, ovarian cancer and colon cancer.
And suspect in others, especially in certain lung cancers. For ten years, it has been known that having abnormal BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in one’s genetic makeup clearly increases the risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. These familial cancers are often different from those which occur in the general population: they appear earlier, are composed of more proliferative tumor cells … Characteristics which help to recognize them.
Today there are about twenty consultations specializing in oncogenetics. This is where you can find out if a common anomaly explains or not the cases that have occurred in the family and if you yourself are a carrier of the anomaly. But this research (analysis of the tumor in patients, blood test in healthy people) is only undertaken if there is a real risk of family history. A mother who had breast cancer is not enough.
Women carrying abnormal genes can be helped psychologically and are subject to special monitoring: regular breast palpation by a specialist, mammograms before age 40, etc. Same precaution of monitoring, but this time by colonoscopy, for people who belong to families where there is a predisposition for colorectal cancer. A genetic factor is involved in 3% of these cancers.
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Your mother has varicose veins: consult from the age of 20
Heredity plays an important role in the onset of venous disorders since if one of your parents has varicose veins, you may also suffer from them in 60% of cases. But only if you don’t do anything …
In the event of a family history, varicose veins are more common and they appear earlier. A gift that we would do without because it does not pose only aesthetic problems. The stagnation of blood in the veins of the legs can indeed promote the formation of clots (phlebitis) or disrupt the oxygenation of the skin and then cause ulcers.
In order not to come to this, it is necessary to take care of your legs throughout your life. “We know that our environment can also promote venous disease, because ethnic groups without varicose veins develop it when they migrate to a developed country”, explains Dr Nicole Casobon, angiologist in Paris.
What are the known risk factors?
Weight gain which leads to increased pressure in the veins. Sedentary lifestyle which limits the circulation of blood. The heat which dilates the vessels. Prevention therefore consists in practicing regular physical activity, choosing among those that do not cause jolts: rather swimming, walking or cycling than jogging or tennis. Without forgetting to control your weight.
It is also advisable to consult a doctor at the beginning of your adult life, to know your venous state. If in doubt, the doctor will refer you to an angiologist to perform a Doppler ultrasound which may already show reflux on the superficial veins and therefore the need for monitoring. Finally, treating the first varicose veins helps prevent the spread of the disease.
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Cardiovascular disease: watch your blood pressure
If your family has a tendency to have heart attacks or strokes early, there is vascular fragility. You absolutely have to take this into account in your way of life.
Arteries which lose their flexibility, fats which accumulate along the vessels, it’s a nature that we sometimes inherit. And which manifests itself in the occurrence of early vascular accidents. Be suspicious, therefore, if your father had a heart attack before age 50 or if a member of your family suffered a stroke before age 70. Protected by their hormones, women are in principle spared until menopause. But a hectic life must make you vigilant vis-à-vis other risk factors: rise in blood pressure which tires the heart, excess cholesterol and triglycerides which clog the arteries, tobacco which also contributes to the clogging of the vessels.
What to do ?
First step to do: monitor your blood pressure. “Between 35 and 44 years, only 57% of people know their blood pressure figures”, underlines Professor Girerd, of the Committee for the fight against hypertension. But tension does not warn when it rises! However, keeping it below 14/9 is essential. A result obtained by changing his habits and, if that is not enough, by taking medication. Enriching your diet with fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products lowers blood pressure from 8 to 14 cmHg. And also helps to act on excess cholesterol. Provided again to know it.
If you are taking the pill or if you are over 50, a blood test is useful once a year. But above all, play sports. A new study of more than 120,000 nurses in Great Britain shows that the death rate from cardiovascular disease is lower among those who do three and a half hours a week of sustained exercise: brisk walking, walking. running, swimming …
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You have a diabetic father: get active every day
If diabetes that appears in childhood cannot be prevented, it is not the same for one that appears in your fifties. For this type of diabetes, prevention is very effective.
The observation of certain populations has greatly improved our knowledge of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes, the one that appears in adulthood. While this disease was unknown among the Pima Indians of America in the 1950s, it now affects 50% of them. And the same “epidemic” has been observed in certain countries of black Africa since the population settled down.
Moving is therefore essential. “Practicing endurance activity for half an hour, three times a week and staying slim is enough to prevent the onset of diabetes in predisposed people”, explains Dr Agnès Hurtier, diabetologist at the Pitié hospital. Salpêtrière (Paris). Studies have even shown that this lifestyle was effective at the onset of the disease, that is to say when the blood sugar began to rise. According to this study, two years of gymnastics (in a club or with a coach) and a food rebalancing do as well as the drugs.
So what are you waiting for to move your body two hours a week?
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