What ethnical group do you belong to?

I am Italian, Irish and swedish mostly. I don't know the percentages. I do think eye color is important because both my father and I have very light blue eyes and never have been able to look at bright lights. It hurts! We asked several brown eyed folks to look at the same lights and rate their discomfort. It is less than ours, so there may be a link to photophobia and optic triggers and blue eyed people. Who knows?

How do you guys find that lineage percentage stuff out? Is there an easy way to look up your family history?

About the celebrity thing, I wonder if they don't really open up about their migraines because of the stigma that they are just "bad headaches" and their managers or whomever deals with that sort of thing tells them it may be bad for their "image". A lot of famous people in the industry really have poor self confidence so they follow whatever their crew says to them unfortunately. We need a celebrity with some big kahoonas!!

Sorry for going off track.

An easy way to look up family history...not really. I know mine - my mom is 100% German (that side isn't long in the US) and my dad's was done by a relative (while I don't know exact percentages, I know the main nationalities). It does depend on your family too and how far back you are willing to go. I think some families are probably easier than others, rare vs common surnames and how many ancestors you already know.

You might be right about the celebs too. I can imagine how good this would be for their image, especially if they are still fairly young. Michael J Fox didn't come out with his Parkinsons until he was 40 and he'd already been working for a number of years. I think it really started to affect his ability to perform. Our group may never have a spokesmodel like that - it seems that most of us start to be affected early in life and could be severely debilitated by the time our careers would have reached that stage.

lovegia - forget the blue eyes theory. I have dark brown eyes and light kills me. Now here is another theory - how many of you are near sighted? Wear contacts? Maybe if we keep this up, we will solve this mystery --maybe.

Isn't is interesting what we learn from each other whilst discussing our common problem....
Re the Eskimo/Inuit description.

I know that in England we call them Inuits and it was thought this is ethnically correct.
However it seems collectively it is still acceptable to call them Eskimos at least over here.
As they are not all Inuits apparently.
I was interested, so looked it up.

It seems that Eskimo is acceptable everywhere else except Canada.
I read on Wikipaedia that Inuit (Northern Alaska, Canada and Greenland) and Yupik (West Alaska)are collectively known as Eskimo, as there is no other collective term. Another group Aleut are related but different
Inuit is not acceptable as a collective term for both, so Eskimo is the accepted collective term.
BUT it does state that the term is out of favour in Canada.
Very interesting, you learn something every day.

See below.

In Alaska, the term Eskimo is commonly used, because it includes both Yupik and Inupiat, while Inuit is not accepted as a collective term or even specifically used for Inupiat. No universal replacement term for Eskimo, inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik people, is accepted across the geographical area inhabited by the Inuit and Yupik peoples.[1] In Canada and Greenland, the term Eskimo has fallen out of favour, as it is considered pejorative by the natives and has been replaced by the term Inuit. The Canadian Constitution Act of 1982, sections 25 and 35 recognized the Inuit as a distinctive group of Canadian aboriginals.[2]
:


Whatever we should call them, does anyone know if they have much problem with migraine.....

Doesn't Serena Williams have menstrual migraines? She used to take frova for them but that was a while ago. How she plays, even after taking one of those though, is beyond me. But then I guess she's slightly fitter than me

Liz

I think she does, but I guess there are migraines and migraines...I mean is she on this forum or any of the other groups...

The Inuit people do have a history of intracranial hypertension (and resulting head pain) from eating polar bear liver which is very high in Vitamin A. Too much Vitamin A can trigger IH:

http://journals.lww.com/jneuro-ophthalmology/Fulltext/2007/12000/Retinol_and_Retinol_Binding_Protein_in.1.aspx

I believe Inuit people are aware of this risk now, and many avoid polar bear liver.

Cheryl

How interesting Cheryl. I am learning such a lot in my quest to find help with our problem.

Linda I think you are right, we should keep at it.
SOMETHING bonds us in some way, surely.

Perhaps we should do some polls on here.

As the people that should be doing the research or not, then why not do it ourselves at least at this level.
We have nothing to loose and so much experience (unfortunately)

I think it would be interesting to find some commonality between who we are and why we suffer. To my knowledge, there is no one else in my family that suffers from migraines the way I do (if they get them it's more take aspirin and caffeine and it goes away type) so I'm pretty sure it's not familial in my case.

What stands out is that many of us have some northern european heritage (german, uk, ireland, nordic etc). Please correct me if this isn't an accurate assessment. So now the question is what else do we have in common? (my scientist side is starting to kick in) I think that environment may play a role as well but lets start with other familial tendencies first and see if something stands out.

