Popular author Michael Crichton has written: “If you don’t know your family’s history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.” Screenings and tests can give you a snapshot of your health at one point in time, but did you know that your family health history can reveal what your health might look like throughout your life? Reviewing your family health history is like standing back and viewing an entire tree at once—rather than examining it leaf by leaf.

A family health history is a list of diseases, complications, reasons for deaths, and other health events that have affected blood relatives on your mother’s and father’s sides of the family. When you search through the generations, you can see trends that will help you learn if you’re at increased risk for any number of both common and less common diseases. This kind of history shows the genes, behavior patterns, and even culture that you share with your blood relatives. Your risks for health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease can be inherited. Sure, how you take care of yourself—your “environment”—such as where you live and whether you smoke play a major factor. But your genes “load the gun” when it comes to disease; environment and personal habits “pull the trigger,” some experts say.

You can’t change your genes but you can change your behavior. Don’t smoke, exercise every day and eat well. If your family has a history of chronic illness, you stand the most to gain by adopting healthy behaviors. In most cases, you can dramatically reduce the risks of ever being affected by these family legacies if you promote your own health. This is where regular checkups and screenings come in. If your family has a history of colon cancer, then you should get screened for it long before most people start standard screening.

Finding disease early, even before symptoms appear, usually means better treatment and recovery. Make an effort today to start gathering your family’s health history. Ask relatives, and friends of relatives who have passed on, about the major health events in their lives. Obituaries and death certificates can be another great source of information. Write down and share these facts with your care provider and your family. Update the facts over time and pass that knowledge to your next generation. Capturing your family’s health portrait is a major step in ensuring you and those you love remain the picture of health.