14. Answer the following questions.
1. What causes a headache?
2. What is the most common type of headache?
3. What sort of pain is generally a symptom of migraine?
4. What is an aura?
5. Is headache connected to other illnesses? Which ones?
6. Can your lifestyle be associated with headache? How?
7. Is there a connection between food/drinks and headache?
8. Is it more likely for a person to suffer from headache if someone else in their family suffers from headache, too?
9. Can headaches and migraines be cured with medications only?
10. When is it necessary to quickly see a doctor or go to hospital?
15. Listen to a radio report about some research on how to reduce headaches and migraines and answer the questions below.
1. In what country was the research done?
2. How many patients were recruited?
3. What instructions were given to the patients?
4. How many of the patients were told to drink water?
5. How much water did they have to drink?
6. How long did they have to drink water for?
7. What did the result of the research show?
SPHENOPALATINEGANGLIONEURALGIA: ICE-CREAM HEADACHE
This long word means an ice cream headache, the feeling you get when you eat something really cold and your head hurts.
When something very cold touches the centre of the palate, the cold temperature can stimulate certain nerves that control how much blood flows to your head. The nerves respond by causing the blood vessels in the head to swell up. This quick swelling of the blood vessels is what causes your head to pound and hurt.
Some people call this a "brain freeze," even though nothing is really happening in the brain – it’s all in the blood vessels of the head.
And ice cream is not the only food that can make your head hurt. Anything that is very cold – like ice pops, frozen drinks, and even cold soda, water, milk, or juice – can make the blood vessels swell.
A headache from ice cream or another cold food usually lasts about a minute or so, although it can feel like much longer. This kind of headache almost never lasts more than 5 minutes and goes away soon. And although you may feel pain, it is not dangerous and doesn’t mean that anything is wrong in your body.
Some doctors say that simply eating cold foods more slowly can help prevent brain freeze. You can also try warming foods up in the front of your mouth before eating them.
GLOSSARY
to feel sick: avere la nausea
migraine: emicrania
numbness: intorpidimento
to pound: pulsare, battere forte
sharp: acuto
to skip: saltare
spot: macchia
stiff neck: torcicollo
stressed-out: sovrastimolato
tense: teso
to throw up: vomitare
throbbing: martellante
to tighten: restringersi
worry: preoccupazione