Gather Your Family Health History On Family Day

In British Columbia, we're celebrating Family Day on Monday, February 12th. Many other provinces will celebrate it on the 19th of February. In addition to enjoying some much-needed family time, consider adding to your family history, including health history.

Here is an excerpt from my HealthCentral.com post entitled How to Learn Your Family's Health History and Why It Matters:

"I wasn’t supposed to live. My mom told me that Oma (my Dutch grandmother) was advised to prepare herself, as I wasn’t going to make it. In addition to being early by a month, the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around my neck. My first month was spent in an incubator. Those first two years included many trips to the hospital; it couldn’t have been easy for my family.

Almost two decades ago, I contacted the hospital to see about getting some hospital records for myself and also those of my parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, they were no longer available. That information is lost for good. My sister and I tried to cobble together what we remember about our parents’ and grand-parents’ health histories, but they are as incomplete as is their personal histories. We have some details but not enough to satisfy our curiosity, nor to give a clear picture of the health of our family."

Read the rest of the article for tips on how to become the family health historian and why you can use the information to make healthy choices for you and your children. Do it for the health of it!

In addition to gathering your family health history, start or continue with a healthy habit, such as:

  • Go for a walk in a new neighbourhood.
  • Spend some time at the swimming pool, or the beach.
  • Take some lessons in snowshoeing, skating, or something you always wanted to do.
  • Go tobogganing.
  • Find some treasure while geo-caching.
  • Go on a bike ride.
  • Plan a healthy meal, then walk to the store for the ingredients.

What healthy habit will you do with your family?

2 Replies to “Gather Your Family Health History On Family Day”

  1. I love this. It is something the US should do, but right now all we can do is deal with well, whatever!! and hope we have some country left after, well, things change. Hugs, Beth

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