hcm race/sex stats

[scottonbike]

HI

Okay, so about 1 out of 750 people have HCM. I think I have read on the message board that 60% of the people that have been diagnosed with HCM are men and this would mean 40% are women. I also know that a lot of people who have HCM will never be diagnosed for various reasons. (Access to health care, I am out of shape, no symptoms, mis-diagnosed etc.) My assumption is that there is not enough information for my question.

I wonder about the racial aspects of HCM. If you are an American Indian are your odds the same as a person from the Middle east? As a percentage of the population who the greatest and least risk?

Just wondering

Scott

[Reenie]

HCM is passed on 50% of the time (statistically) so if a parent has HCM and has 4 kids, statistically 2 of them will get HCM also. The mutation is an autosomal dominant trait which means it's not on the X chromosome (sex chromosome) and it's dominant. That means it affects males and females at the same rate. If the gene is passed, you will have a very high probability of developing HCM. I guess some races are more prone to HCM just because they have more population who have it to pass to their progeny, but no race is immune to HCM. That said, some isolated populations have their own typical type of HCM. For instance a lot of people in Japan with HCM have an apical form that affect the bottom tip (apex) of the heart. I hope this helps answer your questions.

Reenie

[shirleymahoney]

yes Reenie is correct and i have also read that it is because more women are misdiagnosed but this disease doesn't care if you are a man or a woman or color it makes no difference and as far as apical type i have the stiffness also in my heart and iam thick at the apex and throughout

Shirley

[SharonBates]

I would also like to add that according to the leading researcher (Dr. Barry Maron) the numbers are
1 in 500
people in the general population are at risk of developing HCM. I also understand the condition is equally distributed in both sex and all races.

Not sure where your information was derived, but the information in the book that all members receive will clear up any misconceptions.

Good luck on your search for more answers about HCM and it's prevalence in our world.

Best Regards,
Sharon Bates

[Grecoeuro]

Kind of related,

As I understood my Naturopath said that a study was done and the results showed that just because someone gets a gene passed on, it wont necessarily develop. Other lifestyle factors affecting the body can affect the gene like, stress, smoking, poor diet, drug or alcohol abuse.
Does this sound right? Just wondering what you have heard?


Theo

[Cynaburst]

That is half right and half wrong. There are those that have the gene that won't express it, but whether the express it or not doesn't have to do with their lifestyle. It is all genetic. They don't really know what turns the gene off or on. If you have the gene, just eating a bad diet isn't going to mean that you are going to develop it or not, but if you do already have the disease, i.e. the expression of the disease, it is better for you to have a healthy lifestyle in terms of living with the symptoms.

[Lisa Salberg]

The facts are that HCM is likely higher then 1 in 500 and is an equal oppurtunity disease. All ages, genders, ethnicities are equally affected.
If you have the gene you will likely express it at sometime in life, how, when and severity it what we do not know about at this time. We hope to find some links in the future and thereby be able to 'control' things better, however I do not think this will happen for sometime yet.
best to all,
lisa