, 1896-04-29
n
MEDICAL GOSSIP.
ABOUT HEADACHE.
By a Physician.
YChWrch Family Newspaper

There is reason to believe that the real sig
niAcance Of headache is very frequently in
adequately grasped by the lay mind. Head
ache is too often looked upon as a sort of
pathological entity which can be easily got
rid of BY the exhibition of some particular
drug or remedy. This being so, we find that
many people seek to expel the unwelcome
visitor by means Of some such specifics as
"headacEie powders and Headache drops"
or by something rejoicing under q long half
Greek, half Latin nane, all of which are qua
ranteed to be capable of curing headaches of
all sorts and conditions. The sooner, low
ever, this mode of dealing with headache is
shown TO be wrong the better, because it is
the height of folly 10 attempt to treat a
headache successfully until we have ascer-
tanned the cause of 1t.
This is a faci very muck overlooked. Head
ache is not a separate and distinct disease,
it is rather u symptom. or condition Deepen
dent upon and caused by something which it
is our duty to find out if we would success
fully combat the headache. Thus, it may be
due to too little blood in the brain, as a result
of poor and deficient blood in the body. 1t
may be brought about by the very opposite
condition. viz. tCo much blood in the brain,
consequent upon a plethoIic state of the sys-
tenn. To 90 no further, therefore, 1T would
be the utmost toolishness to treat the result
ing headache in these two cases exactly
alike. If we would do good we must find
out which cause is operating aud deal with 1t
accordingly. To take something which
gives more or less relief to the pain IN the
head by bunting it, or 10y exciting the blood
to flow temporarily is not to cure it, because
to do that we must remove its cause.
Again, headache may be sympathetic. That
is, it may be dependent upon sluggish action
of the liver, upon disordered action of abdo-
minal organs, upon the presence OF worms,
or upon the presence of some poisonous ma
terials in the blood. TO take 's%omething for
the headache" in any one of these cases would
be useless. because we should be leaving the
root of the evil untouched. What we must
do in order to get rid Of The headache is to
find out which cause is producing it and deal
with that. How often does that horrible
grumbl1ng headache which we experience
morning after morning upon rising, and which
clouds our days work with it's sickening pain
how often does this kind Of headache yield
to a single bottle of medicine supplied by the
doctor, when we have, perhaps, for days tried
this. that and the other remedy which has
been suggested to us without success? The
secret, IL SGCIcI W. . A"S w N@ NV
realize the cause Of the trouble. and SO left
it untouched; whilst the doctor, perceiving
the origin of our malady, dealt with that
alone, and in this way removed its symptom
the headache.
A typical example of sympathetic head
ache is mentioned by one of our leading
authorities on the subject. He says that
with many people, if they swallow pieces of
ice. they experience within all hour or two
and often much sooner-seveIe pain over the
outer edge of the eye, in the eye itself, and along
the upper jaw or over one side of the head, the
pain often acquiring the viol, nee of tic-doulou-
reux. The ice produces no discomfort in the
stomach, but the impression made ny 1t upon
the nerves of that organ is conveyed to dis
tant organs and sets sp in them and their
nerves sensations the reverse of pleasant.
Thus it is with many of the varieties of sym
pathetic headache.
The disordered stomach, the more or less
congested liver, the ~irreguarlly acting kidney,