Let's Get Serious: Hereditary Health Issues

Family history is great! It opens up the door for so many questions - Where did our family come from? What was grandma/grandpa like? Who are the people in these family photos? So forth and so on. We get so excited making all of these fascinating discoveries, that we we oftentimes fail to ask one major question - What can you tell me about our family health?

It is so important to know if there is anything we may be predisposed to, so that we know how to deal with it. 

My mother suffered a stroke and so did her mother. I know that I don't handle stress well - I never have. I'm not getting any younger and I'd be lying if I said I never worried at the thought of having a stroke. Of course this is something that I would never want to happen to me, but I never talked to my mother in depth about her health and her family's health. At this point, I have no way of knowing whether they had certain hereditary traits that put them at a higher risk for stroke, or if it was just simply the result of poor food choices, lack of exercise, etc. In my research of my mother's family, there are also a couple of cases of the same type of cancer, which leads me to ponder some things that I know I will never be able to get the answers to.

On the flip side, my father appears to be in as close to perfect health as someone his age could be. The more I think about it, he always has been (in my opinion anyway). We've talked  about people in his family who have suffered from things like heart disease and diabetes in particular. Based on the information provided, it sounds like these issues could have been the result of a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. Genetics could be a factor, but because no one really discussed health, I can't say for certain. I also remember my father remarking once that he was nervous about approaching a certain age, because his father and grandfather both had heart attacks at that age. He was soon able to breath a sigh of relief when he reached that age and did not have a heart attack. To this day, I still do not know if there were contributing factors that put his father and grandfather at risk for having a heart attack.

Since I have limited family health history information, I now make some generalizations about my health based on my parents' health history. So the way I see this thing is that I have a 50/50 shot of having close to perfect health like my father too (smile)! Knowing that my odds are straight down the middle, I want to make sure I am doing everything I can to have the most favorable outcome. That primarily means:

1. Having discussions with my family about my health and their health. If one of my siblings may have a certain issue, I want to be certain whether or not I may also be at risk for that issue and vice versa. 
2. Having a better diet, staying active, and staying on top of routine checkups. 

I will also say that if you're starting a family or thinking about starting a family, it is so important to find out about your mate's health and what runs in their family. Family Friday is coming up and that would be a good opportunity to discuss health with your family. You don't have to wait until Friday though, you can have that conversation today!

You can use this printable Family Health Portrait from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, to get started collecting your family health history.