(Aging Untold) — A family history of heart disease, diabetes or high cholesterol can feel like a warning about what’s ahead, but genes are only part of the story, according to Dr. Rhea Rogers, a board-certified physician and Aging Untold expert. Inheriting a risk is not the same as a guarantee to get the disease, Rogers said. “The gene just says you have the risk or you don’t. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be turned on. You have to turn the gene on.