By Eisa Ulen

Valerie Joyner tried to “get real” at her family reunion two years ago. At the big banquet dinner, where everyone gathered, she bravely stepped up to the podium and talked about the legacy of diabetes and high blood pressure in the family. She asked her relatives to be open about these illnesses and begin to talk about diet and exercise as ways to improve or even reverse these trends and shift toward optimal family health. Joyner, author of the new novel Hollyhood , was trying to grow a Healthy Family Tree.

Family health history is vitally important. Doctor’s forms always ask for medical information about our biological families, but it seems that few of us pay close attention to what’s really going on in our own bloodlines.

Joyner says her plea for open communication was met with silence, even though one aunt was missing from the reunion that year, having died from cancer. Until her aunt’s funeral, “no one even knew that she had been sick. No one,” Joyner said.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing isn’t surprising, says Dr. Frenesa Hall of Atlanta.  ”After all, most of our elders are traditionally tight-lipped about diseases like cancer. And while many of our elders will say they pop pills for high blood pressure and “sugar,” they just refuse to discuss healthy changes in their diets or ways to add more movement to their daily lives”.

Despite this legacy of silence, every woman should know the medical histories of parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. “Health information among family members is important,” she says, “but many people still feel that there is a stigma about medical conditions, particularly issues like dementia and depression, and are reluctant to share that information. Here is where education is important.”

Dr. Hall has been asked to speak at a family reunion in September, where she’ll discuss common health issues like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity and talk about symptoms, treatments, and preventive measures. She suggests Joyner and all of us committed to optimal family health distribute a health history form for family members to fill out. A small committee or dedicated individual can compile and distribute the information. This can even be done online on a family reunion website. Joyner knows family health information is so important, that she’s going to try, yet again, to get hers organized at her next family reunion.

Andrea King Collier, author of The Black Woman’s Guide to Black Men’s Health, says everyone needs to keep a “family health history much in the way we keep a family tree document. Many of our illnesses are connected to the past. If your family has a history of stroke or cancer, that is a sign that people should be even more careful.” Collier believes family reunions and holidays are places to talk about what’s really going on.

Despite initial feelings of discomfort, Collier says, someone has to initiate the conversation, perhaps via email and telephone calls, and then distribute a document to everyone that “not only talks about what’s running in our families, but the medical stuff like warning signs, risk factors, tests folk need to be getting, and the kind of doctor they need to see” to manage hereditary conditions more effectively. After all, Collier adds, “we need to spend as much time talking about where and how we get our health care as we do where and how we get our hair done or where we bought our shoes. Communication is key.”

The Centers for Disease Control recommends collecting “information about your grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephew, siblings, and children by asking questions, talking at family gatherings, and looking at medical records and death certificates, if possible.

“The type of information to collect includes:

• major medical conditions and causes of death,
• age of disease onset and age at death, and
• ethnic background

“Write down the information and share it with your doctor. Your doctor may

• assess your disease risk based on your family history and other risk factors,
• recommend lifestyle changes to help prevent disease, and
• prescribe screening tests to detect disease early.

“If your doctor notices a pattern of disease in your family, it may be a sign of an inherited form of disease that is passed on from generation to generation. Your doctor may refer you to a specialist who can help determine whether you have an inherited form of disease. Genetic testing may also help determine if you or your family members are at risk. Even with inherited forms of disease, steps can be taken to reduce your risk.”

Eisa Nefertari Ulen is the author of Crystelle Mourning. She lives with her husband and son in Brooklyn. www.EisaUlen.com