It’s well documented that many medical conditions have a
strong genetic component. From cardiovascular disease,
diabetes, and cancer to mental health conditions,
blood-clotting disorders, and cystic fibrosis, a number of
diseases can run in families.
The good news is that by creating a record of your family’s
health conditions, you can help medical professionals better
understand -- and possibly reduce -- the risk that you and your
relatives will develop them, too.
Documenting Your Family Health History
This Thanksgiving -- or any occasion that brings relatives
together -- take the opportunity to discuss and document your
family’s medical history. After all, Thanksgiving is also
National Family History Day, as declared by the U.S. Surgeon
General in 2004.
To underscore the value of the family medical history as a
risk-assessment tool, the Surgeon General’s office recently
rolled out an updated, more user-friendly version of the online
tool My Family Health
Portrait.
For more tips on how to start the conversation with your
relatives and resources to help you record your family health
history, check out Duke Medicine’s Does It Run in the
Family? guides. These booklets were customized especially
for the Duke and Durham community with local stories and
resources.
Does It Run in the Family? A Guide to Family Health History
(PDF)
A Guide for Understanding Genetics and Health (PDF)
Family History Collection Guide (PDF)
Family History Guide to Share with Provider (PDF)
Putting Your History to Work: From Family Tales to
Personalized Medicine
Whether your family documents its health history on paper or
online, you and your relatives will be taking a proactive step
toward keeping healthy.
By sharing your history with your health care providers, you
will give them valuable information that may help them make
better decisions about your care.
At Duke Medicine, for example, clinicians work to help each
patient reduce the odds of disease and improve outcomes by
considering his or her unique needs and risks -- including
those identified by family history.
We also offer a growing array of customized therapies, risk
assessment tests, and prevention programs to provide personalized care for patients
with cancer, heart disease, and a range of other
conditions.
How much of your family's medical history do you know?
