HHS RECOMMENDS KNOWING FAMILY HEALTH HISTORY

FROM:  U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Talib Babb with HHS HealthBeat. 

Getting the story on your family health history is a great way to learn more about possible health risks that you or other members of your family may face. While you can’t change your family health history, you can act to reduce your disease risk and keep yourself and your family healthy.

The Surgeon General’s My Family Health Portrait tool provides consumers with an easy free way to record their family health information. Consumers are able to organize their family history information and share it with their family and health care professionals.

Dr. Boris Lushniak is acting surgeon general.

“You can input really rare diseases. But also you can input the real common diseases that we know have a real genetic predisposition that do run in families. So that includes heart disease, various cancers and diabetes”