Pedigree Analysis I discovered several diseases and traits for which I have a high risk of inheritance, namely chronic lung disease and lung cancer associated with smoking tobacco, hypertension and high cholesterol, an addictive disorder. Each of these illnesses appears more than once in my family pedigree, posing a significant threat to my own health history. Luckily, although I may be predisposed to these adverse health outcomes, their manifestation depends on several behavioral and environmental conditions that are entirely avoidable. The family history pedigree displayed my vulnerabilities and shed light on the importance of cultivating preventive strategies to ameliorate risks and reduce the chances of succumbing to diseases and heritable traits. At age 30, I am fully responsible and engaged in my own self-care, treatment, and prevention. However, when I was a child, the risk behaviors, social psychologic stressors, and environmental circumstances that made up my hea
Writings in Anthropology & Public Health