Why is it important to know my family history?
Family members share more than similar looks. You may recognize that you have your father’s curly hair or your mother’s button nose. But it’s not so easy to see that your great-grandmother passed along an increased risk for both breast and ovarian cancer.
That’s why discovering and knowing your family health history is important. Your medical history includes all the traits your family shares that you can’t see. These traits may increase your risk for many hereditary conditions and diseases, including:
- cancer
- diabetes
- 哮喘
- 心脏病和血块
- Alzheimer’s disease and dementia
- arthritis
- depression
- 高血压和高胆固醇
Keep reading to learn how to gather your health history and what information you should include.
The general rule for family health history is that more is better. First, you’ll want to focus on immediate family members who are related to you through blood. Start with your parents, siblings, and children.
如果他们还活着，祖父母将是另一个不错的起点。他们可能知道您家庭许多成员的部分历史。
您还可以从阿姨，叔叔以及其他血液亲戚那里收集信息。
| Family members to include | 您不需要包括的家庭成员 |
| parents | stepparents and stepsiblings |
| 兄弟姐妹 | adoptive parents and adoptive siblings |
| your children | 配偶，除非他们也与血液有关 |
| 叔叔阿姨 | 叔叔阿姨who married into your family (meaning they aren’t siblings of one of your parents) |
| nieces and nephews | 兄弟姐妹的配偶，除非他们有血 |
| grandparents and great-grandparents |
一旦您超越了这个家庭核心圈子，遗传妆容就会发生很大的变化，以至于您可能无法对自己的风险了解太多。不过，请在寻找病史期间为您学习的任何家庭成员提供方便的信息。这可能会有所帮助。
Talking about health may not come naturally to you or your family. You can start the conversation by letting your family members know why you want to gather health information. Also, let them know that you’re willing to share information with them, so that you can all have more complete health histories. It may be easier to start out by having one-on-one conversations.
获取正确的信息
When you’re ready to gather family health history information, keep these things in mind:
Major medical issues:询问与您密切相关的每个主要医疗问题。在这个事实调查阶段，没有什么太小，尽管仅当原因是遗传学的问题才是显着的。莱姆病，受伤和由外部因素引起的其他因素无法遗传。
Causes of death:找出去世的任何家庭成员的死亡原因。这也可能为您的家庭病史提供了线索。
Age of onset:询问何时将每个家庭成员诊断为每种情况。这可能有助于您的医生认识到某些疾病的早期发作。
Ethnic background:Different ethnicities have varying levels of risk for certain conditions. As best you can, identify your ethnic background to help spot potential health risks.
Environment:Families share common genes, but they also share common environments, habits, and behaviors. A complete family history also includes understanding what factors in your environment could impact your health.
5个问题要问
Here are some questions you can ask to start the conversation:
- How old was my relative when they died, and what was the cause of death?
- Are there health problems that run in the family?
- Is there a history of pregnancy loss or birth defects in my family?
- What allergies do people in my family have?
- What is my ethnicity? (Some conditions are common among certain ethnicities.)
Make sure you write down or electronically document the health information your relatives provide. You can use thisform记录您的家庭健康史。只需每个家庭成员填写一张表格即可。您还可以自己填写表格，并与家人分享。
Once you’ve collected all this information, you need to store it somewhere safe. You can use your own personal computer, but safe digital storage options are also available. For example, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the surgeon general offer a web-based tool calledFamily Health Portrait。You can store, save, and share your family history using this tool. Look for other options, like ancestry websites and smartphone apps.
了解你自己的健康历史是很重要的,但是sharing it with your doctor may be more important. That’s because your doctor can help you interpret what it means for your current lifestyle, suggest prevention tips, and decide on screening or testing options for conditions you may be more at risk for developing.
The genes you’re born with can’t be changed or altered. If you know your family history, you’re one step ahead of the game. You can take the initiative to adopt healthier lifestyle habits. For example, you could decide to stopsmokingor drinking酒精, or to start exercising regularly and maintaining ahealthy weight。这些生活方式的改变可能会减少您发展遗传条件的机会。
Even a family health history that’s incomplete is still useful to your doctor. Share any information you have with them.
例如，如果您知道您的兄弟姐妹被诊断出colon cancer在35岁时，您的医生可能会怀疑可能的遗传问题。然后，他们可能会决定在建议50岁之前进行定期的结肠癌筛查很重要。您的医生还建议您接受遗传咨询或测试以识别任何遗传风险。
Environment plays an important part in your health history, and you can get the details for this from your adoptive family. Learning more about your birth family’s health history may require a large investment of time and energy.
Ask your adoptive parents if they have any information about your birth parents. It’s possible family health history information was shared during the adoption process. If not, ask the agency that arranged the adoption if they retained any personal health history information for your birth parents. Understand您所在州的法规在您开始请求采用历史信息之前。
如果所有这些途径都短，您可能需要选择寻找亲生父母。您可能不希望追求这条路线，或者您可能无法与他们建立联系。在这种情况下，请提醒您的医生您的个人历史。然后，你们两个可以努力确定筛选和检测某些条件风险的方法。
If you’re estranged from only part of your family, you can try a few things to collect your family health history:
与您联系的家庭成员交谈。You may not need to reconnect with your whole family to collect your family health history.
通过您的医生伸出手。Some medical offices may be able to send out questionnaires to family members asking for information in an official capacity. This may prompt people to respond.
做一些研究。You may be able to discover the cause of death of your relatives from death certificates. Search online to find state-specific death records or check ancestry sites for this information. Obituaries, often available online or archived by public libraries, might also provide health information.
某些种族背景和种族可能会倾向于对基因检测有用的条件。例如，阿什肯纳兹犹太血统的妇女有一个increased risk用于乳腺癌。在这些女性中，特定的基因突变比其他女性更常见。Genetic screeningmay help your doctor detect this gene mutation and prepare you for treatment options early.
Although genetic tests can help identify potential risks you may have inherited for a specific disease, they don’t guarantee that you’ll develop that disease. Results may show you have a predisposition to several conditions. While you may never actually develop any of these, you might feel the added anxiety isn’t worth the knowledge. Seriously consider the benefits and concerns you may have with knowing your genetic risk factors before you do any testing.
了解您的健康病史可以帮助您更加积极地对健康。与您的医生分享此信息，以便他们可以尽早筛选您易于使用的条件，并建议选择生活方式，以帮助您降低风险。
Also talk to your doctor if you need more help figuring out how to uncover your health history or what questions you should ask.