High cholesterol that is not managed properly can eventually cause fatty deposits within artery walls. When fat builds up lining the arteries it transforms in time into hard plague that clogs and narrow the arteries making it extremely difficult for blood to flow through and distribute oxygen to the heart and brain. The result of this dangerous condition is often severe heart disease, sudden heart attacks and fatal strokes.

A study conducted for more than a decade by the Medical College of Wisconsin where 882 siblings from 401 families (where at least one family member had gone through an event of a heart attack prior to being 60 years old, and the sibling from the same family had some form of heart disease or coronary artery disease) had showed a clear genetic pattern when the siblings were compared to each other in regards to their heart disease patterns. Even though, factors like high cholesterol were taken into account as part of the comparison, the results still showed the hereditary factor was still dominant to dictate the same heart disease pattern among siblings from the same family.

This findings are not all bad since people who are aware of their familial tendency to develop heart disease or coronary artery disease, can now monitor their cholesterol levels and in most cases if an honest effort is made to lower cholesterol, to practically prevent dangerous condition such as heart attack or stroke, to minimize the risk and even save their lives.

Although it is now clear that high cholesterol or uncontrolled blood pressure can lead to atherosclerosis, heart diseases and strokes and by reducing cholesterol levels, raising the HDL cholesterol and controlling blood pressure can in fact minimize the risk for having a heart disease, it is also known that having a genetic tendency for fat to deposit within the arteries has greater impact on the chances of artery blockage and suffering from heart disease or stroke as a result. It is nevertheless extremely important, to minimize the risk by doing anything possible to lower cholesterol and control blood pressure, and even more so if one knows of hereditary patterns for developing fatty deposits.