Talking to Your Doctor
Shape Your Future With Your Family History
Let’s face it - you can’t change your family. But based on knowledge you gain from them, you may be able to change your future by taking steps to prevent or better manage the diseases and conditions that may be lurking throughout your family tree.
In previous generations it was relatively common to live within a few miles of your relatives. Today’s families are often scattered throughout the country and even the world. As a result, many of us have lost important clues to our health which can be found with relatives.
Learning your family’s medical history and sharing it with your physician can enable him or her to take better care of you. Your doctor can use this information to interpret your individual risk for certain diseases, implement a personalized treatment plan to manage those risks, and recommend appropriate wellness strategies based upon the health of your parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Tips to Staying Organized and Getting Informed
There are many ways to store and organize your family’s medical history. One way is organizing your family health history into three tiers.
- Tier One is your immediate family – parents, siblings, children.
- Tier Two includes aunts, uncles and grandparents.
- Tier Three is cousins, great grandparents and great aunts and uncles.
Another way to keep all your information organized is in a Personal Health Record (PHR). Your PHR already houses all your medical history and claims data – just add your family members’ information to it. If you don’t have a PHR, another tool you can use is “My Family Health Portrait” provided by the U.S. Surgeon General’s Family History Initiative. Housed on their website, this tool lets you input information on you and your family and manage diseases that can be traced through families.
Family gatherings are a great time to gain insight into your family’s medical past. Perhaps you have an uncle who never partakes in desserts. Take the time to find out if there is a medical reason why he doesn’t eat them or if he just doesn’t like sweets. Knowing these types of answers and sharing them with your doctor can help keep maintain your health, while at the same time reconnecting with your family tree.
Additional Information
Here are a few websites that offer additional information on the importance of your family medical history and facts about genetic testing:
