It might not be widely known, but there is actually a way that your ancestors can help you with looking after your health, even long after they themselves have passed away. This interesting guide will outline the link between your family history and taking care of your health today so that you are able to live life to the fullest.
The link between family history and health
Understanding how health and family history are interlinked is the first step to making the needed changes in your life to become a more healthy person and ensure that you live a long life.
Family members share their genes, as well as their environment, and lifestyles and your relatives will have passed these things on to you. Everyone can recognize traits such as hair color, dimples, leanness, or athletic ability that run in their families but what is also encoded into your genes is your susceptibility to diseases. Risks for conditions such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease also run in families. Everyone’s family history of disease is different. The key features of a family history that may increase risk are:
- Diseases that occur at an earlier age than expected (10 to 20 years before most people get the disease)
- Disease in more than one close relative
- Disease that does not usually affect a specific gender (for example, breast cancer in a male)
- Certain combinations of diseases within a family (for example, breast and ovarian cancer, or heart disease and diabetes)
If you find that your family has one or more of these features, your family history may hold vital clues about your risk for disease. People with a family history may have the most to gain from lifestyle changes and screening tests.
What kind of diseases are likely to be passed down the generations?
Of course, while some diseases can be passed down from your relative before you, many cannot be, so it is of vital importance that you know the kind of thing you should be looking out for when you investigate your genealogy.
The most common genetic disorders you should have your eye out for are:
- Huntington’s
- Cystic Fibrosis
- Marfan Syndrome
- Sickle cell anemia
As well as this, charting your family’s history with things such as cancer can help to determine if you are at high or low risk of developing the disease later on in your life.
How can you find out about your ancestors?
Now that you have a better grasp of the link between your ancestor and your health, you need to know how to access the information about those who came before you to identify the risks you may be facing. You can find out about your ancestors by looking at the social security death index and taking note of the different ways and ages your relatives died will give you vital information about your health.
By doing your research and getting screened for things early, you might just find that your ancestry could save your life in the future.
