Posted , 8 users are following.
I just got an email from a relative in Estonia whose mom was recently diagnosed with PMR. The mom is my mothers first cousin and she is 80. I was wondering if there are many members who also have more than one person in the family with PMR.
0 likes, 8 replies
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EileenH karenjaninaz
Posted
By the time they get to 80 a very high proportion of people have developed PMR at some time - there are various causes felt to play a role in upsetting the immune system and eventually another one is simply too much so it breaks down and starts attacking the body tissues as if they were foreign invaders. One of the contributors is having Scandinavian genes in your ancestry - there isn't a genetic cause as such but having certain genes makes it more likely that it will happen. Members of a family have common ancestors and so there is a closely related gene pool.
BettyE karenjaninaz
Posted
Yes, I have. My mother and one of my two sisters had/have PMR No GCA.
I was diagnosed at age 67, and have been "clear" for more than six years having had two bouts, eight years altogether, with five years in between. My sister was diagnosed two years ago at age 74 and is currently on 8.5mgs. of Pred. I could only guess at my mother's age so can't offer any details.
I have a feeling I've read about research showing the possibility of familial connections ( not sure if that's the right word )
EileenH BettyE
Posted
The trouble with familial clusters is that there are also temporal clusters and geographical clusters - and sometimes both. Temporal supports the concept of an infective trigger, geographical the idea of an environmental trigger. I don't think they have found the genetic link that twin studies would suggest but there is the Scandinavian genes and the further north factor - maybe they are the same?
My grandfather almost certainly had PMR and so did a great aunt - but they both developed it and it never went away. No-one else in the family except me as far as I know.
andre68439 karenjaninaz
Posted
Yes Karen. I have PMR (two bouts 10 years apart) and my first cousin (female) on my mother's side who is one year younger than me (72) also has PMR. My gene pool per 23&me has me 99% north European (born in Amsterdam) and my cousin still resides in the Netherlands. So it's in our regional and in some cases family genes. Events that trigger it is another more complicated kettle of fish.
jillian92038 karenjaninaz
Posted
No Karen no familial history and parents and aunts and uncles that lived into their late nineties without a sign! I started 4 1/2 years ago and coincidentally a week and a half after a much younger colleague came to tell me that she thought she had rheumatoid arthritis - she was later diagnosed with fibromyalgia. This has always made me wonder if the cause of both of our conditions was viral.
EileenH jillian92038
Posted
Fibro is unlikely to be due to an infection - it is a problem with pain perception.
jillian92038 EileenH
Posted
Thanks Eileen - that throws my theory out of the window then! It just seemed such a coincidence. I must admit she really struggled and was off work for six months where I managed to keep going.
EileenH jillian92038
Posted
Everyone is different - to be honest I suspect PMR is easier to deal with than fibro. At least you can manage the pain with PMR pretty well with pred! Nothing really works for fibro.
There have been theories that viral infections are involved but no more evidence than that the viral infection was probably just the final insult to the immune system that sent it haywire. If it hadn't been that, it would have been something else that tipped the balance.