Did the Vikings give us bad hearts

The catchphrase from the movie Life Of Brian even became the basis of a recent TV series which focused on Roman ingenuity. Who will ever forget the world's first coin-operated water dispenser, which helped revive thirsty gladiators?

But apart from a scattering of Nordic place names across the North-East and a folk memory which allows young men to wear horned helmets at football matches, what did the invading Vikings ever do for us?

According to Professor Alastair Hall, who is joint leader of the world's largest study into the genetics of coronary heart disease, the Vikings may be partly responsible for the North-East's horrendously high heart disease rates.

While it is well known that the Vikings invaded and then settled extensively in the North-East of England, inter-marrying with the local population, what is less well known is that Scandinavians tend to have high levels of heart disease and we may collectively have inherited a gene pool influenced by Viking blood.

This, says Professor Hall, a consultant cardiologist at the University of Leeds, may partly explain the huge gulf between heart disease rates in the South of England and the North-East. Too many of us have fallen for the glib explanation that high heart disease rates are simply due to unhealthy lifestyles, too many cigarettes, too much fatty food, too little exercise. There is no doubt that lifestyle has an important part to play, but why do apparently healthy, fit people drop down dead with heart attacks? Why can some people apparently drink what they like and smoke what they like and eat what they like and get to a ripe old age before their hearts start developing problems?

"People are always led to believe that heart disease is their fault, but that is only half the story," says Prof Hall. He estimates that a less-than-ideal lifestyle - even if it is still damaging to our overall health - may account for less than 50 per cent of coronary heart disease.

"Thanks to research, everybody knows that high cholesterol levels cause heart attacks so we have developed drugs to reduce that particular problem, but there may be something more important than cholesterol or smoking that we still don't know about. By identifying that unknown factor, you would be able to devise ways of doing something about it," the cardiologist adds.

"We are not condoning smoking but if smoking caused heart disease then everyone who smoked would have a heart attack early in life. The difference is in their genetic make-up."

A fuller picture is likely to emerge by studying the encoded information contained in the genetic material in each one of our cells, which remained indecipherable until very recent advances in understanding the human genome.

"Those who have a heart attack feel it is their fault but there is clearly another aspect to it. Some people who have a brilliant, healthy lifestyle have a heart attack. This missing piece is the genetic element and we have only been able to study this properly in the last few years," says Prof Hall. Thanks to the cracking of the human DNA code, it is now possible to get at the DNA command and control centres in our cells.

So what about the Norsemen who raided and traded from the 8th to the 11th Centuries and who ruled most of England - known as the Danelaw - under kings like Sweyn and Canute. "We know that the North-East was colonised by the Vikings and they had terrible problems with heart disease," says Prof Hall.

While he does not suggest this is the main cause of our woes, Prof Hall says the historical inheritance in our genes highlights the largely unknown role played by ancestry in our chances of developing premature heart disease. It is the old argument, whether nature or nurture explains the way we are today.

Prof Hall is currently on the British Heart Foundation's campaign bus zig-zagging its way across the UK and reaching the North-East on March 14.

The aim of the BHF Family Heart Study - which has developed from earlier work in Leeds - is to pinpoint the rogue genes which contribute to coronary heart disease. To do this, the scientific team at Leeds and Leicester Universities need to recruit 2,000 families from across the UK who have a history of early-onset hereditary heart disease. At least one member of each family must be willing to give a blood sample.

That sample will be added to a growing DNA library which will enable researchers to map genes across family groups. The scientists hope a clearer understanding of the inheritable genetic factors of heart diseases will help to devise new ways of eradicating the condition in the future.

Already, a week since the recruitment campaign was launched, the BHF team has had around 2,000 calls. But because only around one in ten will lead to a successful sample, the campaign needs thousands more callers.

Prof Hall is encouraged by the initial public response. "The medical literature says you need to recruit 2,000 families to make this work and many have doubted whether it is possible. But it is being successful thanks to the public response.

"We need two brothers or sisters who have had heart attacks before 65. They are very valuable in scientific terms."

Research suggests that if you have a close family member who has developed heart disease before the age of 65, your risk of following suit is four times the normal rate. In some cases, the genetic legacy is so strong that entire families of four or five brothers or sisters have all developed heart disease one after another.

Prof Hall hopes that putting across the message that heart disease is not necessarily the sign of an unhealthy lifestyle will bring in more families.

As the BHF roadshow rolls North it is also trying to raise awareness of heart disease. Too many people refuse to take the symptoms of early heart disease seriously - and pay the ultimate price. "If there is a history of heart disease in your family, you should have your cholesterol level checked, " says Prof Hall.

l For information about the BHF Family Heart Study ring 0800 052 7154.