My Family Health Tree

A family health genome or a family health tree is a diagram of a family’s health history over the generations. The tree is used to provide information of genes that may possibly be inherited from parents, grandparents, and ancestors. Making a family genome involves mapping the family’s structure, recording family history and information, and finding family relationships (BOOK). In this paper I will analyze my family genome and examine my family’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as review each member’s patterns, lifestyle factors, and environments. On the last page is the diagram of my family genome with a very brief summary of each member, therefore I will now go into greater detail of each family member. Furthermore, the first family member I will analyze is my late grandpa, Richard McQuown. The genome displays that he had multiple conditions like hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and dementia. He passed away due to complications of these …show more content…
First his amount of activity after he retired from work was little to none. Most of his time was spent sitting in his recliner, with occasionally getting up to do yard work or taking care of his dogs. An article by the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD) shares facts of why having a sedentary lifestyle is unfavorable for one’s health. A few of these facts that connect to my grandpa are that physical activity helps prevent insulin resistance (which helps prevent type 2 diabetes), cognitive decline (prevents dementia), and heart attack (NCHPAD). Another factor that hindered Grandpa’s lifestyle was smoking. Although he quit while in his 40s, Grandpa smoked for about 20 years. One of the long term effects of smoking is cardiovascular disease (BOOK). This is due to nicotine, which increases heart rate, increases tension in the heart muscle, and constricts blood vessels, which leads to hypertension