FAMILY HEALTH HISTORY: Know your past; protect your future!
This summer as you plan for family reunions, don’t forget to take time to talk about your family health history. Family reunions are the perfect time to learn about and share, not only your genealogy but your family health history as well. And for some families, knowing this information could be life-saving. This is because many health problems like heart disease, asthma, cancer, and diabetes tend to run in families. When close family members have the same health problem or develop a problem at a younger age than expected, this can increase other family members’ risk of developing the problem. But the good news is, by learning about your family health history, you can make healthy choices to lower your risk.
To help families talk about and share their family health history, the Utah Department of Health developed a free Family Health History Toolkit. The toolkit contains a pedigree chart, fun ideas, and talking points you can use with family members to collect about your family health history.
To get a free Family Health History Toolkit visit www.health.utah.gov/genomics or call the Health Resource Line at 1-888-222-2542.
From Federation of Genealogical Societies “FGS Delegate Digest” Volume 13, No. 9, July 2006
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