Family Medical History Tree: Six Reasons to Have One

As medical science continues to discover disease-related genetic links, it is important for you to be armed with your family medical history.

The more complete your personal and family medical history, the more clues you can provide your clinicians as you help them piece your story together to make a diagnosis.

A Medical History Family Tree will assist you and your healthcare team in the following ways:

• Helping to make a diagnosis
• Assessing your risk of developing conditions other family members have
• Determining tests needed to monitor for those conditions
• Determining lifestyle habits that are right for you
• Identifying the risk level of other family members
• Determining if you are at risk of passing a condition(s) to your offspring

The most important family members to include are your parents, siblings and your children. By talking with relatives, you can share things you’ve each learned about conditions you have in common. You might even realize you need seek care for symptoms you’ve ignored or to be tested for a condition that is more prevalent in your family than you thought. Talk with your relatives or send them a survey. Once you’ve assembled the tree share it. You never know who or how it might help one of your family members.

To learn more go to www.savvypatienttoolkit.com