By Carolyn Keister Baker -- Daily Staff Writer

Family stories affectionately told and passed down from generation to generation are familiar events at reunions and gatherings across the communities of the Northern Shenandoah Valley.

But how frequently do these family discussions reveal to us important information about our family's health history?

Not often enough, health experts say.

Family health histories may be the single most important facets of information people can relate to their family doctors, and yet, some people still don't feel comfortable in sharing or are reluctant to initiate conversations to learn about their family medical histories, experts say.

Family health histories are significant "because [through them] we continue to learn the genetic contribution to chronic and acute illness," says Dr. Joann Bodurtha, professor of human genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. "We are always learning."

Gilda Radner's tragic story is an example of the importance of knowing a family health history, Bodurtha says. This famous comedienne did not know that three close relatives had suffered ovarian cancer.

Only after a long year of abdominal pain and misdiagnoses did Radner finally learn she had ovarian cancer. Only then was the familial link discovered, Bodurtha says, the delay resulting in Radner's death at age 42. Her cancer could have been diagnosed and treated at an earlier stage, Bodurtha says.

Not only are some types of cancers highly familial but so are other diseases and chronic medical conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol levels. Rare diseases such as sickle cell anemia, hemophilia and cystic fibrosis also run in families.

Family health history is so valuable that the U.S. surgeon general introduced a Family History Initiative, implemented about five years ago, to encourage families to learn more about their health histories, says the office spokeswoman Jennifer Koentop.

"We've learned that people don't sit down and talk about it," says Koentop. "Many of us know family history is important, but then again many of us won't sit down and initiate that conversation."

"Surveys indicate more than 90 percent of Americans believe that knowing their family health history is important. But [these surveys] also show that only about one third of Americans have ever tried to gather and write down their family's health history," Koentop says.

A family medical history may provide "insight into the risk of inheriting specific diseases, shared environmental factors and individual health concerns," Koentop stresses.

As part of the U.S. surgeon general's initiative, a software program has been developed called My Family Health Portrait to help families organize their health histories so they can be shared with their physicians. The software program can be accessed at the Web site http://familyhistory.hhs.gov/.

After entering a family's specific medical information, the software organizes the information, creating a family tree and a chart of the family's health history, according to the Web site.

If the user wishes, the software can be downloaded directly onto a personal computer.

Aspects of family health histories that may point to increased risk are: diseases that occur at an earlier age than expected, for example, 10 to 20 years earlier; disease in more than one close relative; disease that usually does not affect a certain gender, such as, breast cancer in a male; and certain combinations of diseases, such as, breast and ovarian cancers or heart disease and diabetes, according to a Web site of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Andrew White, a family physician with Selma Medical Associates in Winchester, says patients of this medical group are mailed a family health history form so they can fill it out at home.

About 50 percent of White's patients know their family medical histories, he estimates.

"The three most common diseases we would like to know about are diabetes, coronary artery disease and cancer," White says. "The reason is important. Even if someone is healthy, those diseases may alter our testing and [indicate] how aggressive we might be in treatment."

"If, for example, [a person] has a strong family history of heart attacks, we would treat his cholesterol even if it were only mildly elevated," White explains. In the case of a person with no family history of heart attacks, the patient's cholesterol would be watched with the patient urged to make lifestyle changes, he says.

"There are some cancers, if you catch them early, which you can prevent from becoming a death sentence," White says. Breast, prostate and colon cancers: "Those are the ones that family history makes a difference."

Bodurtha believes that Americans are making progress and doing a better job in considering family health history. But more work needs to be done.

"Nancy Reagan was open about her breast cancer and Katie Couric was open about her husband's colon cancer and her own colonoscopy," Bodurtha reminds.

"People are much more open about it. But there is a still a feeling of shame or guilt."

* Contact Carolyn Baker at cbaker@nvdaily.com