10 February 2012

Cardiovascular disease in your UK family history?

A study reported in The Lancet, "Inheritance of coronary artery disease in men: an analysis of the role of the Y chromosome" shows British men in haplogroup I have about a 50% higher age-adjusted risk of coronary artery disease than men with other Y chromosome lineages. Cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer in the UK. The study shows the association between haplogroup I and increased risk of coronary artery disease to be independent of traditional cardiovascular and socioeconomic risk factors.

The map, an extract from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_I_(Y-DNA), illustrates by the darker colour that in the UK haplogroup I is more common in the east of England. If there's a history of cardiovascular disease in your UK family history, especially if that ancestry is from the east of England, you're more likely to be haplogroup I.  If you want to know your haplogroup for sure take a DNA test. 

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