Tracing the Roots of Your Migraine Family Tree
Video Transcript
ROBIN ROBERTS: Imagine
if your entire immediate family
and most of your relatives
suffer from migraines.
For people like the young woman
you're about to meet,
this is a reality.
Her family story sheds a light
on the inheritability
of migraines, and how scientists
can harness
our genetic footprint to help
find treatments for the pain.
KATE: Migraines have completely
controlled my life.
I hate to say it, but it's true.
Everything I do
is planned around migraines.
ROBIN ROBERTS: 23-year-old Kate
is not like most college
students enjoying the freedom
and fun of campus life,
because on most days when she's
at school, and even when she's
at home, she is in pain.
KATE: If I go out, I have to--
very carefully, I have water.
I have food.
I make sure that I have rested
beforehand and I have an escape
route
if I start to feel terrible.
And I don't really go out that
much because it's hard.
It's hard to be around a lot
of people.
So I'm very reclusive.
ROBIN ROBERTS: So it's
impacted-- had an effect
on your relationships
and friendships.
KATE: Yeah.
Yeah.
It's too difficult
to go to a party.
That's, like, just not fun
for me.
So I spend a lot of time
by myself.
ROBIN ROBERTS: Kate's struggle
with migraines is one her mother
Jill knows all too well
because migraine runs
in her family.
JILL: I have migraine.
My mom has migraine.
From what I understand--
I never met her, but her mom
used to say,
I have a sick headache,
and would retreat.
Now we know that that was kind
of code for migraine.
ROBIN ROBERTS: What's more,
Kate's other grandmother,
her father, brother--
COUSIN:
I feel like a slight throbbing
and sometimes I'll ignore it,
but I know it's going to get
worse if I--
ROBIN ROBERTS:
--and many cousins also have
suffered from migraines.
Her father Rick says it was
worse for him
when he was a teenager.
RICK: Tylenol had just come out.
So I don't know what year that
was,
but that was like a miracle.
Great.
Now there's something
more than just aspirin that I
can take.
And I remember that being sort
of the promised land,
if you will.
ROBIN ROBERTS: But for Kate,
there has been no medication
or treatment that has helped
ease the pain.
Her childhood was marked
by frequent visits
to neurologists,
migraine specialists,
and hospitals,
desperate to find relief.
JILL:
My 17-year-old, 18-year-old,
20-year-old, for days and days
in the dark with her head
on the pillow, saying,
"I'm dying."
And me, just all I can do
is kind of lay down next to her,
hold her, rub her head,
give her an ice pack.
There's nothing I can do.
That's hard.
ROBIN ROBERTS: Today, Kate says
she lives with migraine pain
24/7.
KATE: I guess we've come
to describe it as like a dimmer
switch.
So it goes up.
Sometimes it's worse.
Sometimes it's better.
But it's always on.
ROBIN ROBERTS: Always on.
How do you deal with it?
How do you cope with that?
KATE: I don't know.
I'm-- I guess I chose one thing
to focus on, which for me is
school, because I like learning.
So I cope by being really
good at school and sort
of forgetting about everything
else.
ROBIN ROBERTS:
Kate's quick trips
to and from school most often
leave her recuperating at home
in the dark, unable to get out
of bed.
So why are Kate's symptoms
so much more severe than
the rest of her family's?
DR. DAVID DODICK:
A recent publication actually
looking at the blood
of over 375,000 people,
of which tens of thousands
had migraine, actually found
that there were 38 genes--
variations in 38 genes that
increase the risk of developing
migraine.
She may have inherited
variations in multiple genes
which, when added together,
allowed the disease
to be expressed in a much more
severe way.
It is the perfect storm.
ROBIN ROBERTS: Dr. Dodick says
a child has a 50% chance
of inheriting migraine if one
parent has the familial form
of the disease.
That jumps to as high as a 100%
chance if both parents have it,
as in Kate's case.
How do you deal with people who
don't understand?
If you have-- it's an illness,
and any other illness,
if you were going through cancer
like I did and lost my hair,
people could understand that.
But there seems to be,
as your mother was saying
earlier, oh, come on.
Just--
JILL: Tough it out.
ROBIN ROBERTS: Tough it out.
Tough it out.
So how do you handle it when--
and make people understand, no,
it's not that way.
KATE: Well, honestly, I don't
really tell people.
Because I can tell when somebody
thinks I'm lying,
and I don't want to subject
myself to that.
DR. DAVID DODICK: Migraine right
now is synonymous in the public
with a headache.
OK, maybe it's a bad headache,
but it's just a headache.
Well, it's so much more
than a headache.
It's an inherited
neurological disease
with functional and structural
consequences on the organ
that's most affected, which
is the brain.
ROBIN ROBERTS: For now, Kate
is focusing on something else
she says she has inherited
from her family--
resilience.
Buoyed by their support
and love, she graduates
from college this year
with a degree in psychology.
She has already interned
with a neurologist,
helping research
and write papers on migraine.
RICK: What kind of amazes
me about her
is that most of her doctors
will say people in her condition
don't get out of bed.
And yet Kate is, as much as she
suffers, has managed to do
a lot.
ROBIN ROBERTS: What is
your message for somebody
seeing this who is walking
in similar shoes as you?
KATE: Don't let other people's
impression of your illness
define you.
Because I've really struggled
with that.
So don't let other people define
your experience.
And to just keep going.
Just keep going.
ROBIN ROBERTS: So how well are
you managing your migraines?
Go to webmd.com/migraine to take
an assessment.
You'll get personalized results
with strategies to help you live
better.