Knowing your family's medical history can help you to determine your own risk for disease and to make some important lifestyle decisions.
NOTE: The following is an exerpt from the winter 1998 edition of the Shoppers Drugmart "Healthwatch" magazine.
Luanne McNabb, genetic counsellor and co-auther of FAMILY HEALTH TREES: GENETICS & GENEALOGY (The Ontario Genealogical Society, $14.98), has developed a step-by-step approach to mapping out a family medical tree.
To order a copy, call The Ontario Genealogical Society at (416) 489-0734.
In constructing her own family medical tree and helping others do the same, however, McNabb discovered that trying to get information, especially when there are medical conditions such as depression or addiction in a family, "is like pulling teeth. I've had to settle for lots of gaps".
Still, Mcnabb learned that allergies to peanuts, fish and seafood run in her family, so she and her husband avoid packing peanut butter and tuna sandwiches when they go on picnics with thier son, Joseph.
Here's what McNabb recommends for compiling your own family medical tree:
#1...Seek information about as many blood relatives as possible-parents, siblings, and their children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and so on.
#2...Outline physical characteristics. Include height, weight, body structure and any unusual physical features. If you have a photograph, glue it on the tree. In years gone by, when a family may not have had a name for a disorder, a photograph may enable a geneticist to clinch a diagnosis.
#3...Find a "family hystorian" (there's always someone in your family who's paid special attention to the family tree). This can save hours of duplicated effort.
#4...Paint in each individual's lifestyle. What was the person's occupation? Was that person physicaly attractive? Did he drink excessively? Smoke? etc.
#5...Chart all pregnancies, including those that ended in miscarriage or still birth. Note any illness durring pregnancy and complications at birth.
#6...List when the symptoms of an illness first appeared in each individual, as well as his treatments and surgeries.
#7...Note the cause of death and age.
#8...Include ethnic backgrounds. A particular ethnic group can have a high icidence of a certain genitic disease. Ofr example, Ashkenazi Jews are prone to Tay-Sachs Disease, while individuals whose ancestry can be traced back to the tropical regions of Affrica, have a high incidencs of Sickle-cell Anemia.
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