An apple a day keeps your genetic risk at bay

At the recent American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions, Sek Kathiresan, institute member and co-director of the Medical and Population Genetics Program at the Broad, presented work he led with Amit Khera and Connor Emdin, to ask a simple question: In people at high genetic risk for heart disease, can a healthy lifestyle offset that risk? After comparing risk scores from genetics (50 SNPs) and lifestyle (no smoking, no obesity, regular exercise, and prudent diet) with coronary events in 55,000 people from four large studies, they answered “yes,” with favorable lifestyle reducing coronary events by half among those at high genetic risk. Read more in NEJM or the The New York Times.