William Penn Life, 2005 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2005-12-01 / 12. szám
HealthPage History Lessons Knowing your family's health history can help save your own life from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health care professionals have known for a long time that common diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes—and even rare diseases like hemophilia, cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia-can run in families. If one generation of a family has high blood pressure, it is not unusual for the next generation to have similarly high blood pressure. Tracing the illnesses suffered by your parents, grandparents and other blood relatives can help your doctor predict the disorders to which you may be at risk and take action to keep you and your family healthy. To help focus attention on the importance of family health history, U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, in cooperation with other agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), recently launched a national public health campaign, called the U.S. Surgeon General's Family History Initiative, to encourage all American families to learn more about their family health history. "Even with all the high-tech tests, medicines and procedures available in today's modem health-care setting, family health history remains the cornerstone of our efforts to prevent disease and promote personal health," Dr. Carmona said. "It's clear that knowing your family history can save your life." Web-based help Dr. Carmona released an updated, Web-based version of a free, computerized tool that organizes family health information into a printout that people can take to health-care professionals to help determine whether they are at higher risk for disease. The tool, called "My Family Health Portrait," is available at nrww.hhs.gov/familyhistory. A detailed family history can predict the disorders for which a person may be at increased risk, and thereby help to develop more personalized action plans. However, as numerous pressures decrease the amount of time that doctors and nurses spend with their patients, it has become increasingly difficult to gather enough family information to make useful predictions. The "My Family Health Portrait" tool is intended to make that process easier and more efficient for both patients and health-care professionals. In the past year, more than 360,000 copies of the original "My Family Health Portrait" computer tool, which is available in English and in Spanish, have been downloaded from the HHS Web site. In addition, more than 85,000 print copies of the tool have been distributed nationwide. "Building on the foundation laid by the Human Genome Project, we have made tremendous strides towards developing ways to identify and quickly test for the glitches that we all carry in our genes. But we aren't there yet," said Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the NIH. "So, the best thing each of us can do right now to help our health-care providers develop a personalized disease prevention plan is to gather a family health history." The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Office of Genomic and Disease Prevention has, on behalf of the U.S. Surgeon General, recently distributed packets of family history resource 6 William Penn Life, December 2005
