Someone stated on a mailing list that genealogies should include medical history

Question:

Someone stated on a mailing list that genealogies should include medical history?

I have some medical histories in mine. However, when we go so far back I am not sure of the significance. There was a time when people did not understand the pathology of bodily and mental illnesses and retardation.
Most hereditary problems usually come up when both parents carry the gene with that problem. For instance two people who carry the epilectic gene have a better chance of having an epilectic child than an epilectic does.
I understand you only worry about mental illnesses or mental retardation if you see a consistent pattern from a common ancestor.
They knew nothing in times past about birth traumas and loss of oxygen to the brain during delivery.
Diabetes. Today, we know more about it. Some are Type 1 and they are born with it and some are Type 2 and it is caused by lifestyle. I had a maternal grandfather that was probably diabetic and died in 1937 because I read a letter from my grandmother where he had sores that would not heal. My assumption is diabetes.

Additional Details

2 weeks ago
Got some good answers. Now my question is things they didn't know about.
When my grandfather was found dead in bed back in 1937, people knew very little about diabetes, but I feel he had it.

Mental problems, only thing they knew is for some reason a person's behavior was something that was difficult to cope with. They really didn't know the pathology
of it. I had an uncle that as a young man worked at the State Hospital in Austin, Texas. He was told not to say anything to any of the patients, that they would ask him questions and not to answer. They kept asking him questions, "What's your name? " Where are you from?" Finally, he told them his name was Lee and they jumped him and repeatedly asked him all sorts of questions over and over and a guard had to beat them off with big keys.
You know, if a person wasn't totally mad
when they went into place like that where no one would talk to them, they had to be after they were there for awhile.

2 weeks ago
Now if someone suffered a severe head trauma and behaved strangely afterwards, they could figure out that it had to do with what happened to that person, but they really didn't understand why.

I had a great grandmother that had a roof to cave in on her and she went blind and her mind wasn't right after that. A first cousin of my mother's told me she had a hole in her head big enough to put a silver dollar in it. Now, they could figure that sort of thing out. Therefore, though, when you might not always know by census record, Bible records, etc what might have happened to a person that could have effected them.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: 2 weeks ago
Got some good answers. Now my question is things they didn't know about.
When my grandfather was found dead in bed back in 1937, people knew very little about diabetes, but I feel he had it.

Mental problems, only thing they knew is for some reason a person's behavior was something that was difficult to cope with. They really didn't know the pathology
of it. I had an uncle that as a young man worked at the State Hospital in Austin, Texas. He was told not to say anything to any of the patients, that they would ask him questions and not to answer. They kept asking him questions, "What's your name? " Where are you from?" Finally, he told them his name was Lee and they jumped him and repeatedly asked him all sorts of questions over and over and a guard had to beat them off with big keys.
You know, if a person wasn't totally mad
when they went into place like that where no one would talk to them, they had to be after they were there for awhile.