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When gathering with loved ones this Thanksgiving, discuss family health history
November 24, 2015
For Immediate Release: November 24, 2015
LANSING, Mich. – Thanksgiving is a traditional time when families gather to share food, conversations, and stories, which provides an important opportunity to discuss family health history. To encourage these potentially lifesaving conversations, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is recognizing Thanksgiving as National Family History Day.
Family health history is medical history information about a person’s living and deceased relatives, and should include information about a person’s ethnicity as such information can help physicians evaluate the risks for many disorders and common, chronic, adult onset conditions such as cancer.
Health care professionals have known for a long time that common diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes can run in families. Take time to better understand your family's health history and then share this information with your health care provider.
Early identification of individuals at risk for common diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, obesity and various cancers, coupled with early intervention services and screening, may save lives and improve long-term chances of a healthy life. Family members share genes, environment, lifestyles and behaviors, the combination of which can determine the risk of common diseases.
Family history can change and risks can emerge over time. Based on your family health history, your health care provider will come to know you and your family’s potential health risks and be able to recommend appropriate screening or treatment.
A variety of materials and tools are available online to help you ask the right questions and collect information about your family members’ health. MDHHS offers Michigan family health history fact cards available for order online, and the Surgeon General’s My Family Health Portrait tool helps individuals organize, print, and share family history information with a physician.
A paper version of the Surgeon General’s My Family Health Portrait tool is available for print online at http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/portrait/portraiteng.pdf.
For more information about genetics and cancer, visit http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/geneticsandcancer/index
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