Family History You Need to Know
November 23, 2021
Your immediate family’s health history can provide important clues to your own health, including the symptoms and conditions to look out for and tips for keeping your body and mind healthy. But unlocking these clues means understanding your parents' health records as well as your own.
"Not only does knowing our family's history allow us to know where we come from, it can also hint at our possible future," says Dr. Emi Rendon Pope, a board-certified internist at Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group. "The secrets to genes are still being explored, but it is clear that some medical traits lies within our families."
Questions to Ask Your Parents About Their Health
Before your next doctor visit, ask your parents these questions about their health:
Have you ever had cancer?
This one might be obvious, but it’s possible that your parents had cancer before you were born or when you were too young to understand. Certain gene mutations, which children inherit from their parents, can increase a person’s risk of cancer. In breast cancer, for example, genetic mutations cause about 5% to 10% of instances of the disease. Colon cancer is also highly linked to genetics: Nearly 1 in 3 people diagnosed with the disease have relatives who have had it.
“Colon cancer and breast cancer are two of the many different diseases which can be passed down through family lines," Dr. Rendon Pope says. "In addition to knowing what type of cancer, it is important to know when a loved one was diagnosed. That information can help determine if you need to start being screened early.”
Read More: Genetic Testing for Cancer: Do You Need It?
How’d your pregnancy with me go?
Some conditions common during pregnancy can affect fertility and pregnancy for children. For example, about 20% to 40% of women with polycystic ovary syndrome, where the ovaries don’t release eggs normally, have a mother or sister with the syndrome and are at higher risk of miscarriage and infertility.
Have you ever had heart problems?
Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S., and understanding your family’s heart health is a big part of minimizing your risk. An enlarged heart and cardiac amyloidosis, or the presence of abnormal protein in the heart tissue, are among conditions you can inherit. These should prompt conversations with your doctor.
"Risks to develop heart disease can be seen in family history," Dr. Rendon Pope says. "For example, knowing that a family member developed early heart attacks or congestive heart failure can alert your primary care physician that you may need more aggressive therapy to avoid developing these complications yourself."
Read More: 4 Ways to Take Charge of Your Heart Health
What about migraines?
“Unfortunately, migraines are one of the many medical conditions that tend to be passed down from one generation to the next," Dr. Rendon Pope says. "There has been shown to be a genetic component to several forms of migraines."
Familial hemiplegic migraines, for example, run in families. In addition to intense, throbbing pain, these headaches cause nausea, vomiting and extreme sensitivity to light and sound, and they usually appear during childhood or adolescence.
How’s your mental health?
This can be a sensitive subject, so try to appeal to the family’s well-being — yours and theirs.
“Mental illness may be due to genetics, environment or both,” Dr. Rendon Pope says. “Some disorders, like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, are more commonly found to have a hereditary component.”
Although knowing your parents’ mental health history can help you better identify symptoms, however, it doesn’t guarantee that you will have the same experiences or illness.
Read More: Dealing With Anxiety? You're Not Alone
Learn More About Your Family History
Most people have someone in their family with at least one chronic health issue. If you have a close family member with a chronic disease, such as diabetes, cancer or heart concerns, you may be more likely to develop that disease yourself, especially if more than one relative has (or had) it.
Even if you don’t know all of your family health history information, share what you do know with your primary care provider. Family health history information, even if incomplete, can help your doctor decide which screening tests you need and when those tests should start.
The Surgeon General offers the web-based tool My Family Health Portrait to help you collect your family health history information to share with your doctor and family members.
