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Make Grandma spill the beans: Uncovering all the diseases that lurk in your family tree can trump costly genetic testing in predicting what illnesses you and your children are likely to face.

It may sound old-fashioned, but a Cleveland Clinic study comparing which method best uncovered an increased risk of cancer helps confirm the value of what’s called a family health history. All it costs is a little time questioning your relatives, yet good family health trees are rare. A government survey estimated less than a third of families have one—and time-crunched doctors seldom push their patients to remedy that.

“I view family health histories as back to the future,” says Dr. Charis Eng, a cancer geneticist at the Cleveland Clinic’s Genomic Medicine Institute.

You already know by now that eating well and exercising keep you from putting on the typical holiday pounds. And that’s important. But what’s even more important is simply having enough energy to get through the hustle and bustle of the season. With all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, wrapping and entertaining you’ll be doing in the next couple of months, you’ll definitely need a boost to keep going at full force—or at least to avoid crashing on the couch after turkey dinner.

In this special section, health care experts from all over the region give their advice on how to stay refreshed and rejuvenated during the holidays. This holiday season, don’t let stress and sluggishness get the best of you. Learn how to get refreshed.

FOOD & DRINK
You’ll learn about the best energy-inducing foods and drinks you can enjoy at home, on the go and at a party.

» Rescue your holiday diet
» Get a liquid boost

Every year is the same. When holiday stress runs high, loved ones get hit with a majority of the fallout, which is tragic because enjoying time with family is supposed to be a focal point of the season. Obligations of cooking, baking, shopping, wrapping and hosting parties on top of the normal stress of the rest of the year have a tendency to distance us from relatives rather than bring us together.

Make this year different. With some advice from licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Kalyani Gopal, be proactive about curbing holiday stress, avoiding friction and neglect and making sure family fun remains the focus.

Gopal, clinical director at Mid-America Psychological and Counseling Services in Merrillville, says women suffer from holiday stress more than their male counterparts, as they are “pretty much in charge of the holidays.” Thus, helping women cope with their additional stress load during the holidays, and the resentment that often accompanies the burden, is something Gopal deals with daily.

Before Simone French was one of the nation’s foremost researchers on eating habits—long before her studies warned about fast-food marketing and Coke machines in schools—she was a teen who snacked after school on Twinkies and dined with her mom at Burger King.

Which is to say she understands the cravings and time crunches and cost concerns that make people choose unhealthy foods even when they know, deep down, they shouldn’t. “Right now,” she said in an interview this week, “the easy choice is the unhealthy choice.”

French, 46, is part of a powerhouse team at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health that won a $7 million federal grant this month to change the habits of hundreds of families. The project is part of an ongoing university research program that seeks to motivate better health and eating through studies of family dinners, school lunches and food commercials.

As families gather for reunions this summer and fall, they should consider sharing something more important than Aunt Martha’s macaroni salad recipe.

It’s important to know your family medical history, and large family gatherings are the best place to gather the details, according to health officials.

“Knowing your family medical history can save your life,” said Karen Brooks, a genetic counselor and assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.

There’s a reason doctors always ask about your family’s health history. Cancer, diabetes, heart disease and many other disorders have genetic factors passed down through the generations. Knowing if your family has a history for any of these conditions allows you and your physician to take steps to prevent you from becoming part of an unwanted family tradition.

A survey cited by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted that 96 percent of Americans believe knowing their family health history is important, but less than a third of Americans have gathered to discuss and write down those histories.

Originally published in NWI Parent, May 2010:

The weather is getting warmer and the outdoors are calling. But before you commit to a family workout plan that depends on electricity usage, automotive transportation, and a slew of new gear, wait: there’s a greener way.

In years gone by, families got their workouts the old-fashioned way: by getting outside. Of course, a lot of them were harvesting crops, tending fields and manually caring for their homes, things not very common today. But you can take advantage of lessons from the “good old days” and transfer your family workouts outdoors while being kind to the environment. Below are some traditional as well as not-so-traditional ways to garner a greener family workout. Who knows? You might even find exercising fun while feeling good about your contribution to Planet Earth.

In this photo taken Jan. 20, 2010, Paris Woods, left, and her mother Dinah Woods listen to personal trainer Scott Mathews instructions as they take part in their final session of a 20 month obesity prevention study at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Like nearly one-third of American teens, Paris is overweight and her doctor worries that she is headed for obesity. Wishing to avoid that scenario, Paris, and her parents participated in weekly sessions with a nutritionist, exercise trainer and physician preaching major lifestyle changes that could keep the 14-year-old from becoming obese. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Paris Woods is hardly a poster child for the obesity epidemic. Lining up dripping wet with kids on her swim team, she’s a blend of girlish chunkiness and womanly curves.

In street clothes—roomy pink sweats or skimpy tank tops revealing broad, brown swimmers’ shoulders—the teen blends in with her friends, a fresh-faced, robust-looking All-American girl.

That’s the problem.

Like nearly one-third of American teens, Paris Woods is overweight. Her doctor worries her weight will creep up into the obesity range. One out of four black girls her age is obese.

Going face to face with the truth isn’t always easy.

But a new exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago encourages visitors to do just that by exploring simple ways to live a healthier lifestyle.

Taking Charge of You, this year’s feature Black Creativity exhibit, takes a look at health issues that affect African Americans—facing head on common problems such as asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and stress.

Portage: Topperz caters to those who want more choice in their meals

Portage resident Michelle Golab recently opened Topperz restaurant at 6652 U.S. 6 in Diamond Plaza. (Photograph by Joyce Russell/The Times.)

When Michelle Golab first toyed with the idea of opening a restaurant, she initially thought about an ice cream shop.

Her two boys, Zachary, 14, and Nicholas, 11, nixed that idea.

The boys told her she should open a restaurant featuring the salads she fixed for the family for dinner. They liked them that much.

And Topperz was born.

It’s vital for working mothers to be adaptable

Even though most of us are way past wanting it all, working moms still strive for contentment—a state that sometimes seems out of reach.

In their new book, What Working Mothers Know: How New Findings in Positive Psychology Can Lead to a Healthy & Happy Work/Life Balance (Wiley 2009, $19.95), authors Dr. Cathy Greenberg and Barrett Avigdor provide a resource to help women find health and happiness. And despite its title, the book also shows how moms who stay home can achieve personal satisfaction as well.

“Happiness is a science which means it can be learned and it can be taught,” says Avigdor, an international lawyer and talent development innovator (Greenberg is a behavioral scientist and global leadership expert). “Being unhappy doesn’t have to be that way. You can choose to be happy but you have to choose it everyday.”