How did your parents/grandparents (or maybe older siblings) die? Do you think you will inherit one of their causes of death?
As for me:
My grandparents died of heart attack, stroke, tuberculosis and childbirth. My parents died of Alzheimer’s and complications from a fall.
I definitely will not die during childbirth, and very unlikely from tuberculosis. And there are treatments for cardiovascular problems that didn’t exist 50 years ago. And anyone can fall, leading to complications.
Which leaves Alzheimer’s. My father began showing symptoms in his early 70s, and lived to be 81. If I am diagnosed and there still isn’t treatment or cure, I plan to live it up, then end it all. I will not put my partner through what my mother had to go through.
I’m 65 now, and learning to take better care of my health than I ever did before.
My father’s family is rather unhelpful in this regard: His grandfather died in a road accident and of his eight aunts and uncles the COD of five are as follows: MIA (the Somme), shipwreck, poisoning, allergic reaction to bee sting following pneumonia and cholera. The rest of them lived into their nineties. Dad is 91 and going strong.
The bad luck hasn’t got me yet so it’s looking hopeful.
Mom: ALS. Sister: liver cancer. Both were unexpected, and the doctor said he’d never seen that kind of cancer in someone under 60. My sister was 34.
Aunt: emphysema. Too much smoking, even though she’d quit years before. Stepmother: same.
Other sister, and father, still alive, though Dad isn’t really there anymore (blame too much isolation–he went hermit after stepmother died). His sister, though, is older than him (mid 80s) and still doing okay.
So barring a) freak causes no-one can predict, and b) stupid stuff you do to yourself, we’ve got a fairly good prognosis.
My grandfather died of…well, a lot of things. He got colon cancer, lived, but ended up with diabetes, possibly due to the fact that they had to basically rebuild his entire intestinal system in order to repair his colostomy. He ended up having either a stroke or falling after a low blood sugar spell and wasn’t found for almost a day. For the next five months he had home health care and physical therapy and was slowly but surely getting better, then one night he dropped dead as he was walking into his bedroom to go to bed.
He’s the only member of my blood family who has died of something other than “old age.” My step-grandfather is also dead–he had a fall and was never the same for months after it. But I’m not going to inherit that. I guess I’m lucky.
Father’s side - Grandmother & Grandfather: stroke. My father has been diagnosed with cancer (it looks rampant, and the prognosis isn’t good). No aunts or uncles.
Mother’s side - Grandmother, Grandfather, aunt & uncle: cancer.
Good chance I will die of cancer before I have a risk of stroke.
Maternal grandfather – cancer. Before I was born; I’m named for him.
Maternal grandmother – officially, heart failure, but she had no heart disease. She was 96 and just passed on one night.
Paternal grandfather – cancer
Maternal grandmother – don’t remember; I think it was some type of cancer, though.
PPP: cancer in his mid-60s. Unlikely.
PPM and her younger sister: old age, more precise causes unknown. The older sister: childbirth complications (unlikely).
PP: cancer, mid-60s. Unlikely.
PM: bad circulation, eventually ministrokes, eventually a stroke, mid-80s. Likely (my circulation is horrid).
PMP: tuberculosis, early 30s. Unlikely. I’m T-positive but so’s 98% of the Spanish population.
PMM: old age, more precise causes unknown.
MPP: “ate too much and his gut exploded”, probably peritonitis (which his son suffered at a similar age and almost died from). Unlikely, I imagine if something hurt that much I’d see a doctor on time.
MPM: old age, mid-90s.
MP: a series of ministrokes, eventually a stroke (no circulation problems tho), mid-90s. Likely.
MM: still kickin’ at 97, thanks.
MMP: don’t know, I’m not even sure how old he was. I know he was relatively sickly his whole life, that he was almost blind and that all through his life he partied hard enough to tire the dudes over at Animal House. Definitely not much in common.
MMM: old age, early 90s.
P: cancer, early 60s. Unlikely.
M: still complaining about her bad health.
I’m betting on either a stroke after a series of minis, or “old age, not bothering run an autopsy to figure out more”. All my paternal ancestors, direct or collateral, who died of cancer in their 60s shared a series of physical characteristics I do not: they were all male (nope), had very-dry skin (nope, still got juvenile acne), similar faces (I look like my mom) and pale coloring (dark eyes and hair here).
Dad is adopted and never got in touch with bio family. He had a major brain aneurysm burst when he was 45 which should have killed him, and he is very lucky to have lived through with significant brain damage (almost a third of his brain was killed). A tendency to form aneurysms is highly hereditary, and more common in women, so one of those could very get me. And I think I’d prefer to die rather than deal with major brain damage.
