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PMR//GCA and light complected people

Posted , 15 users are following.

audrey80537
audrey80537

Does PMR/GCA occur mostly in light complected people/blond hair blue eyes?

Could it be  that light complected people for some reason are more at risk not because of their ancestry but just because they are light complected and of course their ancestry would also be a contributing factor.

Does it occur in all races?

Here in the States we are mostly a bit of everything.  I remember being the only kid all through school with light blond hair and blue eyes and neither my mom or dad or any relative had my coloring except for one sister and brother who had brown eyes. 

i myself have light blond hair, light skin and blue eyes.

It would somewhat interesting to know about others on this forum

Audrey

1 like, 19 replies

19 Replies

  • Oregonjohn-UK
    Oregonjohn-UK audrey80537

    Posted

    I have or had dark brown hair and a skin that tans very easy with grey eyes - a real mongrel!!
  • ptolemy
    ptolemy audrey80537

    Posted

    I have brown hair and hazel eyes! Although my brother is blonde with blue eyes. It does seem that a lot of people in Sweden get it and they seem to be blonde. It may be that the Swedes are better at diagnosing it of course.
    • audrey80537
      audrey80537 ptolemy

      Posted

      It is really difficult to get a diagnosis here in the States.  Sometimes it seems to me if doctors can't operate on it, rack up a lot of money or shut you up with pills --they can't be bothered and you become their complaining nusense.  Finally, your picture is posted in their break room with the warning to beware😀😀😀😀  Maybe it's not interesting enough for them I just don't know.

      When I go to my GP I try not to complain about anything and just stick to the facts because I was getting the feeling they thought I was nuts.

      She asked me last time if I ever smoked wondering if that was the cause of my pain.  I did smoke for a short time way back but from now on when they ask I'm just going to say, no because they seem to want to blame everything on that.  Then when I mentioned something about my muscles she said that's not PMR -it only effects joints.  Before that the old Rhumy told me fatigue is not a symptom of PMR.  So this is what we have here to take care of us.  Hopefully my new Rhumy will work out better.  At least he appeared to be more tuned in.

      . 

       

    • ptolemy
      ptolemy audrey80537

      Posted

      I do despair of some doctors. Polymyalgia means pain in many muscles and you only have to open virtually any article about PMR and the first thing it mentions is muscle pain. In the US the Mayo Clinic have some excellent information on line, why don't they read it I wonder. Mind you I am not sure the UK is that brilliant either. I was told I had a virus over a oeriod of three or four months and even if it was not a virus it was nothing serious and would go away. I wish. 
  • pat38625
    pat38625 audrey80537

    Posted

    Hi Audrey, I have dark brown hair, green eyes and tan easily.  Oh and live in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
  • LayneTX
    LayneTX audrey80537

    Posted

    Blonde, blue/grey eyes, light skin that tans easy, European/German/Swiss decent.  
  • Guest
    Guest audrey80537

    Posted

    When I was first at the ER with GCA, I was given several articles to read. Approximately half GCA patients are Caucasian women near 70 years young with a Scandinavian background (remember the Vikings left their imprint in many places!). This means that the other half could be anything. I happen to match the first profile perfectly and it made my diagnosis easier. Fun stuff, Ann11195
  • dan38655
    dan38655 audrey80537

    Posted

    Me, I have auburn hair, green eyes fair skin, but which tans ok (I'm very active in cycling). I'm 54, and had a sudden onset of pmr 18 months back during a relatively stressful period, and as very cold weather had suddenly set in which had me sedentary for several days.

    Other variables are that I am a coffee drinker, have a drink per day and had suffered a bad break of my wrist some six months earlier. A house purchase and clean-up may have exposed me to black mold at the time.

  • LisaCACO
    LisaCACO audrey80537

    Posted

    it's probably a genetic thing and some of us are more predisposed to it. 

    http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/content/42/3/413.full.pdf+html

    "The epidemiology of GCA suggests striking diffe- rences in disease risk among ethnic groups, with the highest incidence rates measured in Scandinavia and in subjects of Northern European descent, irrespective of their place of residence w1–5x.

    Genetic factors appear to be of importance for the development of this disease, with a predominance of certain variants of HLA-DR4 allele expression w6, 7x. "

  • pat73046
    pat73046 audrey80537

    Posted

    Hi, just to help with discussion-- I had very red hair at age 5, auburn as a 20 year old. It got darker and then grey. Very light skin, freckes and never really tan. Family came to US in 1750 from Switzerland and poss before that Germany. Thank-you for this blog. Lately I have to push myself to do anything. Pat
  • EileenH
    EileenH audrey80537

    Posted

    A lot of research about PMR/GCA was done in the USA in Olmsted County, Minnesota - because there are lots of Scandinavian genes there and a high incidence of PMR. It is more common amongst people of Scandinavian heritage - but the genes have been diluted rather for other characteristics. I'm dark haired (well, I was once), with brown eyes and tan easily. It is more common in the UK amongst people from the areas settled by the Vikings - the same in mainland Europe.

    But although some doctors will tell you it never appears in black heritage people - Lisa will tell you otherwise! Similarly, RA is rarely found in India - but is found in people from the sub-continent who move to the UK. It often disappears again if they return to India. So that suggests that it is environmental or diet has a role. Many different factors - and that's what makes it difficult to classify.

    • audrey80537
      audrey80537 EileenH

      Posted

      I'm surprised Mayo Clinic Minnisota doesn't give more information on its web site.  Just general information.
    • EileenH
      EileenH audrey80537

      Posted

      They also provide links to the medical literature if you look - but most of it is of no use to the wo/man in the street with little or no medical background. It is only relatively recently that more people who aren't scientifically trained have started to want to know such things - general information is all over the place and so is the more detailed stuff but they are not linked because to some extent it doesn't matter. 
    • LisaCACO
      LisaCACO EileenH

      Posted

      yep, black person here with GCA. I also have Factor V Leiden, another thing that "never appears" in Black people. wink  *sigh* somewhere there's a very white, very dead relative laughing...
    • paula63201
      paula63201 LisaCACO

      Posted

      I don't know what Factor V Leiden is. But it could be that yours was a blonde northern European ancestor! But maybe not laughing so hard, after all. Could have had PMR, also....before Prednisone in those old times. 
    • LisaCACO
      LisaCACO paula63201

      Posted

      it's an inherited blood clotting disorder that roughly 5% of the white population has.  love to meet this ancestor so I can kick them and say thanks a lot wink. They probably didn't suffer these genetic issues just passed along the genetic mutation. back in the day people didn't live long enough to get these things. 
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