The possible cause of why humanity suffers from headaches has been revealed

Neanderthal legacy: ancient genes may be the cause of excruciating headaches in modern humans

A sensational discovery by scientists sheds light on an unexpected cause of headaches in our contemporaries. According to the Daily Mail, the genetic legacy of Neanderthals may be responsible for excruciating pain sensations in some patients.

A revolutionary study published in the prestigious scientific journal Evolution, Medicine and Public Health revealed a connection between ancient hominid genes and a rare brain defect - Chiari malformation, which causes intense headaches.

Chiari malformation is a condition in which the cerebellum - the lower part of the brain - protrudes into the skull opening where the spinal cord is located. The cause is an irregular skull shape, and this deviation occurs in approximately 1% of the population. Most patients suffer from head and neck pain, however, in severe cases, serious neurological disorders may develop.

For a long time, scientists believed that such anatomical features were the result of evolutionary processes or random genetic mutations. However, the innovative study offers an unexpected version - these traits may have been inherited from our ancient relatives.

A scientific team led by Dr. Kimberly Plomp conducted a thorough analysis of three-dimensional models of modern human skulls (both with and without the diagnosis) and compared them with the skulls of ancient hominids: Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, and Homo neanderthalensis. The results were striking - the skull shape in people with Chiari malformation showed the greatest similarity to Neanderthal skulls.

This discovery suggests that genes responsible for skull formation in Neanderthals may have been preserved in the modern human genome due to interspecies breeding. In combination with other Homo sapiens genes, these ancient genetic fragments now provoke pathological changes.

According to researchers' estimates, up to 45% of the Neanderthal genome has been preserved in the modern human population, although the distribution of these genetic traces is uneven across regions. For instance, East Asian residents show up to 4% of Neanderthal genes, while they are virtually absent in many Africans.