New Tools to Track Your Family Health History

As knowledge grows about inherited causes of disease, new efforts are under way to help patients construct a simple but important research tool: the family health history.

Study: Family Health History A Powerful, Underused Tool

"I view family health histories as back to the future," says Dr. Charis Eng, a cancer geneticist at the Cleveland Clinic's Genomic Medicine Institute. "It's the best-kept secret in health care."

A Priceless Gift: Your Family Health History

Conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes often run in families. Tracing the illnesses of your parents, grandparents, and other blood relatives can help your health care practitioner predict your risk for specific disorders. It could suggest vital screening tests and treatments before any disease is evident. That’s why it’s so important to discuss your family’s health history.

How to Do a Family Medical History

“Family history is, I would argue, one of the most important predictors of disease,” says Joshua Schiffman, who treats and studies pediatric and inherited cancers at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute. And it’s only more critical with personalized medicine’s progress. As doctors amass increasingly large databases of genetic details about disease risk and sophisticated methods of detecting and treating familial conditions, an old-school record of who had what actually becomes even more important in deploying them.

'A Fatal Inheritance' follows a family's struggle with cancer across generations

NPR's Scott Simon talks to Larry Ingrassia, former managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, about his latest book, "A Fatal Inheritance," which details his family's struggle with cancer.

A Grieving Family Wonders: What if They Had Known the Medical History of Sperm Donor 1558?

Steven Gunner battled mental illness before a fatal overdose. It turns out his biological father had his own psychiatric problems.

Ancestry Tests Produced Shocking Results. Should I Tell My Family?

The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on the burden that comes with obtaining genealogical information.

Black Lives Are Shorter in Chicago. My Family’s History Shows Why.

How did a Promised Land to generations of Black families become a community of lost lives?

Can family history be used as a tool for public health and preventive medicine?

In the absence of genetic testing, we postulate that family history can be used as a tool to stratify risk for common chronic diseases and thereby identify individuals with increased disease susceptibility.

Examining the Heart of Family Medicine: Family History

There is a long legacy of family history use in primary care for multiple purposes; in fact, family—in the biologic and social sense—forms the basis of the family medicine specialty. Collection of family history remains the standard of care in prenatal and preconception settings, and is potentially life saving for conditions such as the hereditary cancer syndromes.

Genetic testing brings families together

And sometimes tears them apart.

Learning About Ourselves From Genealogy

For people who feel driven to explore their ancestry, compiling a family tree is often about rediscovering something that’s been lost.

My Husband Unearthed His Biological Family’s History. Oh No.

My husband was raised by loving parents after a closed adoption. As older parents, we’ve always tried to be extra careful about planning ahead for our kids because we may not always be there. After a health scare last year, he did some digging and made some requests. Eventually, he was able to get medical information about his bio dad’s family. Bio dad was not interested in any other communication though. His bio dad has schizophrenia, and so did one of his bio uncles and his bio grandfather. There are some other health issues that run in the family, but this is the biggest one.

Solving the Cancer Mystery That Devastated My Family

For decades, Lawrence Ingrassia wondered why so many of his loved ones got cancer. Then a team of dedicated researchers discovered the gene p53.

The Life-Saving Secrets in Your Family Tree

Each year, when Dale Kagan's cousins gather for the Rosh Hashana holiday, they catch her up on important family news like births and marriages -- and the results of their colonoscopies.

The Questions We Don’t Ask Our Families but Should

Many people don’t know very much about their older relatives. But if we don’t ask, we risk never knowing our own history.

Their DNA Hides a Warning, but They Don’t Want to Know What It Says

Some volunteers for biobanks, which collect genetic information to study health across populations, have been surprised to be informed they carry risky mutations.

What doctors wish patients knew about their family health history

Understanding and sharing one’s family health history is a pivotal aspect of proactive health care management. By openly communicating and documenting family health history, patients can provide physicians with valuable insights into potential genetic susceptibilities and hereditary conditions. It also establishes a foundation for more personalized and targeted medical care.

What It’s Like to Fill in the Gaps in Your Health History When You’re Adopted

For the first 18 years of my life, my family history was a complete mystery. I was adopted as a baby, and while at times that reality has been painful, I was extremely fortunate to have been raised by two of the kindest people who were simply meant to be parents. But despite having an idyllic childhood, I spent a lot of time imagining my birth family. I wondered what they looked like, what their voices sounded like, and if they shared my interests and passions.