Me, heart disease and diabetes are a problem from one side. The other side, cancer (this may be environmental as they come from a cancer pocket) and essential tremors.

Age might play a role, but do you start when it became chronic or when you had your first M?

The problem with heart disease, cancer and diabetes. I think we are going to find this in everyone's family background, if not immediate, but also the same in non migraine people.

I like your idea of trying to pin something down we all have in common though.

So I can add that, I also have FMS and IBS.
My dad had Fibrositis. My mum had a spastic colon.

My mum died of a heart attack which apparently was because she was a heavy smoker.
My dad, we don't know....nothing conclusive on the death cert.

In my near family I have an uncle with vertigo, but no one with headaches,
I have a congenital kidney defect, probably from my dad.
As a child I suffered from endless tonsillitis, to the point that they never managed to get my tonsils out.

I am in NO doubt that there is a connection between IBS, FMS/CFS and migraine,it has come up again and again.
I also firmly believe that thyroid might play a part.

'Sall for now.....

One of our neurosurgeons told us this story:

He had a patient (young boy) who seemed to develop IH/high intracranial pressure out of the blue. The neurosurgeon had a feeling it was triggered by "something." He just had a feeling about it.

So he was asking this boy all sorts of questions. He found out the boy was very fond of Ovaltine. It is a chocolate drink which contains added vitamins. But the boy was drinking it all day long, which should not be done! Overdose of Vitamin A.

The neurosurgeon told the boy and his mom to stop the Ovaltine. The boys pressure went down, and his HA's went away.

That is what too much Vitamin A can do. Give you severe HA's and high pressure (high pressure that has nothing to do with high blood pressure).

There are certain drugs which can trigger IH also--like Accutane.

And some people don't have a clue this is happening to them.

Cheryl

I knew too much Vit. A is dangerous Cheryl, but not in this way.
Ovaltine used to be really popular in England in WW2.
I dont think it is still.
But I wonder what else is similar....

Oh, Charlotte, you aren't a dum-dum. I'm very sensitive to those kinds of things, mainly from being patronized by doctors. I've had doctors, friends, family, coworkers, strangers tell me everything from, "you can't have migraines as bad as you describe because of your age" to because it's not common for hispanics to get them to because I've never had children. I'm won't be surprised to hear next that the moon isn't in the 7th house of venus, so I can't possibly have migraines!
I just want to stick to facts, but someone made a good argument that I hadn't thought of, about the photosensitivity possibly being related to eye color. So see, that was a good point related to eye color that I missed entirely. However, I'd like to see someone relate hair color and freckles to migraines as easily! LOL

Oh, on the related subject of celebrities and migraines, I haven't heard of specific celebrities, but I follow baseball, and I've heard of a few baseball players who get them. I know one of the pitchers on the Phillies got pulled from his regular start in the playoffs because of a migraine, and I seem to remember Clayton Kershaw on the Dodgers got lifted from a game because of migraine symptoms. I know I've heard of others. I follow baseball pretty closely

AuntieBubbs wrote:Oh, Charlotte, you aren't a dum-dum. I'm very sensitive to those kinds of things, mainly from being patronized by doctors. I've had doctors, friends, family, coworkers, strangers tell me everything from, "you can't have migraines as bad as you describe because of your age" to because it's not common for hispanics to get them to because I've never had children. I'm won't be surprised to hear next that the moon isn't in the 7th house of venus, so I can't possibly have migraines!

I'm sensitive about all the above. It's especially irks me when they use age as a reason we shouldn't have migraines. I and other people at Ronda's have had them since we were toddlers. And some women have them long after menopause is over. (For some, migraines disappear or are reduced after menopause.)

Chris

I picked this list up from another site I visit. It is co-morbid conditions.
Worth a look....

Depression
Anxiety
Stroke
Cardiovascular Disease
Hypertension
Epilepsy
Fibromyalgia
Thyroid Disease
Mania/Bipolar Disorder
Panic Attacks
Raynaud’s syndrome
Restless Leg Syndrome
Essential Tremor
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chiari Malformations.

I go IBS., FMS Thyroid. Have had panic attacks in the past.
Had depression. Get a lot of Anxiety.
Father had hypertension. Epilepsy in family.

