Do you have goals for improving your health in the New Year? This month, investigators from the Mass General Research Institute are discussing the science behind some common New Year’s resolutions, and offering tips and advice based on their research into exercise, diet, healthy aging, heart health, and much more.

Sek Kathiresan, MD, is Director of the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Ofer and Shelly Nimerovsky MGH Research Scholar. He studies human genetics to understand the root causes of heart attacks and develop new strategies for preventative cardiac care. To learn more about his research, please visit his lab website.

A family history of heart attacks does not necessarily mean you are destined to suffer one as well.

By studying genetic data from 55,000 individuals who are enrolled in four long-term research studies, we found that following a healthy lifestyle—defined as not smoking, exercising once a week, eating healthy and maintaining a body mass index of less than 30—can reduce your chances of having a heart attack by close to 50 percent.

The basic message of our study is that DNA is not destiny. Many individuals—both physicians and members of the general public—have looked on genetic risk as unavoidable, but for heart attack that does not appear to be the case.

About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. Our research includes fundamental, lab-based science; clinical trials to test new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools; and community and population-based research to improve health outcomes across populations and eliminate disparities in care.
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