Vocabulary Preview
Match each word or phrase with the correct definition.
1. bark
a. to feel pain
2. cluster
b. a small group of things close to each other
3. insight
c. the covering on a tree’s trunk
4. powder
d. to start;
to begin
5. set off
e. small pieces, like dust
6. suffer
f. an understanding of something
Pre-Reading Questions
Think about the following questions.
1. How often do you get headaches?
2. When you get headaches, what do you do?
3. Is there anything you can do to avoid headaches?
Studying
Headaches
H e a l t h & M e d i c i n e 2
U N
I
T
3
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Studying Headaches
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10
15
20
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H
eadaches are a big problem. But they are
not just a problem for the
person suffering from the headache. They are a
problem for society as well. Each year, millions
of people suffer from
severe headaches that keep them from
doing their jobs. 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,
Hippocrates
was the first doctor to find a way to treat them. Before 400 B.C., Hippocrates
discovered that the bark from willow trees 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 changed the acid’s form
a little to make it easier for people to take. This new form of the chemical was
called acetylsalicylic acid, commonly known as aspirin today.
Aspirin was used throughout most of the 1900s to treat headaches, but
doctors had little idea about what really caused headaches. When doctors know
the
cause of a disease, they can find better ways to treat it. Therefore, as medical
technology developed, doctors began to use the technology to learn more about
the human brain and about headaches.
Currently, doctors classify headaches into two general types:
primary and
secondary. A primary headache is a condition suffered as only the headache itself.
4
severe --- strong; very bad
5
estimate --- a guess; approximate calculation
9
Hippocrates --- a Greek doctor who started the study of medicine
14
willow
--- a kind of tree, having narrow leaves
14
salicin --- C
13
H
18
O
7
; a glucoside related to the sugar family
