STUDYING HEADACHES

Headaches are a big problem. Each year, millions of people suffer from severe¹ headaches that affect their enjoyment of life, not to mention their productivity at work. In fact, according to one estimate, headaches cost individuals and businesses more than $50 billion each year! This is one of the reasons research into headaches has become a worldwide effort.

Although he did not know much about how headaches work, Hippocrates² was the first doctor to find a way to treat them. By 400 BCE, Hippocrates had discovered that the bark³ from willow trees⁴ was useful in treating pain. He made a white powder from the tree's bark and gave it to his patients.

Hippocrates did not know it, but he was actually prescribing a natural chemical in willow bark called salicin. When a person eats salicin, the chemical is changed inside his or her body into salicylic acid. It turns out that salicylic acid is good for stopping pain, including headache pain, but it is bad for a person's stomach. In the 1800s, a chemist in Germany slightly changed the acid's form to make it easier for people to take. This new form of the chemical was called acetylsalicylic acid, now commonly known as aspirin⁵. Aspirin was used throughout most of the 1900s to treat headaches, but doctors had little idea about what really caused headaches. When doctors can diagnose the cause of a disease, they can find better ways to treat it. Therefore, as medical technology developed, doctors began to use it to learn more about the human brain and about headaches.

Currently, doctors classify⁶ headaches into two general types: primary and secondary. A primary headache is a condition suffered as only the headache itself. On the other hand, a secondary headache is one caused by another physiological condition, such as an infection or a tumor.

For primary headaches, doctors have determined three possible causes. One kind of primary headache is caused by stress. Doctors usually call these tension⁷ headaches, and they are characteristically⁸ felt on both sides of the head as a dull, steady pain.

Another kind of primary headache is the migraine headache. Exactly what causes these headaches is not well understood, but many experts believe it could be abnormal brain activity causing changes in the brain's chemistry and blood flow. For many people, migraines are triggered⁹ by certain stimuli, such as poor sleep or particular foods or smells. A sufferer usually feels intense pain on one side of the head and becomes sensitive to light and noise. If the migraine is severe, the sufferer may vomit¹⁰ repeatedly.

The third kind of primary headache is known as the cluster headache. Cluster headaches typically occur around the same time each day for weeks or months at a time. The person suffering from this kind of headache usually feels pain on one side of her or his head, and the pain is centered around one of the eyes. Doctors do not know much at present about cluster headaches, but they seem to be more common among men and could be related to alcohol or other things that affect a person's blood flow.

Using computers and more advanced medical equipment, doctors continue to learn more about what happens in the brain before and during headaches. Especially in the case of migraines, some doctors believe they have found the part of the brain that sets off the reaction for severe attacks. With these insights into brain processes, doctors hope new ways will be discovered to stop headaches before they begin.

• different triggers
• lives and productivity
• another condition
• especially on migraines
• weeks or months
• from willow bark

• physiological
• tumor
• productivity
• stimulus
• chemistry
• acid

Fighting Migraines

Aspirin works well for fighting minor headaches, but it might not be the best choice for dealing with migraines. Doctors have found that after a migraine sufferer is treated with aspirin, the person's next migraine attack may be even worse. Therefore, experts have been searching for other ways to treat these headaches.

For example, doctors have learned that certain cells in parts of the brain release proteins during a migraine attack. By using a drug that acts like the natural chemical serotonin in the brain, they can stop the cells from releasing those proteins. This has the effect of blocking the migraine.

But that is only one kind of medicine doctors have found useful in fighting migraines. It also turns out that certain anti-depressant drugs work well to relieve migraines. And surprisingly, some migraine sufferers claim Botox has proven helpful for them. (Botox is a chemical injected into the face for the purpose of reducing wrinkles.)

Not all migraine sufferers turn to medicine for help with their problem. Others use alternative remedies. Many people use yoga or meditation to relieve stress and reduce the number of migraines they suffer. And in some cases, people know that certain foods or fluorescent lights trigger their migraines. These people simply try to avoid the things that set off their migraine attacks.