full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Kwartler: What causes headaches?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In ancient Greece, headaches were considered powerful afolctfinis. vciimts perayd for relief from Asclepius, the god of medicine. And if pain continued, a medical practitioner would perform the best-known remedy— drilling a small hole in the skull to diran supposedly infected blood. This dire technique, called trepanation, often replaced the hcdaeahe with a more pamnreent cnoitoidn. Fortunately, doctors toady don’t resort to peowr tools to cure headaches. But we still have a lot to learn about this ancient ailment.

Today, we’ve classified headaches into two camps— primary headaches and secondary headaches. The former are not symptomatic of an underlying disease, injury, or condition; they are the condition. But we’ll come back to them in a minute because while primary headaches account for 50% of reported cases, we actually know much more about scenodray headaches. These are caused by other health problems, with triggers ranging from dehydration and cfaefnie withdrawal to head and neck injury, and heart disease. Doctors have classified over 150 diagnosable tyeps, all with different potential causes, smtmopys, and treatments. But we’ll take just one common case —a sinus infection—as an example.

Open Cloze


In ancient Greece, headaches were considered powerful ___________. _______ ______ for relief from Asclepius, the god of medicine. And if pain continued, a medical practitioner would perform the best-known remedy— drilling a small hole in the skull to _____ supposedly infected blood. This dire technique, called trepanation, often replaced the ________ with a more _________ _________. Fortunately, doctors _____ don’t resort to _____ tools to cure headaches. But we still have a lot to learn about this ancient ailment.

Today, we’ve classified headaches into two camps— primary headaches and secondary headaches. The former are not symptomatic of an underlying disease, injury, or condition; they are the condition. But we’ll come back to them in a minute because while primary headaches account for 50% of reported cases, we actually know much more about _________ headaches. These are caused by other health problems, with triggers ranging from dehydration and ________ withdrawal to head and neck injury, and heart disease. Doctors have classified over 150 diagnosable _____, all with different potential causes, ________, and treatments. But we’ll take just one common case —a sinus infection—as an example.

Solution


  1. permanent
  2. types
  3. prayed
  4. afflictions
  5. caffeine
  6. power
  7. condition
  8. drain
  9. today
  10. secondary
  11. victims
  12. symptoms
  13. headache

Original Text


In ancient Greece, headaches were considered powerful afflictions. Victims prayed for relief from Asclepius, the god of medicine. And if pain continued, a medical practitioner would perform the best-known remedy— drilling a small hole in the skull to drain supposedly infected blood. This dire technique, called trepanation, often replaced the headache with a more permanent condition. Fortunately, doctors today don’t resort to power tools to cure headaches. But we still have a lot to learn about this ancient ailment.

Today, we’ve classified headaches into two camps— primary headaches and secondary headaches. The former are not symptomatic of an underlying disease, injury, or condition; they are the condition. But we’ll come back to them in a minute because while primary headaches account for 50% of reported cases, we actually know much more about secondary headaches. These are caused by other health problems, with triggers ranging from dehydration and caffeine withdrawal to head and neck injury, and heart disease. Doctors have classified over 150 diagnosable types, all with different potential causes, symptoms, and treatments. But we’ll take just one common case —a sinus infection—as an example.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
primary headaches 4
tension headaches 3
secondary headaches 2


Important Words


  1. account
  2. afflictions
  3. ailment
  4. ancient
  5. asclepius
  6. blood
  7. caffeine
  8. called
  9. case
  10. cases
  11. caused
  12. classified
  13. common
  14. condition
  15. considered
  16. continued
  17. cure
  18. dehydration
  19. diagnosable
  20. dire
  21. disease
  22. doctors
  23. drain
  24. drilling
  25. fortunately
  26. god
  27. greece
  28. head
  29. headache
  30. headaches
  31. health
  32. heart
  33. hole
  34. infected
  35. injury
  36. learn
  37. lot
  38. medical
  39. medicine
  40. minute
  41. neck
  42. pain
  43. perform
  44. permanent
  45. potential
  46. power
  47. powerful
  48. practitioner
  49. prayed
  50. primary
  51. problems
  52. ranging
  53. relief
  54. replaced
  55. reported
  56. resort
  57. secondary
  58. sinus
  59. skull
  60. small
  61. supposedly
  62. symptomatic
  63. symptoms
  64. technique
  65. today
  66. tools
  67. treatments
  68. trepanation
  69. triggers
  70. types
  71. underlying
  72. victims
  73. withdrawal