Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have recently identified three genes in which a genetic variation is linked to an increased risk for migraine headache. Of these newly identified genes, one is solely connected to women. This discovery may help to explain why women are nearly three times more likely than men to experience migraines. The findings, published in the journal Nature Genetics also point out that inheritance of any of these genetic variants prompts the likelihood of migraine by 10 to 15 percent.
Lead author Daniel Chasman, PhD, assistant professor at BWH and Harvard Medical School believes this new information is significant towards understanding migraine headache. ” While migraine remains incompletely understood and its underlying causes difficult to pin down, identifying these three genetic variants helps shed light on the biological roots for this common and debilitating condition.” Headwise National Headache Foundation Volume 1, Issue 2