{"id":30304,"date":"2022-06-27T12:59:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T17:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=30304"},"modified":"2022-11-14T13:48:04","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:48:04","slug":"longevity-medicine-take-a-family-inventory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/27\/longevity-medicine-take-a-family-inventory","title":{"rendered":"Longevity Medicine: Take A Family Inventory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If every one of your parents\/grandparents\/great-grandparents made it well into their 90\u2019s, and passed away with their bodies and minds basically intact, you can probably skip this Health Tip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Something like, \u201cDad was 94 and had finished chopping logs. Sat on a stump, closed his eyes and just died.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or, \u201cMeemaw (Grandmom was clearly from a Southern family) got COVID at 100 and that was it. Then we couldn\u2019t find a doctor to sign the death certificate because she\u2019d never been to one.\u201d Now <em>that\u2019s<\/em> longevity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the rest of us, we need to see what may be down the road that might interfere with our personal ambitions of seeking a<a href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/21\/to-a-long-and-healthy-life\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> healthy long life<\/a>, risk-wise. If you\u2019ve got just a few minutes, you can find out what may be in store for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make a list to include your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, their siblings (your grand aunts\/uncles), your own siblings and half-siblings, and your adult children. Obviously, blood relations only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For each individual, answer the following (if possible):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Alive or dead? Approximate age (or age at death).<\/li><li>General health during his\/her life. If their health changed, indicate when, and, if you know, the reason why. (Examples: \u201chealthy until his fifties, then the cigarettes caught up with him\u201d, or \u201cshe just never cared about her health, got seriously overweight, then diabetic, then just died.\u201d)<\/li><li>Chronic illnesses (if known); medications (if known); cause of death (if known);<\/li><li>Health risks throughout his\/her life: i.e. smoker\/pollution\/alcohol\/drugs\/severe stress<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When you think about these questions, you\u2019ll realize you\u2019ve been asked variations of these every time you\u2019ve seen a new doctor. They\u2019re all part of the standard intake, \u201cnew patient\u201d, paperwork but no one (either you or the doctor) does much with your answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But now<em>, you\u2019re going to take advantage of this information<\/em><strong>. <\/strong>Lurking in all this \u201cfamily history\u201d are markers of your own health\/illness possibilities. In fact, maybe (YIKES!) you\u2019re looking at the top line item of your own death certificate a few decades from now. That is, unless you or your primary care provider (PCP) has an \u201cAha!\u201d moment like any of these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From your PCP:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI see diabetes runs through your family like a fault line through California. You don\u2019t have it yet let\u2019s check your Hemoglobin A1c. Meet with our nutritionist, learn some meal planning and get your weight down to \u2018normal\u2019. Review again a typical day of your eating habits. Tell me how you exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou have a sister who needed by-pass surgery at 50? I know you\u2019re feeling fine but you need a really detailed cholesterol profile, down to LDL particle size. We need to check levels of inflammation, get a cardiac stress test, and it might be a good idea to buy a home blood pressure monitor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, when you complete your inventory, you realize:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSeems like lots of my relatives died of cancer. Are there steps we can take to prevent it in me?\u201d This answer is, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always worried about Mom\u2019s stroke when she was only 45. I\u2019m now 44. How do I know\u2026?\u201d (Well, actually, there\u2019s a good test for this).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo many seem to have <a href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/18\/reversing-mental-decline-part-4-nine-immediate-steps-prevent-dementia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dementia<\/a>. Isn\u2019t there something I can do?\u201d (Yes, again).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only problem with making a family inventory like the one I have described, aside from making you anxious, is that a lot of the work falls back on you. When you learn of different risks, in your heart of hearts, you just want to swallow some pills. That\u2019s easy. Lifestyle changes are hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are a couple of patient quotes from the past weeks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDoc, when you told me I had mild <a href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/25\/longevity-medicine-heres-how-sugar-accelerates-aging\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">diabetes<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/05\/getting-off-or-avoiding-blood-pressure-meds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> high blood pressure<\/a>, I really didn\u2019t want to take pills for the rest of my life. I didn\u2019t fill your prescriptions (are you mad?). But I\u2019m down 30 pounds, in the health club four days a week, and here are my blood pressure numbers. Go ahead and check my <a href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/27\/longevity-medicine-how-we-age\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HbA1c<\/a>.\u201d (It dropped to normal range.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or, this call from a patient\u2019s wife,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s in the Intensive Care Unit with a massive heart attack. I\u2019ll call you when he gets out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She never called.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For some, how Meemaw lived a century without doctors until <a href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/05\/jonathan-toews-covid-19-and-cirs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">COVID<\/a> got her, how Grandpa made it to healthy 94 are the mysteries of longevity, gifts we\u2019re trying to puzzle out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since we don\u2019t have the answers, we just have to work on ourselves or pay the consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another step to your longevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>David Edelberg, MD<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If every one of your parents\/grandparents\/great-grandparents made it well into their 90\u2019s, and passed away with their bodies and minds basically intact, you can probably skip this Health Tip. Something like, \u201cDad was 94 and had finished chopping logs. Sat on a stump, closed his eyes and just died.\u201d Or, \u201cMeemaw (Grandmom was clearly from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":30306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[352,28,195,2316,398,2333,50,226,2341,130,187,2334,43,2348,2332,33],"tags":[732,2367,1059,2351,536,537,1657,1880,1008,2032,1283],"class_list":["post-30304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aging","category-alternative-therapies","category-diseases","category-featured","category-fitness-exercise","category-functional-medicine","category-healthy-lifestyle","category-immune-system","category-infusion-therapy","category-integrative-medicine","category-mens-health","category-naturopathic-medicine","category-nutrition-nutritional-supplements-vitamins-herbal-remedies","category-physicals","category-preventive-medicine","category-womens-health","tag-bleeding-gums","tag-family-history","tag-functional-medicine","tag-genes","tag-gingivitis","tag-gum-disease","tag-gut-health","tag-gut-microbiome","tag-inflamed-gums","tag-integrative-care","tag-integrative-medicine"],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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