Good Morning, I just learned from my Dad that my Grandmother may have very likely suffered from CH. She passed away about 10 years ago at age 97. My Dad can remember when he was a boy, age 10, that his Mom had episodes of very bad headaches, ate aspirin like it was candy, would sit in her chair for hours, rocking back and forth, crying in pain and often press her head against a cold window pane. My Dad is 81 now. So this was 70 yrs ago. It sure sounds like a good possibility to me.
           Haven't seen many posts about the heredity factors and CH. Any one out there know more about that? Or where I  might find more info on it?   
            
Just trying to learn all I can about this dreadful illness.

Thanks

Donna Mae

          

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thanks OUCH!

There is also this survey in the OUCH Members Area which has over 1200 responses:
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Hi Donna Mae;

Actually there have been quite a few posts on this in the past.  There are several here with relatives who have suffered or continue to suffer with CH.

My Dad has had CH for about 35 years, and I've had it for almost 11 years now. My son has had a few episodes that were cluster headaches instead of the migraines he was diagnosed with when he was 2yrs. old.  My son is now in his twenties and has seen much of what I go through, he's not looking forward to what might be coming for him in the future with regards to CH.

no luck here.seems i am the only one from my relatives.

myself, my father, and his father all have CH

I think one of the problem with these type stats is the older statistics are unreliable. Women didn't get CH 30 years ago...only men did...women just got bad migrains! ;D With medical care being so scattered in the past there were few central repositories for info storage like this.

I do not recall exact numbers but it's a miniscule chance any one person will get CH...if a relative had it...that chance is supposedly doubled...which still leaves it a pretty miniscule chance. I'm one of 14 children.....no one else got it! My daughters are 25 and 23.....neither developed it.

Joe

I am chronic and my son who is 24 is eposodic.  He developed ch in his early teens.  He also gets migraines.  His identical twin brother does not get headaches.  The OUCH stats are wonderful to look at.

sure wish i hadn't mispelled that word. bugging me!

Thank goodness, Joe your daughters are Ch free. Hope they stay that way. Thanks for that info, makes sense to me.

So far as I know, I'm the only one in my clan, unless of course my grandmother did have ch. No way to know for sure now.

I sure hope none of my grandkids ever have to deal with this. My 2 boys, grown men now, don't  have it.

This doesn't pertain to the subject but I'd like to say I'm
having a pretty good day today, head is being kept at bay. Me thinks the pred taper did the trick again. Seem to be having better results with my o2 as well.

Hope it lasts.




Donna Mae

There are 10 of us over a 5 year generation span.

This question has always interested me in a great deal. In my immediate family, I'm the only one with ch. My great aunt, however, had bad migraines, which could have been ch. Unfortunately she passed away before my first ch hit, so I cannot ask her.

On my father's side of the family, I haven't heard about bad headaches. Dad had 25 first cousins, which means a lot of people... and something to talk about at the next family reunion!

Sanna :)

It IS interesting, but not to anyone outside our family.  I was from a small town so everyone knows we have them, but we rarely talk about it to others.  They just don't get it.  Actually, we are about talked out in our family, too.  We are all so use to them that when someone starts a cycle, we just say we are so sorry and all move on.  We are certainly supportive and nice, but I guess we don't pamper one another as much as a family with only 1 or 2 affected members because most of us have seen it all our lives so much that it is just a part of life for us.  Everyone except me uses Imitrex and then just goes on about their business.  My sister has the worst I've ever seen, but I probably suffer the most because I am the one that is scared of medicine.  We have learned a lot from each other.  As of now, I am the only descendant that has not passed it along.  Time will tell.  Mine are 27 and 23 years old.

wow... almost whole family having Cluster Headaches, that is uncommon...

In whole family, I am the only one that is having CH and any headaches, although weirdly, my father says after breathing oxygen in his work where he has to and at low level he had mild headache.

My grandmother from mother side has alzhaimer or memory demention, grand grandfather from my father side had also alzhaimer or some sort of paranoia as he had 'illusions' also my grand grandmother from father side who was his wife, had parkinson from what I remember.

So that is all from neurological diseases in my family I believe, I can't see pattern at all, apart that I was born in 87 year after Chernobyl accident with that nuclear plant lol, maybe thats why I got them.

Yes, people say it is rare.  Seems normal to us.  Of course I am talking about a spread of 5 generations starting back with my grandmother.  So, there are still many without them.

*Clusters

My *Grandmother-She had 5 kids...only 1 with clusters, which was my *mother.  My mother had 3 kids...all with clusters...my *brother, *sister, and *me.  My sister had 3 kids...2 of them with clusters...my *niece and *nephew ...and that niece had 2 kids both with clusters...my *great niece and *great nephew.  My brother has only 1 child...my *niece with clusters.

In my immediate family (no cousins, aunt, or uncles)  that leave my 2 kids, my sister's 1 child and his daughter without clusters.  Wow, I never looked at it this way before.  Guess I was counting in-laws that don't have them as well as cousins, aunts, and uncles, so it didn't seems so bad.  Now, I think we are just really weird!

It's not weird if I remember correct from biology if Cluster Headache is dominant gene in your family's dna, then it is likely it happnes the way it is right now.

Which means CH is genetic-based, which also gives hopes gene can be blocked in future once someone discovers it, the same way there are plans to block gene expression for Multiple Sclerosis and so on, but it is all in plans I guess for future.

It is unlikely to be a single dominant gene that causes CHs, otherwise there would be many, many families with a large number of people with CHs.

What is more likely is that there are some combinations of genes that increases the chance of CHs to develop, with some of these genes being dominant.

There may be other possible non-genetic explanations, which could be environmental, or it could just be pure chance.

Agreed Mike, but what I meant there is also cumulative of some genetical defect, it can be in some family expression is stronger in others weaker, like somebody linked here the threshold for CH can be lower or higher, so our families may have CH just silent, not developed, or have no marks of it, despite carryig the gene.

Or it can be expressed due to environmental factors.

I found some interesting reading (via a link on this forum) at START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE.


Quote:

In contrast to migraine headache, genetics in cluster headache is not thought to be important, although recent studies have shown a positive family history in about 7% of patients with cluster headache. When compared with prevalence of CH in the general population, first-degree relatives have about a 14-fold increased risk of developing CH. Furthermore, in one study, five sets of monozygotic twins were 100% concordant for CH (4). 4. Russell MB. Genetic epidemiology of migraine and cluster headache. Cephalalgia. 1997;17:683-701.

The 7% figure implies that there is not a single dominant gene, however the connection is more likely to be connected to multiple genes.

The 100% figure for the five sets of monozygotic twins is very interesting, however it is hard to base conclusions on such a small data set.

At least for these identical twins they each know exactly what the other is going through when they have a CH.

Interesting.  Thanks, Mike!

Migraines run in my family - grandmother, father, son and grandson... I got the CH... none of the others...

There are people with Migraines in my family, too.