Take time to create family health history, it could save a life - Life - Press and Guide

Take time to create family health history, it could save a life

By Dr. Nelson Lytle

Many factors are involved with whether a person contracts a serious illness or health condition, including their health habits, their environment and genetics.

Knowing the health problems that run in their family may prompt someone to improve their diet and lifestyle and hopefully avoid developing the same ailment as their relatives.

Reviewing a family health history can help a physician determine which conditions a patient may be at risk of developing and enable him or her to make recommendations to reduce that risk, such as lifestyle changes or getting tested for specific illnesses.

Taking the time to develop a family health history may be beneficial to you as well as your children and grandchildren.

Older adults may be in a particularly good position to begin putting such a history together, as they likely have knowledge of earlier generations.

Begin by talking to parents, siblings and children. If your parents are no longer living, write down as much information about their health as you can, such as major illnesses, their ages when they died and the cause of death.

Information from slightly more distant relatives — grandparents, aunts, uncles, half- brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews — is also useful. The National Institute on Aging recommends asking the following questions:

What is your age or date of birth?

• Do you have any chronic conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma or high blood pressure?

• Have you had any other serious illnesses, such as cancer or stroke?

• How old were you when you developed these illnesses?

• Have you or your partner had any problems with pregnancies or childbirth?

• Has anyone in the family had birth defects, learning problems or developmental disabilities, such as Down’s syndrome?

It’s also helpful to include the countries your ancestors came from, as some illnesses occur more frequently in certain population groups.

In addition to the health problems referred to above, others that can run in families include Alzheimer’s disease, blood clots, stroke, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Examples of specific conditions discovered in a family history that would require definite follow up and screening of even asymptomatic family members would be abdominal aortic aneurysm and ovarian cancer.

Genetic diseases can include Huntington’s, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy.

Genetic testing may be called for if a person has a family history of an inherited disease; illnesses such as cancer or heart disease, particularly if family members developed those illnesses earlier than normal; or if your ancestral background places you at greater risk of developing a certain disease.

Many illnesses are treatable if they are detected in the early stages.

Even if you find you and your family members are at risk of developing certain illnesses, a healthy lifestyle can help reduce that risk.

Watching what you eat, controlling your weight, exercising, not smoking and limiting the amount of alcohol consumed can help delay or prevent the chance of developing such illnesses as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

It may not be possible to get complete information on all of your relatives, but don’t let that deter you. Whatever information you can collect is better than nothing, and it can be added to as your family grows so future generations will have a more complete record.

If you’ve adopted a child, check with the adoption agency to see if there’s information that can be provided to you, or ask a social service agency if it can provide assistance.

If you were adopted, begin by recording your pertinent health information and that of your spouse and his or her family and provide that to your biological children and grandchildren.

While you can use a family tree to develop a family history and record the health information in a notebook, the U.S. Surgeon General has developed print (hhs.gov/familyhistory/portrait/portraiteng.pdf) and online (https://familyhistory.hhs.gov) tools to help organize the information.

The print version provides forms on which to record the information, which can then be shared with your physician and family members.

The online tool will organize the information into a chart that can be shared with relatives.

Whichever method you choose, add in information as your family grows and when people develop illnesses and when they die.

It will benefit your family now and in succeeding generations.

Nelson Lytle, M.D., is an internist at Henry Ford Medical Center-Fairlane in Dearborn.

For an appointment, call (800) HENRYFORD
Take time to create family health history, it could save a life - Life - Press and Guide