Is your family tree making itself smaller?

As we discussed the other day in class, there is a lot to gain from understanding your family tree. We primarily focused on the health problems that are in our immediate family and repercussions it can have on our future and that of our children's. But is it just as big of a problem for your physical health as it is to your mental health?

Mental illness affects about 58 million people over the age of 18 in the United States. About one in four adults suffer from disorders ranging from depression to obsessive-compulsive disorder to schizophrenia in a given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The genetic force behind these illnesses is strong — for an identical twin who has developed schizophrenia, his or her twin has a 50 percent chance to do so as well — but clearly not absolute.

The main problem with genetically passing on mental diseases is there is no way to test for it. With most single diseases the parents can be tested before conception and thus the passing of the disease can be avoided. But due to the complexity of the multiple genes involved and the environmental issues a child is brought up around.

With this ongoing problem some marriages are either failing due to the stress and dangers of reproducing because of the genes of a single partner, or couples are just not taking the risk to reproduce because they feel that they costs will be more than the benefits if their child was to develop a hereditary disease such as schizophrenia, or depression.

So what can you do? Doctors are trying to get the word out that many of these drastic decisions to not have children can easily be avoided with simple tests to show that the risk of having a child with one of these diseases was much higher than they thought it was. And if these parents do have tests done they will could be prepared for the worst rather than leaving it up to chance, thus making some couples more likely to have children knowing exactly what is ahead of them than having no idea at all.

But despite these warnings and dangers involved, there are many couples out there that are still having children no matter what and moving on with life as planned. Keeping an optimistic mind and hoping for the best or a miracle is a good driving force to help manage or tolerate ones flawed genetic history.