So your mother just couldn’t keep that stubborn fat from perching on her waist. And your dad’s heart just didn’t pump the way it was supposed to.

Then there was granny, whose blood sugar levels made her sweeter than sugarcane. But that’s not a licence for you to blame all your health problems on bad genes.

It’s you and you alone who controls which were your health goes, says a Canadian genes expert.

Dr Robert Hegele, director of Martha G Blackburn Cardiovascular Genetics Laboratory at Robarts Research Institute, Ontario, asserts lifestyle choices have a greater say in your health that do hereditary factors.

He would know – he’s been working on identifying gene mutations that increase a person’s risk of heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes in his lipid clinic patients. Over 20 years, his clinic has discovered the genetic basis of 12 diseases and over 200 genetic mutations linked to high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease.

And Dr Hegele’s experience says genetics has a strong influence on just 5 per cent of the patients, leaving them helpless. The remaining 95 per cent can use a healthy lifestyle to beat the odds.  “Even if you've been dealt a bad hand of genes, it's not a life sentence for most people. Simple actions – basic things like smoking cessation, following a healthy diet, and physical activity – are the key to overturning genetic predisposition. The answers are that simple for most people,” he says.  Other factors such as education, income, housing status and environment too play a role in heart disease risk.

The findings have greater importance for Indians, who face much bigger risk of heart disease and diabetes than their counterparts in other countries. A study in The Lancet had earlier warned as many 60 per cent of heart disease patients will be in India by 2010. On Oct 26, International Diabetic Federation told the 20th annual World Diabetes Congress in Goa the country will become the world’s diabetes capital by 2025.  If you don’t want to be a statistic, listen to Dr Hegele – clean up your act, now!