I'm still kind of skeptical Pen - those conditions are pretty common in older people and the majority do not have migraines. And other than maybe the depression and anxiety, not too many young people have those conditions but get migraines. There could be a correlation but trying to figure it out would be almost impossible. There has got to be one thing that migraineurs have in common.. Sure would like to know what it is. Maybe then, a cure could be in the works.

pen wrote:I knew too much Vit. A is dangerous Cheryl, but not in this way.
Ovaltine used to be really popular in England in WW2.
I dont think it is still.
But I wonder what else is similar....

hi pen ovaltine is still used in alot of uk hospitals, and the elderly generation love it we get through loads of it on our ward, it is the highlight of their evening just b4 bedtime,

oh and i am white, and mostly english as far as i know, my family have lived in same village, for over 200 years,

Caucasian, Polish.

that migraine is mainly spread among Asian-Europeans

As a matter of fact, certain Asians hardly ever got M:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=aJRV199FZcoC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=migraine+prevalence+by+race&source=bl&ots=fwLjfIx6ka&sig=bAvgmt49CHw0aTLpiFuIbr6aAA4&hl=en&ei=Q3t0S7CqF5TgswOe_9GNBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=migraine%20prevalence%20by%20race&f=false

Risa

CluelessKitty wrote:Caucasian, Polish.

that migraine is mainly spread among Asian-Europeans

As a matter of fact, certain Asians hardly ever got M:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=aJRV199FZcoC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=migraine+prevalence+by+race&source=bl&ots=fwLjfIx6ka&sig=bAvgmt49CHw0aTLpiFuIbr6aAA4&hl=en&ei=Q3t0S7CqF5TgswOe_9GNBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=migraine%20prevalence%20by%20race&f=false

Risa

Great Risa! There is the documented answer we've been looking for!

You're welcome ! If you want more research on this, look under "migraine prevalence by race".

Risa

estre004 wrote:I'm still kind of skeptical Pen - those conditions are pretty common in older people and the majority do not have migraines. And other than maybe the depression and anxiety, not too many young people have those conditions but get migraines. There could be a correlation but trying to figure it out would be almost impossible. There has got to be one thing that migraineurs have in common.. Sure would like to know what it is. Maybe then, a cure could be in the works.

I dont know either Linda, but its interesting they are discussing this same thing on other sites.
Seems quite a move to try to determine a link.

P

Pen,

You answered a question I had been wondering about. Essential tremors run in my family, dad, brother, aunt, grandmother, cousins and my great-grandmother (have a suspicion it goes back to the Native American heritage). Normal onset in my family is mid to late 20's (my brother was late teens but he seems to be the exception). While I've had sporadic migraines since high school, it's only been in the last year that they've become a problem. At the same time, I noticed the onset of the essential tremors. I wondered if they were tied but had difficulty finding any information that correlated the two. In my case, I'm wondering if M is a manifestation of the tremors - the tremors appeared more while the M were more sporadic and have sort of disappeared with the chronic symptoms (except in cases of extreme stress). I know the tremors can affect people differently (my aunt has hers in her voice as well as extremities). I know no one has the answers to this, but where did you find your information as I'm very interested? The standard treatments don't seem to be effective and maybe a new course of action is needed in my case. I know similar treatments are used and it may be that I need the tremors to be treated instead of the M.

Becky

Glad I was able to help Becky.

I have wondered if migraines are actually a "symptom" of something else in myself.
I have FMS and it is well documented that headaches and migraines and even IBS (which I also have) are a big symptom in CFS/FMS. I have also had problems with my thyroid, and huge hormone problems.

So which one do I fix? How? and will it take the migraines with it???

Even so it doesnt explain the missing link between us all does it??

Well it may not find a link between each of us. However, we may all need to look at the list and see what we are affected by and if there's a possibility of more than one, pick a likely candidate. Thyroid disease runs in my family but it doesn't run in direct lines (my mother is affected and so is a cousin). Due to this, I keep a fairly close eye on that just to make sure that nothing is starting (large amounts of hair coming out in the shower send me running to the doctor). In my case, I think it might be worthwhile to look at the tremors....if we treat for that and see what the effect is on M. This may explain why many of us don't respond to the preventatives. We don't have M on their own but they are a side effect of another condition. Treat that condition and see what happens. Someone I work with was chronic for years and then changed doctors. They found there was something wrong with her sinuses, did surgery and now she is no longer chronic.

Sorry this may be some rambling but it's got me fired up a bit and confirms that I really do need to see what happens when I get off all preventatives (as they are doing more harm than good now). And I need to discuss with my doctor the possibility of treating the tremors instead of the M. While I may have a tendency towards them, this may be driven by something else.