People are being encouraged to use family gatherings this Christmas as a time to discuss their health and history of illnesses.

The call was made by doctors in Scotland following their study into premature heart disease. People with a family history of this have a 40% increased risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack before the age of 60.

However, their study found that an increased risk remains even if people make changes to their lifestyle, use drug treatments and are referred to their GP earlier.

The doctors from the University of Glasgow looked at over 10,700 people with a family history of heart disease. Those with a family history tended to be referred to their GP earlier for risk reduction measures. However, these referrals may not be early enough.

"Reassuringly, our study found that individuals with a family history of heart attack or stroke were more likely to be referred for preventive treatment earlier, but we were surprised to see that the mortality rate of these individuals were on average, 12-20% higher than those with comparable risks without a family history of coronary heart disease (CHD).

"One explanation is that the earlier referral of these individuals - around 45 years of age in our study - is not early enough, and some damage has already occurred," explained the study's lead author, Dr Sandosh Padmanabhan.

He suggested that these patients may need to be seen ‘earlier in their 30s or even their 20s'.

He also pointed out that these patients may simply need ‘more rigorous treatment and monitoring' than is currently practiced.

He called on people to use this time of year as a chance to ask about health issues.

"Family history is not only a link to the past, but also a bridge to future cardiovascular health. More immediately, people need to be aware of their family history of conditions like heart attack or stroke. With families gathering together for Christmas, now might be the ideal time to ask some questions of your relatives to find out if you might be at a higher risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke so you can do something about it," he said.

Details of these findings are published in the European Heart Journal.

For more information on heart disease, see our Heart Disease Clinic here