People's genes can say a great deal about their health. There are genes that reveal an increased likelihood of getting cancer, heart disease or Alzheimer's.
So many people condemn me for risk taking, but I find it sort of hypocritical because everybody takes risks. Even the absence of activity could be viewed as a risk. If you sit on the sofa for your entire life, you're running a higher risk of getting heart disease and cancer.
I was 19 when my father died from a heart attack. He was a 55-year-old college professor and had led what was by all appearances a risk-free life. But he was overweight, and heart disease runs in our family.
Since becoming an alleged adult, I've always felt like I should exercise - or should at least want to exercise - and make a feeble attempt at health, thus staving off terrible things like the coronary heart disease and high cholesterol described to me in 1980s margarine commercials.
Can you believe approximately 17 percent of American children ages 2 to 19 years are obese? How about this fact: approximately 60 percent of overweight children ages 5 to 10 already have at least one risk factor for heart disease? We are all to blame for this - parents, schools, kids - all of us.
My grandmother passed away from diabetes. And my father died from heart disease as a result of diabetes. They were in their early 60s.
I'm concerned about heart disease. I've raised money to fight heart disease; my dad died of it.
The Go Red for Women campaign raises awareness of the risk of heart disease. I think a lot of people don't realize that heart disease is the number one killer of women. So what we're doing is encouraging women to tell five other women to learn more about heart disease and how they can prevent it.
Heart disease is no laughing matter. After my father suffered a massive heart attack, I realized just how serious heart disease can be.
Smoking-related heart disease runs in my family. My grandfather and great-grandfather died in their early 40s.
