Family gatherings offer time to discuss health, heredity
With the holidays on the horizon, there’s a good chance that you’ll soon find yourself in touch with at least a few members of your extended family. Between bites of turkey and stories about the glory days of her Uncle Bob’s high school, it’s the perfect time to talk about something even more important: her family’s health history.
Depending on the culture and personalities within a given family, the amount of information that is shared about your hereditary health can vary greatly. If you’re in a quiet group, asking the right questions can jump-start a conversation full of information that can be extremely valuable to the way you approach your health and lifestyle.
“I think we’re seeing an increase in people doing family history research for all sorts of reasons,” said Travis Sheffield, director of applied genomics at Intermountain Precision Genomics. “People want to know who they’re related to, why they have a particular tendency, or why they don’t like certain foods.”
Participating in what Sheffield calls “boutique genetic testing” can be an exciting place to start and may even lead to helpful conversations with a healthcare provider. But it’s also beneficial to talk with the family who may be able to offer information about inheritance issues specific to your family. For example, some people may wonder why they’ve never liked cilantro, but it could be due to a genetic variation that makes this particular herb taste soapy to some people.
“Something like a taste for cilantro is quite benign, but when you discover that you have that in common genetically with people in your family line, it can make you feel less ‘abnormal,'” Sheffield said. “Sharing our family history helps us make these discoveries about ourselves.”
As the director of operations for the research project HerediGene: Population Study at Intermountain Healthcare, Sheffield has a real passion for the data that can be gleaned from a person’s DNA. He is equally passionate about the need to share that information for the benefit of his family members and society at large.
“In my opinion, health information should be shared with family members out of love, care and concern,” Sheffield said. “Having the correct information increases the likelihood of receiving effective therapy and the opportunity to reduce suffering and possible early death from certain inherited health problems because someone was willing to have those difficult conversations with a family member.”
If you’re concerned about your risks, or especially if you’ve talked to your family and know there’s a pattern of disease, you should talk to your healthcare provider about it as soon as possible. Your provider can make recommendations and determine if genetic testing is appropriate.
Much remains to be discovered about human DNA, so HerediGene’s main goal is to study the genes and health of its participants. These discoveries may help doctors to be even more proactive in treating health problems in the future.
However, HerediGene is also helping the community in the present. One of the benefits of joining the HerediGene: Population Study is the opportunity to be notified if researchers discover that you are at genetic risk for certain health problems.
“If we find something actionable in the results, one of our genetic counselors will contact you to discuss additional screening or treatment options,” Sheffield said.
Such actionable elements could include a genetic predisposition to cancer, such as the BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 genes commonly linked to breast cancer, an increased likelihood of heart disease, liver disease, diabetes, or other similar known genetic markers. These predispositions can also be discussed with family members to further encourage early detection testing.
“We often have these social constructions around family gatherings that we should only talk about happy things, but if you can save someone from suffering or death by sharing this information, it pays to be vulnerable in a difficult conversation,” she said. Sheffield.
For more information on HerediGene: Population Study, go online at www.heredigene.org and click the link to join the study.
ThisLive goodThe column represents the collaboration between the health professionals on the medical staff of our non-profit hospitals Intermountain Healthcare and The Spectrum & Daily News.