A family health history can identify people with a higher-than-usual chance of having common disorders, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, certain cancers, and type 2 diabetes. These complex disorders are influenced by a combination of genetic factors, environmental conditions, and lifestyle choices.
How does genetic affect your daily life?
Genes are the instructions for life as we know it. They
affect your development before you’re even born and play a role in everything from your appearance to your personality
. Genes contain information about your heritage and your risk for certain diseases.
Why family history is a health risk factor?
Persons who have close relatives with certain diseases (e.g., heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis) are more likely to develop those diseases themselves (1). Family health history is an important risk factor that
reflects inherited genetic susceptibility, shared environment, and common behaviors
.
How can I use my family health history to improve my health?
Include information on major medical conditions, causes of death, age at disease diagnosis, age at death, and ethnic background
. Be sure to update the information regularly and share what you’ve learned with your family and with your doctor.
How much do genetics affect health?
Changes in many genes, each with a small effect,
may underlie susceptibility to many common diseases, including cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and mental illness
.
How can biological and genetic factors affect health outcomes?
Some biological and genetic factors affect specific populations more than others. For example,
older adults are biologically prone to being in poorer health than adolescents due to the physical and cognitive effects of aging
. Sickle cell disease is a common example of a genetic determinant of health.
How genetics and epigenetics affect us as persons?
While genetic changes can alter which protein is made,
epigenetic changes affect gene expression to turn genes “on” and “off.”
Since your environment and behaviors, such as diet and exercise, can result in epigenetic changes, it is easy to see the connection between your genes and your behaviors and environment.
Why are genes so important to human development?
Genes (say: jeenz)
play an important role in determining physical traits — how we look —and lots of other stuff about us
. They carry information that makes you who you are and what you look like: curly or straight hair, long or short legs, even how you might smile or laugh.
How do genes influence human development?
Genetic Interactions: Genes can sometimes contain conflicting information, and in most cases,
one gene will win the battle for dominance
. Some genes act in an additive way. For example, if a child has one tall parent and one short parent, the child may end up splitting the difference by being of average height.
How can family history affect your health?
A family health history can
identify people with a higher-than-usual chance of having common disorders, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, certain cancers, and type 2 diabetes
. These complex disorders are influenced by a combination of genetic factors, environmental conditions, and lifestyle choices.
What influences a person’s family health?
Family-level influences on health derive from 3 main sources:
genetics, a shared physical environment, and a shared social environment
. The last 2 factors become more important when family members inhabit the same household.
Why is family health important?
Families
provide the support and conditions needed for healthy living, prevention of disease and opportunities for early diagnosis and treatment to avert or delay complications
. Interventions for health to be effective, must necessarily take into account the social determinants of health.
How can understanding family involvement really make a difference for individuals health and illness?
Supporting families can help prevent disease onset.
Research reveals that
family stress makes individuals more vulnerable to illness
. People who have lost a spouse, especially men, have markedly increased death rates, even after controlling for other health risks.
How does learning about family ancestors impact you in the present and future?
Learning the history of our ancestors
helps us gain a greater understanding of the challenges they faced, and it often inspires greater love and compassion for their flaws and mistakes
. This compassion can easily translate to our relationships with the living, within our families and outside them.
Why is it important to collect health history?
Importance of collecting patient family health history
Identify whether a patient has a higher risk for a disease
. Help the health care practitioner recommend treatments or other options to reduce a patient’s risk of disease. Provide early warning signs of disease. Help plan lifestyle changes to keep the patient well.
Which factor between genes and lifestyle has greater effect on human body?
With heart disease, more than 100 types of genes may play a small role in a person’s risk, Lloyd-Jones says. “But
by far the biggest factor is lifestyle
.” Your daily habits — such as what you eat, how active you are, and not smoking — strongly affect your heart health.
How can gene mutation affect health and development?
By changing a gene’s instructions for making a protein, a variant can cause a protein to malfunction or to not be produced at all
. When a variant alters a protein that plays a critical role in the body, it can disrupt normal development or cause a health condition.
How does genetics affect the environment?
Factors in your environment can range from chemicals in air or water pollution, mold, pesticides, diet choices, or grooming products.
Subtle differences in one person’s genes can cause them to respond differently to the same environmental exposure as another person
.
How does genetics affect the world of psychology?
Genetics and Psychology
Genetics plays a significant role in an individual’s intellectual ability, social attitudes, preferences, and personality
. Research has shown that genetic influence on personality traits, such as extroversion, neuroticism, openness to new experiences, and conscientiousness, is about 40 to 50%.
