TedTest

From the Ted Talk by George Zaidan: How do pain relievers work?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Say you're at the baech, and you get sand in your eyes. How do you know the sand is there? You obviously can't see it, but if you are a normal, healthy hmuan, you can feel it, that sensation of extreme difcmoorst, also known as pain. Now, pain makes you do something, in this case, rnise your eyes until the sand is gone. And how do you know the sand is gone? Exactly. Because there's no more pain. There are polepe who don't feel pain. Now, that might sunod cool, but it's not. If you can't feel pain, you could get hurt, or even hurt yourself and never know it. Pain is your body's early warning system. It protects you from the world around you, and from yourself. As we grow, we install pain detectors in most aaers of our body. These detectors are specialized nerve cells cleald nociceptors that stretch from your spainl cord to your skin, your muscles, your joints, your teteh and some of your internal organs. Just like all nerve clles, they conduct eelcaictrl signals, snednig ifiortmoann from wherever they're lotaced back to your brain. But, unlike other nerve cells, nociceptors only fire if something happens that could cause or is causing damage. So, gently tuoch the tip of a nledee. You'll feel the metal, and those are your regular nerve cells. But you won't feel any pain. Now, the harder you push against the needle, the closer you get to the npoictocer threshold. Push hard enough, and you'll cross that teslhohrd and the nociceptors fire, telling your body to stop doing whatever you're doing. But the pain threshold isn't set in stone. Certain chemicals can tune nociceptors, lowering their threshold for pain. When cells are deamgad, they and other nbaery cells start pruicdong these tniung chemicals like crazy, lowering the nociceptors' threshold to the point where just touch can cause pain. And this is where over-the-counter painkillers come in. Aspirin and ibuprofen block production of one calss of these tuning chemicals, called prostaglandins. Let's take a look at how they do that. When cells are damaged, they release a chemical called arachidonic acid. And two enzymes called COX-1 and COX-2 corvnet this arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H2, which is then converted into a bunch of other chemicals that do a bcnuh of things, including raise your body temperature, cause inflammation and lower the pain threshold. Now, all enzymes have an active site. That's the place in the enzyme where the reaction happens. The active sites of COX-1 and COX-2 fit arachidonic acid very cozily. As you can see, there is no room to spare. Now, it's in this active site that aspirin and ibuprofen do their work. So, they work differently. Aspirin acts like a spine from a porcupine. It enters the active site and then breaks off, leaving half of itself in there, totally blocking that cnenhal and making it impossible for the arachidonic acid to fit. This permanently deactivates COX-1 and COX-2. Ibuprofen, on the other hand, enters the avctie site, but doesn't break apart or change the enzyme. COX-1 and COX-2 are free to spit it out again, but for the time that that ibuprofen is in there, the enzyme can't bind arachidonic acid, and can't do its normal cetrsimhy. But how do aspirin and ipforuebn know where the pain is? Well, they don't. Once the durgs are in your brosaodletm, they are criraed throughout your body, and they go to painful areas just the same as naorml ones. So that's how aspirin and ibuprofen work. But there are other dimensions to pain. Neuropathic pain, for example, is pain caused by damage to our nervous system itself; there doesn't need to be any sort of outside stimulus. And scientists are discovering that the brain controls how we respond to pain signals. For example, how much pain you feel can depend on whether you're paying attention to the pain, or even your mood. Pain is an area of active research. If we can understand it better, maybe we can help people manage it better.

Open Cloze

Say you're at the _____, and you get sand in your eyes. How do you know the sand is there? You obviously can't see it, but if you are a normal, healthy _____, you can feel it, that sensation of extreme __________, also known as pain. Now, pain makes you do something, in this case, _____ your eyes until the sand is gone. And how do you know the sand is gone? Exactly. Because there's no more pain. There are ______ who don't feel pain. Now, that might _____ cool, but it's not. If you can't feel pain, you could get hurt, or even hurt yourself and never know it. Pain is your body's early warning system. It protects you from the world around you, and from yourself. As we grow, we install pain detectors in most _____ of our body. These detectors are specialized nerve cells ______ nociceptors that stretch from your ______ cord to your skin, your muscles, your joints, your _____ and some of your internal organs. Just like all nerve _____, they conduct __________ signals, _______ ___________ from wherever they're _______ back to your brain. But, unlike other nerve cells, nociceptors only fire if something happens that could cause or is causing damage. So, gently _____ the tip of a ______. You'll feel the metal, and those are your regular nerve cells. But you won't feel any pain. Now, the harder you push against the needle, the closer you get to the __________ threshold. Push hard enough, and you'll cross that _________ and the nociceptors fire, telling your body to stop doing whatever you're doing. But the pain threshold isn't set in stone. Certain chemicals can tune nociceptors, lowering their threshold for pain. When cells are _______, they and other ______ cells start _________ these ______ chemicals like crazy, lowering the nociceptors' threshold to the point where just touch can cause pain. And this is where over-the-counter painkillers come in. Aspirin and ibuprofen block production of one _____ of these tuning chemicals, called prostaglandins. Let's take a look at how they do that. When cells are damaged, they release a chemical called arachidonic acid. And two enzymes called COX-1 and COX-2 _______ this arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H2, which is then converted into a bunch of other chemicals that do a _____ of things, including raise your body temperature, cause inflammation and lower the pain threshold. Now, all enzymes have an active site. That's the place in the enzyme where the reaction happens. The active sites of COX-1 and COX-2 fit arachidonic acid very cozily. As you can see, there is no room to spare. Now, it's in this active site that aspirin and ibuprofen do their work. So, they work differently. Aspirin acts like a spine from a porcupine. It enters the active site and then breaks off, leaving half of itself in there, totally blocking that _______ and making it impossible for the arachidonic acid to fit. This permanently deactivates COX-1 and COX-2. Ibuprofen, on the other hand, enters the ______ site, but doesn't break apart or change the enzyme. COX-1 and COX-2 are free to spit it out again, but for the time that that ibuprofen is in there, the enzyme can't bind arachidonic acid, and can't do its normal _________. But how do aspirin and _________ know where the pain is? Well, they don't. Once the _____ are in your ___________, they are _______ throughout your body, and they go to painful areas just the same as ______ ones. So that's how aspirin and ibuprofen work. But there are other dimensions to pain. Neuropathic pain, for example, is pain caused by damage to our nervous system itself; there doesn't need to be any sort of outside stimulus. And scientists are discovering that the brain controls how we respond to pain signals. For example, how much pain you feel can depend on whether you're paying attention to the pain, or even your mood. Pain is an area of active research. If we can understand it better, maybe we can help people manage it better.

