What causes headaches? - Dan Kwartler

In ancient Greece, the best-known remedy for a long-standing headache was to drill a small hole in the skull to drain supposedly infected blood. Fortunately, doctors today don’t resort to power tools to cure headaches, but we still have a lot to learn about this ancient ailment. Dan Kwartler shares what we know (and don't know) about headaches.

Lesson by Dan Kwartler, animation by Sharon Colman.

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[Katie-wlxr]

Ah yes, the incredibly fun game of "is my headache caused by dehydration, sleep deprivation, my ponytail, stress, caffeine withdrawal, insufficient nutrition or brain tumor?"

[lureh]

Me: Mom, i have headache
Mom: Because you stare at your phone screen too long.

[YashikaBhaskar]

if your reading this, with a headache I hope u get better soon X

[sethescope]

it's really fun how the portion about migraine aura involves mildly flashing lights that are enough to trigger a migraine in me, thanks guys lol

[nicolasesteban]

TED-ed, the best way to practice my english and, at the same time, learn about very interesting topics. Thank you for this valuable content!

[amarthyachandar]

"let me google why I have a headache"
Google: you have pancreatic cancer in your armpits, you have 3 minutes to live and your house will be destroyed by dragons

[lordkreigs]

Headaches and nausea can be caused by flashing lights and patterns, and you finish off your video with circles and squares flashing, pulsating, altering colors etc. Way to go guys!

[devrayasahay]

who is else watching this while actually having a headache ?

[username]

Whenever I just think about headaches it just gives me headaches.

[gva]

The Ancient Greeks were like "yo dawg I heard you like headaches, so we give you headaches to cure your headaches"

[kookieninja]

I have been having headache since 3 days and YouTube literally recommended me this video

[aravindnarayanan]

Such a wonderfully delivered lesson. The narration and illustrations are also out of the world! Awesome!!

[danshiba]

Nobody:

Your Brain: " I'm just gonna hurt ya really really bad"

[molly.dogbrooke]

When I was 9 I started getting horrific headaches. Eventually I would get nauseous and eventually sick. I was missing a lot of school and the headaches were getting worse, and being accompanied by other symptoms (unbalanced, shaky hands, etc) so my parents brought me for a blood test, then a CAT scan. A week after the scan they packed my bags whilst I was at school and we drove to a children’s hospital 5 hours away. Turns out I had a rare tumour which was causing spinal fluid to build up in my skull * (Hydrocephalus) *. It required 2 brain surgeries to fix and some radiation therapy because of the sucker was coming back for round 2 (didn’t get ill that time, doctors spotted it quickly).
Moral of the story?/ *TLDR*: Take persistent headaches seriously, it could be something malevolent.

[dumbhicheol]

I'm 14, and for as long as I can remember I've had recurring migraines. Sometimes when it gets too painful I take painkillers, but it doesn't work all the time. Sometimes I have to endure an insane amount of pain till I can release it, and by releasing I mean vomiting. It's not only making me go through so much pain(that I want to bash my head onto a wall.), it's also causing me to take way too many pills for my age. It affects my daily life, and I have no choice. I get migraines whenever it's too hot(I live in a country with hot weather), whenever I starve when I skip a meal, when I smell a crazy strong perfume, from radiation(I'm guessing since I get it whenever I use my PC or phone too long), and sometimes I don't even know the cause :((
I just wanna be over it already broo
Edit: I didn't know those pattern thingies were because of migraine!! I see it often when it's dark or sometimes whenever I space out or just randomly. I honestly thought it was a normal thing.
EDIT, EXTRA INFO: My mother also has recurring migraines, I personally think it's inherited??

[YirdawTenawToYourBullshit]

My parents always thought I was faking my headaches back in the days when they told me to study, but that wasn't a lie. Still living with it tho 😭🤕

[YuvaRaj-yjwt]

"What causes headaches?"

Google: obviously brain tumour.

[RossGuzman]

Writing this down in case it helps someone who still hasn't figured out the cause for their migraine. In my college years I started having really bad migraines, the ones that include auras and even some dysphasia. After going to many doctors, one of them (Im still so grateful for this man 10 years later) hit the jackpot, my migraines were the result of whiplash injury (from a car accident when I was a kid). He then advised therapy and aerobic exercises, and i haven't experienced another aura migraine ever since!

[Angel_Billy--]

Sometimes I feel like I leave these videos with more questions than answers. But I still love watching Ted-Eds videos. I do learn lot more in a 5 minute video than I do in years of studying the topic. They do give a lot of information in their videos but sometimes it seems like they leave the question of the video open to interpretation or just open so I'm left thinking "wait, what?"

[yeseniarobles]

I suffered from migraines for 20 yrs, so bad I felt like my eyeball was going to pop out and sometimes the pain would make me nauseous, sometimes vomiting helped relieve the pain. I couldn’t stand the light and sometimes noise, I had to be in the silent dark. Turns out I’m sensitive to certain foods and/or just lacked certain enzymes. I’ve switched up my diet, mainly avoiding gluten. I went from having up 2 headaches a week to zero in almost a year.