Family History: Key To Understanding Health (NAPSA)—Communicating with relatives is key to learning about your family’s history, and your own future health. That’s because your family history contains information critical to your health, including risks for certain inherited conditions and health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes and somecancers. Make drawing your family tree part of your next family gathering. One easy way to document your family history is to create a medical family tree. This tree, also known as a pedigree, shows the links between family members and focuses on the medical and health information for each relative. Holidays, vacations and family reunions can be ideal times to talk to family members and collect health histories. A medical family tree is a sim- ple project and can be a fun way to stay connected with family. More importantly, it allows you to give the gift of medical knowledge to future generations. For more information on how to create a medical family tree, visit these Web sites: National Society of Genetic Counselors (www.nsgc.org), American Society for Human Genetics (www.ashg. org) or Genetic Alliance (www. geneticalliance.org).
