When you or your loved one first sees a doctor, you will typically be asked for a family medical history. This is no stroll down Memory Lane: a family medical history contains a wealth of information that can help guide clinicians in caring for their patient.
Many diseases, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, blood clots, arthritis, and certain types of cancer, “run in families.” Diseases and chronic conditions can also be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, and families share both.
By informing medical practitioners of health conditions that affected any of your relatives, you enable them to recommend ways to reduce your own risk of the condition. It also alerts them to keep an eye out for symptoms of specific problems, should they begin to appear.
In order to give the fullest, most helpful medical history, it is important to know:
Most people don’t have all the pertinent health information about their families at their fingertips, so it’s important to do research, particularly if you suspect there is a family history of medical problems. This research might be a simple as asking family members —especially older family members, who are usually treasure troves of family history — or it might require researching family medical records and death certificates.
The Surgeon General has released a web-based tool, My Family Health Portrait, that helps you collect and store family history. One of the benefits of this tool is that it allows you to send your partially completed medical history to other family members, who can fill in some of the blanks. The information is not shared with anyone other than the people you choose.
You can access this tool here.
Whether a condition that runs in your family is caused by nature or nurture, you share much in common with your family, and it’s in everyone’s interest to have as complete a family medical history as possible. Taking the time to gather accurate information is an important part of keeping yourself, and your loved ones, healthy.
At the Regency Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers, we offer the very best of care in the most appropriate and patient-centered environment. This means always listening to our residents and patients and respecting their capabilities, while helping them to achieve maximum functionality and independence. And always maintaining the highest professional and quality standards in our staff and our facilities. Our 25 years of excellent care have led to us being awarded a Best Nursing Homes award by US News & World Today, a 5-Star rating by USA Today, and an A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau, among many other awards.
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