Is it true that heart disease is hereditary? Heart disease can be mainly divided into congenital heart disease and acquired heart disease, depending on the cause of formation. The question of whether heart disease is hereditary or not is differentiated according to the different types of heart disease. In order to ensure the safety of your child, it is necessary to have a consultation and examination in advance. (i) Congenital heart disease Is congenital heart disease hereditary? Numerous studies have found that congenital heart disease and heredity are closely related. Since congenital heart disease is brought from the mother’s womb, it is closely related to the intrauterine environment, or rather, to the mother’s body. If the mother has a viral infection during pregnancy, especially rubella, mumps, or influenza, it is likely to cause a fetal heart malformation because the heart takes shape in the first trimester of pregnancy. The fetal heart malformation can also be caused by the mother taking too many sedative drugs, antibacterial and quinine; the mother suffering from “diabetes”, “hyperthyroidism”, etc.; the multiple births of senior women are prone to congenital heart disease Exposure to radiation during pregnancy, lack of folic acid in the diet, and poor mood of the pregnant woman are all associated with congenital heart disease in infants. In addition, it is also seen that in the same family, twins or several children have congenital heart disease or other malformations, and when one of the family members has heart disease, the children also have more congenital heart disease. All these situations indicate that congenital heart disease and heredity have some relationship. (ii) Acquired heart disease Is acquired heart disease hereditary? Acquired heart disease depends on the disease and its cause. The most common acquired heart diseases are rheumatic heart disease and coronary heart disease, the former is due to heart valve damage caused by rheumatic fever, which is not hereditary. For coronary heart disease, its causes are many and complex, and whether it is hereditary or not is not very clear to many people. Over the years, many scholars have conducted a lot of research on acquired heart disease and found that the onset of coronary heart disease has a clear familial pattern. If one of the parents has coronary heart disease, the prevalence of the child is twice as high as that of the normal parent. If both parents had coronary heart disease, the prevalence rate of children was 4 times higher than that of normal parents; if both parents had coronary heart disease at an early age, the prevalence rate of children was 5 times higher than that of children without coronary heart disease. However, this does not mean that coronary heart disease is always inherited, but more scholars believe that although coronary heart disease has obvious familial characteristics, its development is the result of a combination of factors. Therefore, just because one generation has coronary heart disease does not mean that the next generation will definitely develop coronary heart disease as well. Is heart disease really hereditary? In short, the development of heart disease has its own causes, some are hereditary, some just may be hereditary, and some are not, depending on the type of disease, family history, mother’s pregnancy and other comprehensive analysis. The current international view is that congenital heart disease does not necessarily have a genetic component, but certain children with congenital heart disease are associated with heredity. For example, trisomy 21 and trisomy 18, these chromosome position changes or abnormalities are genetically related. The healthy parents may also give birth to a child with congenital heart disease due to some factors during the mother’s pregnancy, so it is not necessary for the child to have heart disease if the parents have heart disease; it is not necessary for the child to not have congenital heart disease if the parents do not have heart disease. Therefore, it is essential to have a good prenatal checkup during pregnancy.