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eLearning Series: Geneology
My Family Tree is Important to Me
( 50 articles in this series )
Medical
Genealogy: Your Family’s Health
Perhaps you do genealogy as a hobby, or perhaps
you are interested in doing it as a profession to get a better
grasp on history. Have you ever considered doing it for the
health of you and your family, though? Medical genealogy is
getting more and more interest from researchers recently. The
reason is that much of what determines your health is likely
inherited from your ancestors. In fact, many medical experts
estimate that 30% of known diseases have some sort of genetic
link. In addition, they feel that a number of known diseases
like certain cancers, alcoholism, and heart disease my run
in certain families.
Many people get into medical genealogy because they realize
that a medical family history can be valuable given the above
information. If you create a family history based on health,
it can be a very useful tool for your doctor. He or she will
be able to interpret patterns of health problems in the history
of your family and thus be able to help you prevent similar
problems for you and your immediate family. They may be even
able to more easily diagnose certain problems you have.
So once you decide you are going to trace back your family’s
medical genealogy you need a starting point. Start in the place
you know best, yourself. Record medical and health facts about
you and write them down. Then work back one generation at a
time. The list of health and medical facts should be fairly
thorough. Include birth and death dates as well as ethnicity
since certain diseases are more common in certain ethnic groups.
Write down any major illnesses such as cancer or heart disease.
Birth defects, allergies, emotional problems, and even alcohol
or drug abuse should be included as well. In addition to being
detailed with your list, make sure you note the age at which
various illnesses or medical conditions occur. You would want
to know, for example, at what point in a relative’s life diabetes
or cancer may have developed.
Remember that when you have all of this information together
that you should respect the privacy of your relatives. The
information you collect is only for you, your doctor, and those
family members who may come after you. So when you go to publish
a family website, for instance, put your genealogy on there,
but skip the medical genealogy so as not to violate the privacy
of any of your family members. Medical genealogy is for information
use only in most cases.
So, how do you go about putting together your medical genealogy?
You will need to use the resources available to you. You may
be able to find information on your medical records and talk
to living relatives, but what about those relatives farther
back who have long since passed away? For them, you will have
to try other methods for tracking down any medical information.
Check out death certificates if you can find them because they
generally will give you a cause of death. Obituaries offer
good information as well. Family bibles, or diaries as well
as military records may also yield useful information on the
health of your ancestors.
Next, organize
the data for your doctor. There are genealogy
software programs that help with putting together family trees.
They can be used for medical genealogy as well. Use the programs
you have or even just a diagram to put together a medical genogram.
A genogram is sort of like a family tree, but has diseases
and medical conditions outlined in the relationships as well.
Your doctor can use this to decide how much you are at risk
for certain diseases or conditions. That way you may be able
to achieve early detection of any diseases and be able to get
them treated early. You may even save your own life with your
genogram.
Genealogy is an increasingly popular hobby. Did you know,
though, that it can also help save your life or improve the
health of your family? It certainly can if you look into your
family’s medical genealogy. Such information on the medical
conditions and diseases that run in your family can be of great
help to you and your doctor in determining your family’s risk
of contracting certain diseases. This, in turn, can result
in early detection and treatment of these conditions, which
can sometimes be serious. So take some time and put together
your family medical genealogy and you just might improve your
family’s health. # # # # #
by SolveYourProblem.com
: 2006
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