Heart Health
Nature trumps nurture for heart disease
Everyone knows that heart disease "runs in families," cropping up across generations and extended families. Genes play a role, of course. But families are bound together by more than DNA. Family members live together, eat together, and influence each others' attitudes toward smoking, exercise, weight, and a host of other factors that influence heart health and disease.
Swedish researchers have taken a crack at the nature (genes) versus nurture (family environment) question using Sweden's detailed registry of adoptions along with the country's comprehensive health records. They examined health records of all 80,214 children born in Sweden after 1931 who were adopted, along with the records of their biological parents and their adopted parents.
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