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Welcome to Ted Health.

I'm Elise Hugh.

We all get him, but scientists still don't have all the answers about the origins of headaches.

In this Ted Ed lesson from Educator Dan Courtler, we're about to learn a little history of

headaches and what happens inside our brains when those headaches hit.

And let me just say it's a real relief they aren't being treated in the same way as

they were in the ancient past.

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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 trepination, 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.

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