Family History & Your Health

There is one great way to find out about your health and it doesn't involve expensive testing.

Bar none, the best information about what you are at the biggest risk for, health-wise, comes from your family history.

It might sound a bit low tech, but asking your family about what diseases lurk in your relatives past can be better than even expensive modern genetic testing. A Cleveland Clinic study looked at what method best found an increased risk of cancer. Half of the participants in this study looked at their own family health history. The other half did a genetic saliva test commonly sold online.

The simple family history ended up doing much better than the genetic test. It was especially good at picking out those cancers someone was at a higher risk of getting because it was somewhere in the family's past.

The important part is to do a little digging on both Mom's and Dad's side of the family. With the upcoming holidays and families getting together, it'll be a great time to find out what types of things your relatives might have dealt with in their own lifetime--the same things that could affect you in your future. And knowing that can give you a jump start on watching for it.