Migraines - Genetic research
Migraine headaches are a huge health problem. In a 2004 report, the World Health Organization (WHO) called migraines and headache disorders a global public health calamity. Migraines and other chronic headache conditions are disabling. In the same report, the WHO ranked migraine as one of the top twenty conditions in the world to cause years of healthy life lost due to disability. Migraines and all other headache disorders combined rank in the top ten causes of disability. As a result of the increasing global recognition of migraine as a health threat, genetic research into the condition has multiplied exponentially in the last ten to fifteen years. Doctors have long known that a child with two migraineur parent will likely have migraines. A 2000 Danish study using primarily twins indicated that migraine without aura (common migraine) is approximately sixty-one percent genetic. The other thirty-nine percent was attributed to genetic factors, making migraines a partially genetic ...