North Country Nuggets

National Family Health History Week is November 23-29-2025.

What Is National Family Health History Week?

In 2004, the U.S. Surgeon General declared Thanksgiving as National Family Health History Day. This is an initiative to encourage families to talk about and document their health history: who in the family has had which illnesses, at what ages, cause of death, etc.  Some diseases run in families and having a clear health history lets your health care team identify which family members might be at higher risk.  Making the information available to your healthcare team and to family members for generations to come can facilitate early diagnosis and treatment. 

The “day” is meant to coincide with Thanksgiving because many families are together then, which makes it a natural time to have these conversations.  Not all families are comfortable talking about illness or matters as private as health history.  It’s important to know this prior to initiating a conversation.  Talk to those closest to you to get their feelings about starting this conversation.

Knowing your family’s health background can help you and your health care team assess risks for certain diseases like heart disease, cancer, diabetes and promotes conversation between the generations.  Older relatives can share what they know about family members that died prior to you knowing them.  Documenting this is very important.  There are guides and suggested questions to ask family members (e.g., “Have any of our relatives had chronic diseases?” “What was the cause of death for older relatives?”) to make the conversation productive.   Multiple websites, such as the CDC, have on line documents that can provide a frame work for documenting this information. 

Information regarding the following can help build a more complete family health history:

• Birth defects
• Learning difficulties
• Military service can provide very important information re: possible hazardous material exposure.  Before the dangers of exposure to building materials such as asbestos and lead based paints were known, exposure to them was common. 
• Alcoholism and other chemical dependence can follow a familial path.
• Mental illness

Most healthcare organizations have electronic records.  Some allow patients to enter information or correct entries such as family history themselves.  

Every generation has seen advances in healthcare; both in diagnosis and treatment.  Having an accurate family health history can help track which illnesses are present in your family tree.  Tracing the illnesses suffered by your parents, grandparents and other blood relatives can help your health care provider predict the disorders to which you may be at risk, and help you take action to keep you and your family healthy. Certain illnesses and chronic conditions can be predicted by highly sophisticated blood tests.  Discussing this with your health care provider will give you information about any available screenings and what you can expect to learn from them. 

Submitted by: North Country Community Health Services and Beltrami County Community Health Services- www.ncchb.org or www.co.beltrami.mn.us/services/public-health/ or find us on Facebook-North Country Community Health Services

(Beltrami, Clearwater, Hubbard and Lake of the Woods Public Health)