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Do Headaches run in your family?

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Migraine Headache
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Posted 2/8/2008 12:10 PM (GMT -7)
After a year of chronic daily headache with intermittent migraines, my Dad has finally revealed to me that he's been having the same problem for many years! We've talked about my headaches so much that I guess he didn't want to be in the spotlight. So I was wondering if anyone else's family members have headaches as well. Maybe this will clue us into the cause, and maybe some relief. I know that everyone is different, but just looking for answers.

Thanks Mother2

 

Posted 2/8/2008 12:48 PM (GMT -7)
My mother has had migraines for as long as I've been alive (I'm 47). My older sister developed migraines about the time my New Daily Persistent Headaches started (around 20 years ago), and one of her sons has had them intermittently. While none of them have daily headaches and I don't have migraine symptoms they have (nausea, light and sound sensitivity), I have no doubt there's a genetic predisposition.

My guess is that most headaches are somehow related (a continuum, as several doctors have described it to me) and that you inherit the tendency to have headaches. Whether or not you actually develop them may have to do with environmental exposures.
Posted 2/8/2008 8:56 PM (GMT -7)
Hello Mother2,

After I started getting my migraines it started to come out that my father and my maternal grandmother both got migraines.  I have chronic daily migraines, but they both just have occassional migraines.  They both have different symptoms, but I share symptoms with both of them plus a few extras that they don't suffer from...I'm not sure if I just got the double whammy because I inherited the migraines from both sides of my family or if there are other factors involved.

I do know that every time I go to a new doctor for my migraines, one of the first questions they ask is if there's a history of migraines in the family.

I hope this helps,

~Liz

Posted 2/9/2008 10:58 AM (GMT -7)

mother2- As Liz said, this is usually something asked right away when you see a doctor about your migraines. Now that you know your dad suffers from the same type of headaches you do, you may want to share this information with your dr.

The majority of women on both sides of my extended family have (at one point in their lives, if not currently) suffered from migraines. None to the extent I did, but migraines nonetheless. My dad suffers from tension headaches that make him sensitive to light, noise, and he has to lay in a dark, quiet room to get relief. I keep suggesting these might be migraines, but he insists they are just headaches *shrug*.

Posted 2/11/2008 12:05 PM (GMT -7)
Hey guys im totally new and have just seen this thread, my dad used to get migraines when he was a teenager, but they stopped when he hit his twenties, but in the last year or so he has started getting bad pains again, I said to my dad that the migraines may be back and he just shrugs it off also. I have been getting them for 9 years and my eight year bro has started complaining about bad pains in his head and gets dizzy a lot. I dont know about any other family members though, mainly cos no one speaks to each other.
Posted 4/17/2008 7:13 PM (GMT -7)
I have m. headaches along with my mother and all 3 of my sister's. Yes, only the women in my family. I've been getting my headaches for over 28 years and the 1st 20 I would only get them about 2 to 4 times a year, but the last 8 years or so they've been 2-3 times a week. I honestly think the increase is due to pre-menopause & and now that I'm close to being done w/ menopause the headaches are worst! Hopefully they'll end or ease up after the big M.
Posted 4/17/2008 11:38 PM (GMT -7)
As much as I wish I didn't have my genes working against me so much, the prior family experiences with migraines has really helped in some ways. Already have plenty of headache specialist connections, etc.

As for who: Maternal Grandfather, maternal great-grandmother, two paternal uncles, mother, older brother, younger sister, and a few maternal cousins I think. Nearly all of them had very severe migraines: my grandfather from about age 30 to age 65, not sure about great-grandmother, decades for my uncles and mother, about 2 years each for my siblings when they were under the age of ten. And now 18-just about 24 for me, though I have the worst of anyone in recent family history (expect for an uncle who suffered several spinal and neck trauma when he was hit by a drunk driver).

Ben
Posted 4/18/2008 3:39 AM (GMT -7)
Howdy. I've been suffering from migraines for 4 years now and no one in my family has them! :/ I keep reading that it is genetic though. I don't get it!
Posted 6/28/2008 9:17 AM (GMT -7)
3 people in my family other than me suffere from migraines, my mother, my aunt and my cousin and now myself. My cousin and me suffer the worst I wound up in the hospital for 4 days with stroke like symptoms and when my cousin get one she also goes to the ER for IV and other treatments.
Posted 7/1/2008 12:40 AM (GMT -7)

None of the members of my direct family suffer from migraines, but my maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother both had migraines.  In my case, the migraines skipped a generation fortunuately for my parents.  They just have to deal with mine.  Both grandparents have long sense passed, way before much was even known about migraines.  I don't even know how they dealt with the pain.  Sorry I'm not much help here.

Leigh Ann cool

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