Trees are good for your health – they suck up carbon dioxide and release oxygen, help reduce greenhouse gases and provide welcoming shade during the summer. But those aren’t the trees that have recently been in the news for helping to improve the health of many Americans. This time it’s family trees that are up for discussion – and electronic ones, at that.

Importance of Knowing Your Health History

The importance of knowing your family medical history can’t be emphasized strongly enough, according to Acting Surgeon General Steven Galson, whose office has been in charge of a new initiative to promote the use of a website where users can grow an electronic family tree to find out where their health risks lie.

The government’s new free service is hoping that people will compile their own family tree at home, and share the information with their families. Compiling an extensive and accurate family tree is even more useful than genetic testing to predict what your medical requirements might be in the future, experts say. It’s a highly useful tool for doctors, too, since it saves time and also provides lots of useful information about potential health risks. You can even use it as you’re applying, or looking into various family health insurance plans.

Significant Benefits of an Online Family Health Tree

The most significant benefit, perhaps, is that it’s likely to be more accurate than anything you remember off-the-cuff in a doctor’s waiting room. And by sharing the information with relatives from both sides of the family, it’s easier to compile an accurate family health tree that includes all the information that’s important.

The family health tree site at https://familyhistory.hhs.gov makes it easy to compile this information. The electronic tree you create can be easily mailed to relatives, who can add their own information into the tree. The information is entirely private, too. Information is downloaded to the user’s own computer, rather than being held on the web site.

Even more useful is the fact that a single click can “re-index” the tree to concentrate on showing the health risks of any relative on the tree – so it’s useful for everyone, not just the person who creates it.

Another benefit is the fact that environmental and lifestyle factors can be added to the tree – factors that are often forgotten during doctor’s visits. The family tree can be printed out or even emailed directly to your doctor, ensuring that none of that valuable information is lost.

photo credit: Wolfiewolf