Why is Your Medical History Important?
A family’s genes might make a person susceptible to certain illnesses, so it’s important to understand your medical history.
Medical history is important because when GPs have more information about a patient’s medical history, health professionals can deliver the most appropriate and effective treatment or support for their concerns. It can also help diagnose possible illnesses, understand hereditary and likely diseases in your family, as well as allergies, your past and current medication, and vaccination records.
Family medical history is a record of health information about a person’s family, usually including three generations of relatives. Families share genetic makeups, environments, and lifestyle — these factors can provide insight into medical conditions that may run in your family. Noticing concerns in a patient’s health as well as having an understanding patterns of diseases or disorders will make a diagnosis more likely, which is particularly important in catching something harmful early.
Your traits and properties that make you as a person are taken from your parents and ancestors, including health. Just as you might inherit eye colour and body shape, you inherit health.
Changes or mutations in genes might make families susceptible to certain diseases and illnesses.