Thanksgiving Day is not only a time to gather with friends and family to eat a sumptuous meal and count blessings, it’s also National Family Health History Day. The idea is to take a day when everyone in your family is assembled and discuss the family health history, specifically any occurrence of colorectal cancer. Healthcare providers encourage you to use this day to share and care about this and other serious diseases.
Family health history is a record of the diseases and health conditions in your family. You and your family members share genes. You may also have behaviors in common, such as exercise habits and what you like to eat. You may live in the same area and come into contact with similar things in the environment. Family history includes all of these factors, any of which can affect your health.
Collect your family health history
You may know a lot about your family health history or only a little. To get the complete picture, use family gatherings as a time to talk about health history. If possible, look at death certificates and family medical records. Collect information about your parents, sisters, brothers, half-sisters, half-brothers, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews. Include information on major medical conditions, causes of death, age at disease diagnosis, age at death, and ethnic background.
Be sure to update the information regularly and share what you’ve learned with your family and with your healthcare provider. You can use the Surgeon General’s web-based tool called My Family Health Portrait to keep track of the information.
Why family health history is important
Most people have a family health history of at least one chronic disease, such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. If you have a close family member with a chronic disease, you may be more likely to develop that disease yourself, especially if more than one close relative has (or had) the disease or a family member got the disease at a younger age than usual.
Collect your family health history information before visiting your healthcare provider and take it with you. Even if you don’t know all of your family health history information, share what you do know. Family health history information, even if incomplete, can help your healthcare provider decide which screening tests you need and when those tests should start.
Act on your family health history
You can’t change your genes, but you can change unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, not exercising or being active, and poor eating habits. If you have a family health history of disease, you may have the most to gain from lifestyle changes and screening tests. In many cases, healthy habits can reduce your risk for diseases that run in your family. Screening tests, such as blood sugar testing, mammograms, and colorectal cancer screening, help find early signs of disease. Finding disease early can often mean better health in the long run.
Don’t know where to start? My Family Health Portrait can help!
My Family Health Portrait is a free and easy to use online tool to help you collect your family health history information. You can share your information with your family members and doctor.
Have a safe and happy holiday from all of us at Answers Media Network.