Do you resemble your relatives? Maybe it’s the curly hair, leanness, dark skin or dimples. Perhaps athletic ability or intelligence runs in your family. Or the risk for certain health conditions like asthma, heart disease or cancer.
Whatever these similarities are, family get-togethers are a prime time to find out more about them. The data you collect about shared traits can help you put together your own personal family health history. Such a history is invaluable in a number of ways. So here are tips to help you get started this holiday season.
What is a family health history?
A family health history is a record of illnesses suffered by blood relatives through several generations. It may consist of health details about grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, siblings, and children. You can collect information about half-brothers, half-sisters, cousins, great-uncles and great-aunts as well.
A typical family history lists and organizes health facts about each relative and may include name, gender, twin status, ethnic background, date and diagnosis of any chronic illnesses and, if deceased, date and cause of death. Additionally, for specific diseases of interest, you can catalog what treatments worked best for family members and any serious adverse effects that occurred.
Why is it important to health?
Family members share genetic makeup – and sometimes environment, lifestyles and habits. Factors that influence the health of your relatives may also govern your own. An accurate family history can help you and your doctor predict your own risk of developing certain disorders or health conditions.
How can it lower disease risk?
Based on your risk, your doctor may be able to recommend steps you can take to prevent a familial disorder. If you have a strong family history of colon cancer, for example, you can reduce your risk by exercising regularly, eating a plant-based diet and making sure you get screened so you can detect cancer early if it occurs. In many cases, making changes like these markedly reduces your risk even though a disease runs in the family. Collecting an accurate family history gives you a head start on prevention.
What diseases are worrisome?
Genetic factors can contribute to nearly every type of illness. Chronic disease commonly associated with family history include breast cancer, colon cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression and other mental illnesses, as well as hearing or vision loss. Rarer inherited ailments such as hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, Huntington’s disease or cystic fibrosis may also run in families.
Key family history features to watch for are diseases that occur prematurely, in more than one close relative, or in combination with other disorders.
What tools ease the task?
U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, M.D., has started a family history initiative to encourage Americans everywhere to document their health histories. The initiative’s Web site can provide you with a free, easy-to-fill-out printable or downloadable form. You can obtain a copy of the form, called “My Family Health Portrait,” by going to www.hhs.gov/familyhistory.
How to use a family history
Carmona makes three suggestions about what to do with your completed family history:
1. Write down or print out your family health history and give a copy to your doctor.
2. Keep the data updated. Regularly share information about your own health condition with your relatives.
3. Pass the history on to your children so that they will have a family health record, too.
Contact Dr. Elizabeth Smoots, a board-certified family physician and fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, at doctor@practicalprevention.com. Her columns are not intended as a substitute for medical advice or treatment. Before adhering to any recommendations in this column, consult your health care provider.
2006 Elizabeth S. Smoots.
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