My mom is 52 and healthy as a horse, despite not living the healthiest lifestyle and starting to get pretty heavy. Besides the fact that they are all crazy (one sister committed suicide in the 90s) her surviving 3 sisters who are 64, 60, and 50 and their kids, who range from 42 to 12, all enjoy very good health. My mom’s parents are still alive - they are 99 and 89 now I believe. My grandfather has had prostate cancer for some years now and had surgeries to remove tumors, but it’s probably not going to kill him. My grandmother doesn’t have any problems but her neuroses. My grandfather’s father died of a heart attack in his 80s I believe, his mother and my grandma’s parents all lived to their 90s and died of ‘old age’. There’s not even any dementia in that side of the family, they have truly awesome health and have been living a really long time well back into the 1800s. I had a great uncle who died of pancreatic cancer a few years ago, but he was in his late 80s at the time. It’s nice not to have to worry too much about cancer.
Maternal Grandmother - complications from being burned badly in a housefire back in the late 1930s
Maternal Grandfather - survived mustard gas and influenza back in WW1, died in 1963 of old age, aged 68
Paternal Grandmother - complications from pneumonia in hospital in 1978, aged 81
Paternal Grandfather - fell off the deck of the boat he was refinishing, 1974 aged 77
Father - antibiotic resistant buggies in hospital after being hospitalized for a series of small strokes from blood clots from a knee replacement operation, aged 86
Mom - still chugging along with mild to moderate alzheimers. She was born in 1923, and she and my brother live together and he takes care of her. She is ok as long as she can follow her normal routine but changes confuse her a lot. Her health is pretty ok, so she will probably last another few years.
I now have high blood pressure, and an issue with tachycardia [I am now thinking it may be due to the avandia I was taking for the 8 or so months prior to my failed try at getting a hysterectomy where I ended up getting hospitalized for an acute hypertensive incident that sort of didn’t go away] so I am thinking that if I do not off myself when alzheimers hits, I will either stroke out or have a heart attack. I do meds and watch my nutrition very closely, and I really miss coffee [decaf tastes like ass]
Heart attacks at a late age all across the board and 2 WW2-related deaths, with all the living relatives on maternal side of the family having arrhythmia already. WEEE~!
Let’s see. My dads father died of a stroke and my 3 uncles all had fatal heart attacks. But they grew up on a tobacco farm smoking their brains out and ingesting fatback and bacon every day. So it’s hard to say how much is inherited. I don’t smoke and I excercise a lot. So I have no idea how much risk I have.
Maternal Grandparents: Still Alive.
Paternal Grandparens: Grandmother alive, grandfather died before I was born. Not sure of what specifically, but it came from drinking too much alcohol.
Paternal Aunts and Uncles by blood: All alive except one who died from complications stemming from alcoholism.
Maternal Aunts and Uncles: Still alive.
Maternal Great-Grandparents:
Grandmother’s Mother lived to be over 100, Grandmother’s father died from complications stemming from alcoholism.
Grandfather’s mother lived to be near 100, Grandfather’s father died from complications stemming from alcoholism.
Paternal Great-Grandparents: No idea.
So, barring anything from my paternal great grandparents, I think I’m good so long as I don’t become an alcoholic.
My maternal grandfather died of tuberculosis. My paternal grandmother died during childbirth. These are rather unlikely to happen to me, as I’m male, and… don’t have tuberculosis.
My mother’s parents lived well into their 90s and died essentially of old age. I also remember my grandmother’s father, who was over 100. My dad’s parents died of cancer. His mother, despite never having touched tobacco in her life, died of lung cancer. His dad died of stomach cancer. Both were at least 80 years old, though. So I have genetic odds going for me.
Both of my grandfathers died of heart disease, at 87 and 93. Both of my grandmothers are over 90 and still alive.
Of my great-grandparents: one died during the 1918 flu epidemic, one died of heart disease in her 60s, one died of old age at 96, and one apparently abandoned his family in the 1920s and was never heard from again. No clue about the cause of death for the other four, although one great-grandfather apparently made it into his 80s on a diet that consisted almost entirely of vodka.
I guess I’ve got pretty decent genes, though it wouldn’t surprise me if I, too, ended up with heart disease one day.
I have a 50% chance of having the same neurological disorder my dad is currently dying of. It’s rare and there isn’t any way to test for it currently, although we’ve been working with some doctors who specialize in it to find enough people do develop a test.
There seems to be a reasonably good chance I won’t know until I’m in my 50s and start experiencing symptoms. And if I don’t, I won’t be remotely sure for 10-15 years that they won’t start. They normally start in one’s 50s, so how long would you have to be symptom free to feel confident you’re in the clear? 65? 70?
Sometimes I wonder if I’m leading my life the right way, basically ant style, responsible, taking care of my dad and preparing for the early end to things myself. Maybe I should have gone full on grasshopper and enjoyed the time I know I have.
My grandfather’s father died of a heart attack in his 80s I believe, his mother and my grandma’s parents all lived to their 90s and died of ‘old age’. There’s not even any dementia in that side of the family, they have truly awesome health and have been living a really long time well back into the 1800s. I had a great uncle who died of pancreatic cancer a few years ago, but he was in his late 80s at the time. It’s nice not to have to worry too much about cancer.