Solution

touch
people
spinal
chemistry
active
bunch
ibuprofen
tuning
threshold
nociceptor
called
rinse
needle
electrical
convert
teeth
information
human
nearby
normal
cells
areas
drugs
located
damaged
producing
beach
discomfort
channel
sound
sending
carried
class
bloodstream

Original Text

Say you're at the beach, and you get sand in your eyes. How do you know the sand is there? You obviously can't see it, but if you are a normal, healthy human, you can feel it, that sensation of extreme discomfort, also known as pain. Now, pain makes you do something, in this case, rinse your eyes until the sand is gone. And how do you know the sand is gone? Exactly. Because there's no more pain. There are people who don't feel pain. Now, that might sound cool, but it's not. If you can't feel pain, you could get hurt, or even hurt yourself and never know it. Pain is your body's early warning system. It protects you from the world around you, and from yourself. As we grow, we install pain detectors in most areas of our body. These detectors are specialized nerve cells called nociceptors that stretch from your spinal cord to your skin, your muscles, your joints, your teeth and some of your internal organs. Just like all nerve cells, they conduct electrical signals, sending information from wherever they're located back to your brain. But, unlike other nerve cells, nociceptors only fire if something happens that could cause or is causing damage. So, gently touch the tip of a needle. You'll feel the metal, and those are your regular nerve cells. But you won't feel any pain. Now, the harder you push against the needle, the closer you get to the nociceptor threshold. Push hard enough, and you'll cross that threshold and the nociceptors fire, telling your body to stop doing whatever you're doing. But the pain threshold isn't set in stone. Certain chemicals can tune nociceptors, lowering their threshold for pain. When cells are damaged, they and other nearby cells start producing these tuning chemicals like crazy, lowering the nociceptors' threshold to the point where just touch can cause pain. And this is where over-the-counter painkillers come in. Aspirin and ibuprofen block production of one class of these tuning chemicals, called prostaglandins. Let's take a look at how they do that. When cells are damaged, they release a chemical called arachidonic acid. And two enzymes called COX-1 and COX-2 convert this arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H2, which is then converted into a bunch of other chemicals that do a bunch of things, including raise your body temperature, cause inflammation and lower the pain threshold. Now, all enzymes have an active site. That's the place in the enzyme where the reaction happens. The active sites of COX-1 and COX-2 fit arachidonic acid very cozily. As you can see, there is no room to spare. Now, it's in this active site that aspirin and ibuprofen do their work. So, they work differently. Aspirin acts like a spine from a porcupine. It enters the active site and then breaks off, leaving half of itself in there, totally blocking that channel and making it impossible for the arachidonic acid to fit. This permanently deactivates COX-1 and COX-2. Ibuprofen, on the other hand, enters the active site, but doesn't break apart or change the enzyme. COX-1 and COX-2 are free to spit it out again, but for the time that that ibuprofen is in there, the enzyme can't bind arachidonic acid, and can't do its normal chemistry. But how do aspirin and ibuprofen know where the pain is? Well, they don't. Once the drugs are in your bloodstream, they are carried throughout your body, and they go to painful areas just the same as normal ones. So that's how aspirin and ibuprofen work. But there are other dimensions to pain. Neuropathic pain, for example, is pain caused by damage to our nervous system itself; there doesn't need to be any sort of outside stimulus. And scientists are discovering that the brain controls how we respond to pain signals. For example, how much pain you feel can depend on whether you're paying attention to the pain, or even your mood. Pain is an area of active research. If we can understand it better, maybe we can help people manage it better.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
arachidonic acid	4
active site	3
nerve cells	2
pain threshold	2

Important Words

acid
active
acts
arachidonic
area
areas
aspirin
attention
beach
bind
block
blocking
bloodstream
body
brain
break
breaks
bunch
called
carried
case
caused
causing
cells
change
channel
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convert
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cool
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cozily
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cross
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damaged
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early
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fit
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gently
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including
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install
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leaving
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lowering
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manage
metal
mood
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needle
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nervous
neuropathic
nociceptor
nociceptors
normal
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pain
painful
painkillers
paying
people
permanently
place
point
porcupine
producing
production
prostaglandin
prostaglandins
protects
push
raise
reaction
regular
release
research
respond
rinse
room
sand
scientists
sending
sensation
set
signals
site
sites
skin
sort
sound
spare
specialized
spinal
spine
spit
start
stimulus
stone
stop
stretch
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telling
temperature
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time
tip
totally
touch
tune
tuning
understand
warning
work
world