The Importance of Family Health History
What diseases and conditions run in your family? For your doctor, the answers to that question can be a significant part of your care.
Your family history is like a roadmap for your care, giving your providers an idea of what can be expected during your health journey and what sort of preventative steps you can take to make sure that journey is as smooth as possible.
What is family health history?
Many of us know at least a little bit about the health and wellness of our immediate family, like whether one of your parents has high blood pressure or if your sibling has an allergy.
However, a complete family health history is a very comprehensive record of your health information along with the health information of as many relatives as possible. The National Library of Medicine suggests you keep the health history of at least three generations of your immediate family members.
Why is family health history important?
Because families share genes and often similar environments and lifestyles, your doctor is able to take your health history and come up with a list of risk factors and offer preventative care and advice.
Even if you cannot gather all of your family's health information, what you do provide is essential for your doctor to identify patterns in your family's history and learn if you are at higher-than-normal chance of developing certain conditions.
How does your doctor use family health history?
Knowing your family health history gives you and your doctor the ability to know your risks and ensure you receive the most effective and personalized care possible. Additionally, your family history can help determine what kinds of screenings your provider should be including in your care and how soon and frequently you should be getting screened.
There are a lot of conditions that can be passed down from generation to generation, including:
- Certain cancers such as breast, colon and ovarian cancer
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Osteoporosis
While not all genetic conditions are passed down from your parents or grandparents, your family history can suggest possible lifestyle changes you may want to consider lowering your risks. This can include things like making a tweak in your diet or changing your exercise habits.
Where do you find your family health history?
For many of us, our family history is collected by word of mouth during family gatherings or shared stories. But if you are actively gathering health information, you should start by reaching out to relatives and asking them about their health. Are they experiencing any conditions? If so, when did they start?
If you or a family member has collected medical records, these will be extremely helpful in putting together a complete picture of your health history.
Having the opportunity to ask your siblings, parents, aunts and uncles their health history is not always available. The CDC provides health history tips for those individuals who do not have access to family health history.
With EvergreenHealth's MyChart, your family history is made available to you and your doctor, no matter where they are in the EvergreenHealth system. This allows you and your providers the ability to easily access your risk factors and understand what preventative steps you should consider as well as the best treatment options for you.
This gives you and your family the ability to safely share your health history with each other and your providers, making your care as comprehensive and personalized as possible.
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