Pain Above the Neck

Headache is not a disease but a symptom. Like a heavy hammer beating on the temples, headache plays a chorus to an almost limitless number of ailments, can be caused by infections, high blood pressure, bad ventilation, brain concussion, intoxication. Last week, at New York's Academy of Medicine, authorities on headaches discussed recent research:

Dr. Harold George Wolff, who has researched ten years of headaches at New York Hospital, explained their mechanical causes. No matter how a sufferer may feel, the ache is never in the brain itself. Brain tissue, a grey and white mass of nerve cells and fibers, can be punctured, crushed or even burned without causing the slightest sensation of pain. But the veins and arteries which feed the brain and scalp, the membranes that cover the brain, some of the nerves of the head and neck are excruciatingly sensitive (see cut). Most headaches, said Dr. Wolff, come from the dilatation of these blood vessels or from some growth or injury, like a brain tumor, that exerts a pull on them.

> Great-grandfather of all headaches is the torture of migraine, caused by distention of blood vessels in the scalp. Its victims are agonizingly sensitive to light and sound. Injections of vitamin BI sometimes give relief (TIME, Feb. 16).

> When a person drinks too much alcohol, or whenever tissues are damaged, some of the body's natural proteins turn into a substance called histamine. Some researchers believe that histamine dilates the tender arteries of the tough membrane (dura mater) that lines the skull, and a splitting hangover headache is the result. High fevers and various kinds of infections also distend these arteries and cause pain.

> Many headaches have psychic causes. One woman had two operations to relieve a severe pain on the left side of the head. No relief. When doctors questioned her closely, they found the headaches started when her husband had slapped her on the left side of the face.

> On the home medicine shelf, as well as in the doctor's bag, acetylsalicylic acid-is the No. 1 headache drug. Last month it was the first drug to be price-fixed by the Office of Price Administration. It does not cure headaches, but acts as a pain killer by deadening the nerves.

*Trade-named Aspirin, Saletin, Acetophen, Empirin, etc.

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