How to Test to See if You Have a Family Member

Has your mother or sister had breast cancer? Does your mother, begetter, sister, or brother have diabetes? Did your mother, father, brother, or sister accept colorectal (colon) cancer before age l? If you answered "yep," yous are more than probable to get the same affliction as your parent or sibling and should consider earlier screening. Talk to your dr. about when to showtime screening and what other steps to take to prevent the disease or find it early on. Finding disease early on can frequently mean better health in the long run.

Did y'all know that Thanksgiving is besides National Family History Day? Even if yous don't accept a parent or sibling with cancer or diabetes, yous might be more likely to become a disease if other people in your family unit take or had the illness. However, having a family health history of a disease doesn't mean that you will definitely get it. Knowing your family health history run a risk can help yous—if you human action on information technology. Collecting your family health history is an of import kickoff footstep. Whether you know a lot near your family health history or just a trivial, have time to talk to your family near their health histories this holiday season. It might not be like shooting fish in a barrel. Your family unit members might non be used to talking virtually their diseases or might non want to talk. But starting the conversation is important. Remember, you lot're asking not merely for your ain health, but for the health of anybody in your family.

Don't know where to kickoff? My Family Wellness Portrait can help!

My Family Health Portrait is a free and like shooting fish in a barrel to employ online tool to help you collect your family unit health history information. You lot can share your information with your family members and doctor.

How to Collect Your Family Health History

• Talk to your family unit. Write down the names of your close relatives from both sides of the family unit: parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews. Talk to these family members most what conditions they have or had, and at what historic period the atmospheric condition were first diagnosed. Yous might recall you know about all of the conditions in your parents or siblings, but you might find out more information if y'all ask.
• Enquire questions. To notice out about your risk for chronic diseases, ask your relatives near which of these diseases they have had and when they were diagnosed. Questions can include:
  • Do you have any chronic diseases, such every bit center disease or diabetes, or health conditions, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol?
  • Have you had any other serious diseases, such as cancer or stroke? What blazon of cancer?
  • How old were you when each of these diseases or health conditions was diagnosed? (If your relative doesn't think the exact historic period, knowing the gauge age is still useful.)
  • What is your family's ancestry? From what countries or regions did your ancestors come to the The states?
  • What were the causes and ages of death for relatives who take died?
• Record the information and update it whenever you learn new family wellness history data. My Family unit Health Portrait, a free spider web-based tool, is helpful in organizing the information in your family health history. My Family Health Portrait allows you lot to share this information hands with your doctor and other family members.
• Share family health history information with your dr. and other family members. If you are concerned almost diseases that are mutual in your family, talk with your dr. at your next visit. Even if you don't know all of your family health history data, share what you do know. Family health history information, fifty-fifty if incomplete, tin can aid your dr. make up one's mind which screening tests you need and when those tests should outset.

If you have a medical condition, such as cancer, heart illness, or diabetes, exist sure to let your family members know about your diagnosis. If you accept had genetic testing done, share your results with your family unit members. If you are 1 of the older members of your family, you may know more than about diseases and health conditions in your family, especially in relatives who are no longer living. Exist sure to share this information with your younger relatives so that y'all may all benefit from knowing this family health history information.

How to Human action on Your Family Health History

Knowing about your family health history of a disease can motivate you to take steps to lower your chances of getting the affliction. You can't change your family health history, but y'all tin can change unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, non exercising or being active, and poor eating habits. Talk with your medico nigh steps that you can take, including whether you should consider early screening for the disease. If you accept a family health history of illness, you may have the most to gain from lifestyle changes and screening tests.

What you can exercise if you have a family wellness history of

• Colorectal cancer: If y'all take a female parent, father, sister, brother, or other shut family fellow member who had colorectal cancer before historic period 50 or have multiple close family members with colorectal cancer, talk to your doctor nigh whether yous should have screening starting at a younger historic period, beingness done more than frequently, and using colonoscopy only instead of other tests. In some cases, your doctor may recommend that yous take genetic counseling, and a genetic counselor may recommend genetic testing based on your family health history.
• Breast or ovarian cancer: If yous take a parent, sibling, or kid with breast cancer, talk to your doctor near when you should start mammography screening. If your relative was diagnosed with breast cancer before age fifty, if y'all have a close relative with ovarian cancer, or if you have a male relative with breast cancer, your doctor might refer you for cancer genetic counseling to observe out if genetic testing is correct for y'all. In some cases, your md might recommend taking tamoxifen, raloxifene,  or aromatase inhibitors, drugs that can decrease risk of developing chest cancer in some women.
• Center illness: If you have a family wellness history of middle affliction, you lot tin take steps to lower your chances of getting eye affliction. These steps tin include eating a healthy nutrition, existence physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, limiting your alcohol use, having whatsoever screening tests that your doc recommends, and, in some cases, taking medication. If you or a family member has LDL cholesterol levels over 190 mg/dL (or over 160 mg/dL in children), talk to your doctor about getting checked for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), especially if you lot have a family health history of early heart affliction or heart attacks. If you have FH, you might need to take additional steps to maintain your wellness.
• Diabetes: If your mother, father, brother, or sister has type 2 diabetes, you and your other family members could have prediabetes and are more likely to get type 2 diabetes. While nearly people with type 2 diabetes are older adults, more and more than children, teens, and young adults are developing type 2 diabetes. But at that place are important steps you and your children can take to forestall blazon ii diabetes and opposite prediabetes if you take it. Take this testexternal icon to detect out if you or your family unit members could have prediabetes. Enquire your md whether you need before screening for diabetes. Find out more about the National Diabetes Prevention Program'due south lifestyle change program and how to detect a plan virtually you.  Take the Diabetes Run a risk Testexternal icon to observe out if you are at adventure for blazon 2 diabetes and larn how to forestall type ii diabetesexternal icon.
• Osteoporosis: This is a medical condition where basic become weak and are more than likely to break. A family wellness history of osteoporosis is one of a number of factors that make yous more likely to develop osteoporosis. For example, if you are a white adult female whose mother or father fractured a hip, talk to your md about screening for osteoporosis earlier (at nigh age 55, compared with age 65 for most women). You can use the FRAX Risk Assessment toolexternal icon to learn if you should be screened.
• Hereditary Hemochromatosis: Hereditary hemochromatosis is a disorder in which the body can build upward likewise much iron and can lead to serious liver damage and other issues. If you lot accept a blood brother or sis with hemochromatosis, you may be more likely to develop the condition yourself. Talk to your doc almost testing for hemochromatosis and whether y'all should accept steps to lower the amount of iron in your body.

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Source: https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/famhistory/knowing_not_enough.htm

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