Lifestyle

Keeping Your Health In Check: Understanding Your Parents

Now, we have a lot to thank (and blame) our parents for. They have a lot of sway in how we eventually turn out, and we can trace back many of our personality and emotional traits to how we were treated by our parents when we’re younger. These are hopefully mostly good! Everyone has a few bad ones thrown in: parents are only human after all. One thing they – or you – can’t control is the genes they passed on to you. These can make your more predisposed to certain conditions than others. As such, it’s important to keep an eye on your parent’s health – you might have the same issues one day.

Heart Troubles

 

It’s extra important that you’re aware of any heart issues your parents may have (or had) because their problems will put you at a much greater risk than the general population. While you can’t stop things like cardiac arrest or heart failure from happening, if you’re prepared for it then you can have a plan in place to make sure you’re kept well. It’s also a good idea to get regular check ups from your doctor to make sure everything is as healthy with your heart as it should be.

 

Mental Health Problems

 

If one of your parents suffered from mental health problems, then it’s more likely that you will, too. You might have known that depression is hereditary, but is schizophrenia hereditary? The answer is that yes, it is, but it doesn’t mean that just because one of your parents had it that you automatically will. The key is to be aware of the problems that your parents have and then limiting the potential “triggers” that would make the condition manifest in you.

 

Alcohol and Other Vices

 

Just as mental health problems can be inherited from your parents, so can things like alcohol and other substances abuse. This is partly to do with nature, partly due to nurture (as are most things on this list, actually). As such, it’s important that you keep a close eye on your substance dependency, and know your family history. If there’s a long history of alcoholism in the family, then you’ll need to be extra careful to avoid the signs of alcohol abuse.

 

Allergies

 

If your parents suffered from allergies, then bad news, there’s a strong chance that you’ll be suffering from hayfever and other problems too. Whether they materialize when you’re young or later in life will depend on a few factors. There’s not much you can do, unfortunately, to prevent it from happening – but you can limit its effects by making sure you’re taking the appropriate medication and keeping a well-functioning vacuum on hand to pick up all that excess dust.

 

Inherited Conditions

 

This is just a starting point for some of the health conditions we can get from our parents. It’ll be good practice to talk your parents about their health, for their sake as well as yours, as this will give you a heads up for any conditions that might be waiting around the corner.

 

Karla Urwitz
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