Genes are to blame for migraine Is healing possible in the future?

Migraine is a common disease. One million people in Germany make extreme headaches the day hell and prepare sleepless nights. One in ten of those affected can not leave the bed because of these torments. Disabled by migraines: Patients especially suffer from headache attacks in everyday life. But now a breakthrough was made to address the cause of the pain.

Genetic predisposition
The research knew that genetic dispositions promote migraines, which are, but so far was in the fog. Now the scientists found a number of gene structures that trigger migraine.

The cause of the migraine is discovered. Image: let's design - fotolia

World's largest study
Are genetic changes the cause of migraine? Scientists from the International Headache Genetics Consortium (IHGC) have studied the genetic makeup of migraine sufferers in the largest study to date - to 375,000 people in the US, Europe and Australia. 60,000 of them regularly seek migraine home. The study brings together 22 individual studies and compared genetic variations common to migraine patients. So reports the pain clinic Kiel .

Responsible genes identified
The result: The scientists found over 30 new gene risks that promote migraine. Ten of these genes are also co-initiators of diseases of the blood and lymph vessels, says Professor Stefan Schreiber, Director of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital Schleswig Holstein. Schreiber collaborated on the study.

Individual therapies are now possible
The study shows that migraine is closely related to a dysregulation of the bloodstream, said Schreiber. On this basis, individual therapies could begin.

Genes are not everything
Nearly 3 out of 4 migraineurs have close relatives who are also struggling with headache attacks, and whose parents have migraine, whose risk is up to four times higher to even develop the symptoms.

But not everyone with the genetic predisposition has to develop a migraine. The social environment, the environment and mental health also play a part. For example, migraine is often an outlet for suppressed tensions, bad weather can cause headaches and in 2013 new migraine risk factors were discovered.

How does migraine come about??
"The arteries supply the nerve cells of the brain with oxygen and energy. (...) A temporary disruption of care due to the special genetic endowment of those affected during the migraine attack according to the new data plays a crucial role in the triggering of migraine attacks, "says Prof. Hartmut Göbel of the pain clinic in Kiel.

Is healing possible now??
The study is a breakthrough, because now you can develop drugs and perform treatments that go to the roots instead of just to alleviate the symptoms. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)