While enjoying a nutritious diet, drinking plenty of water, taking vitamins, and getting enough sleep and exercise are among the pillars of a healthy life, it is just as important to know your family’s health history. Complete family history records date back three generations and include your grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews in addition to your parents and siblings. Learn what makes a full understanding of this personal history so essential to your health.

Why Do I Need to Know My Family’s Health History?

Your Disease & Condition Risk

As you collect information on your family’s health history from speaking with relatives, reviewing medical and death certificate records, and discovering your ethnic background, you learn what diseases and conditions have been most prevalent among your relations. Perhaps a few family members on your mother’s side had heart disease, or numerous paternal relatives dealt with hypertension, diabetes, or osteoarthritis.

You’ll find out how many members of your family had cancer and what type, as well as what ages assorted diseases or conditions took root. Family history also provides vital information on single-gene mutations causing health issues, such as sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis. If there are any patterns among your family’s health problems, they reveal themselves as you dive deeper into your personal history.

Preventative Measures

Understanding what diseases and conditions have affected your family the most allows you to tailor your lifestyle and significantly mitigate your risk. If heart disease is common in your family, for example, you can take preventative measures that protect the organ, such as increasing your intake of heart-healthy vitamins, exercising more, and avoiding harmful foods, such as those high in trans and saturated fats.

Knowing your family health history also helps you schedule checkups, such as eye exams or colonoscopies, on a more frequent basis or from an earlier age as further preventative measures. The more you know, the more you can tailor your lifestyle to protect your health.

Whether you need vitamins, medical prescriptions, or medical supplies, find them at Gates Pharmacy in Elyria, OH. The neighborhood pharmacy has served the community for nearly 30 years and features a compassionate team ready to help clients enjoy better health. Call (440) 329-7300 today with questions about vitamins and other products for sale or visit the website for service and insurance information.