Make talking about family health a holiday tradition

SANTA FE – Imagine a conversation around the Thanksgiving table that is good for you and your family – the kind where talking about family health history makes life better.

That’s what National Family Health History Day is about. Occurring every Thanksgiving Day, it encourages sparking the important conversations that don’t always happen in families.

“Sometimes the best way of preventing future health problems is just talking to each other,” said New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) Chief Medical Officer Dr. Miranda Durham. “Knowing your family health history gives you valuable information to share with your medical providers to decide when things like blood sugar testing, mammograms, and colorectal cancer screening are right for you.”

Most people have a family health history of at least one chronic disease, mostly cancer, heart disease and diabetes. If you have a close family member with a chronic disease, you may be more likely to develop that disease yourself, especially if more than one close relative has (or had) the disease.

Even rare diseases like the CCM1 gene mutation, also known as the Common Hispanic Mutation, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell anemia all tend to be passed on in families from one generation to the next.

Any health history you can collect is helpful and possibly lifesaving, but the more the better, such as information about your parents, sisters, brothers, half sisters, half brothers, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Try to get information on major medical conditions, causes of death, age at disease diagnosis, age at death and ethnic background.

NMDOH recommends having the conversation at least once during the holiday season. It will help to keep everyone up to date on their family health information. The U.S. Surgeon General's free web-based tool, My Family Health Portrait, can help everyone to keep track of the information.

For more information on National Family Health History Day visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Family Health History page.

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Haga que la conversación sobre la salud familiar se convierta en una tradición de los días festivos