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How to Assemble a Family Health History That Can Save Your Life
It can be a powerful medical tool — especially now
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “people of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions might be at higher risk for severe illness from Covid-19.” That’s an important fact, because it provides someone with an underlying condition an opportunity to take extra precautions to avoid exposure to the virus and, if infected, to alert physicians to the elevated danger.
Of course, that assumes you know if you have an underlying condition, which is not a given — one in 13 Americans have a health condition that has never been diagnosed, according to the Mayo Clinic.
One of the best ways to reduce unwelcome health surprises in this time of Covid-19, and all other times, is to arm your physician with a comprehensive family health history.
Everyone’s primary care physician asks patients early on about their family health history. “It’s pretty much essential for every patient who walks through the door,” says Aleks Rajkovic, MD, PhD, chief genetics officer at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center.
But Rajkovic adds that a patient’s family history will only be as useful as the level of detail of the…
