Learning About Your Family History for Medical Reasons

Even beyond as a hobby, genealogy has come into importance as a useful tool in determining links to family ailments. Since most health factors come from genetic links, a family tree is essential in pinpointing inherited diseases.

Some diseases such as alcoholism, heart disease, and certain cancers usually run in families, so it would benefit some who have family histories of such diseases to do a genealogy tree.

Using medical genealogy, doctors can more accurately diagnose people, interpret health patterns in families and more easily help people prevent certain diseases from occurring.

If you decided to embark on a medical genealogy family tree, it is best to start with yourself. Put down any known ailments, diseases or other health facts about yourself that you know. Get your latest medical records to help you if you need them. Then go back generation by generation and see if any diseases occur and whom they affected. Write down birth dates, death dates, age the disease was contracted, and ethnicity of the family member. All this information should be as detailed and thorough as possible in order to get the most accurate depiction of a family's overall health history. Also write down birth defects, emotional issues, and alcohol or drug abuse. When writing these down, it also helps to list the age when some of these illnesses occurred.

An important thing to remember when making a medical genealogy family history is to respect the privacy of other family members. This kind of information is really only intended for use by you and your doctor, not to be posted online or published in a book for all to see.

Some resources for medical genealogies are medical records, living relatives, birth certificates and death certificates. Newspaper obituaries can also provide some useful information regarding family history, as well. You can also reference family bibles and military records to see if any useful information was kept there.

You can use genealogy software to make an organized and complete genealogical record of your family's medical history and present it to your doctor as a genogram; which is a family chart with medical conditions listed. Make sure your doctor has the most organized and updated genogram as possible so he may more accurately diagnose any illness or decide if you are at risk for certain ailments or cancers. The better the information, the easier it is to get early detection and treatment.

Not only has genealogy become a popular hobby, it also has the power and ability to save your life as well! This family medical information can help determine if any conditions that may run in your family be a risk to your own health. Armed with this knowledge, you and your doctor will be able to treat any ailments or illnesses before they become a problem just by knowing your family's general health.