Finding the cause of migraine

Scientists have found that the occurrence of migraines in adulthood may be related to the level of hormones in the womb before birth.
The article was published in Frontiers in Pain Research.

In addition, it turns out that different genes are responsible for migraine headaches in men and women.
“We have shown for the first time that women who have a twin brother are more likely to have migraines than women who have a twin sister. Based on this, we can conclude that prenatal factors specifically are related to the level of intrauterine hormones that may contribute to the onset of migraines.
Says Morgan Fitzgerald of the University of California, San Diego. “In addition, we were also the first to show that genetic factors associated with migraines can differ in men and women.”

The researchers examined data from 51,872 people who participated in previous studies of the Swedish Twin Registry. It was the use of twins in the research that made it possible to neutralize the influence of genes, highlighting the role of prenatal conditions. However, the study lacks data on the age at which people started their first seizures, and in subsequent work the authors plan to fix this.

Migraine is a form of headache that usually appears with attacks. It can be very strong and last for several days. The researchers hope their findings will allow for a more effective and targeted treatment of the disease, the nature of which remains unclear to scientists.