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        New Message Board Archives >> 2005 General Board Posts >> Mesopotamia > Coca-Cola (Elvis and more)
        
(Message started by: ben_uk on Nov 24^th, 2005, 7:33am)

Title: Mesopotamia > Coca-Cola (Elvis and more)
Post by ben_uk on Nov 24^th, 2005, 7:33am

Headache timeline -

http://health.discovery.com/centers/headaches/timeline/timeline_03.html

First Written Record of a Headache
One of the earliest written references to headache dates back to a Mesopotamian poem from 4000 to 3000 BCE:
Headache roameth over the desert, blowing like the wind, Flashing like lightning, it is loosed above and below; It cutteth off like a reed him who feareth not his god… This man it hath struck and Like one with heart disease he staggereth, Like one bereft of reason he is broken…

Drilling a Hole in the Head
Trepanation, the practice of drilling a hole into the head to alleviate pain, is one of the oldest recorded headache remedies. Skulls 9,000 years old have been found with holes drilled into them and the practice continued into the seventeenth century. Many ancient civilizations believed that headaches were due to evil spirits or malevolent beings inside the head. The hole allowed these to be released.

Mother-Goddess Isis Cures
The oldest medical manuscript, the Ebers Papyrus, discovered at Thebes, Egypt, and dating between 1534 and 3000 BCE, has 12 prescriptions for headache and describes several different types of headache. Migraine was considered separately and was treated with the fish Siluris (an electric cat fish).
One headache preparation was prepared by the revered mother-goddess Isis herself for the sun god Ra:
The manuscript says: "A sixth remedy that Isis made for Ra himself to eliminate the disease that is in his head: fruit of coriander…made into a mass, honey is mixed with it, the head is bandaged therewith so that it goes immediately well with him."

Hippocrates Treats Headaches
Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine, recommended treating headache by bloodletting, leeches, or trepanation, drilling a hole in the skull of the headache sufferer to release noxious fumes, which he attributed to an excess of yellow bile in the body — not to evil spirits as some of his predecessors believed. He also recommended vomiting to expel headaches from the body.
Galen, a Greek doctor (131-201 A.D.) recommended treating headache by applying a live torpedo, an electric fish related to a skate or ray, to the forehead.

Albucasis, an ancient Arabian doctor (936-1013 A.D.) advised applying a hot iron to the afflicted head. If that failed to cure the headache, he recommended cutting a hole above the temple and inserting a garlic clove into the hole for 15 hours.

Title: Re: Mesopotamia > Coca-Cola (Elvis and more)
Post by ben_uk on Nov 24^th, 2005, 7:34am

Cont;
Willow Bark, a "Natural Aspirin" for Treatment
The willow has been used to treat pain in Europe for more than 2400 years and was part of Native American medicine throughout North and South America. The bark of the willow contains salicin, a natural predecessor to aspirin.
Russian folk medicine offers two headache cures:
Place large cabbage leaves on your temples, forehead, and the back of your neck.
Swab your ears with beet juice.
Native Americans in Alaska relied on the lowbush cranberry to treat headaches. Berries were wrapped in a cloth, which was fashioned into a compress for the head.
An Appalachian headache remedy: Take mint and rub it in your hands. Cup your hands over your nose and breathe deeply.

Elvis Suffered from Migraines
Elvis Presley was treated for migraine throughout much of the 1970s and suffered from a range of migraine traits, including auras, sensitivity to light and sound, and fatigue. He also struggled with addictions to narcotic painkillers prescribed for his headaches.
Novelist Virginia Woolf suffered from debilitating migraines. She once wrote: "The merest schoolgirl when she falls in love, has Shakespeare or Keats to speak her mind, but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor, and language at once runs dry."

Charles Darwin suffered from headaches. On a trip to Argentina he recounted in his Voyage of the Beagle: "October 3rd and 4th. — I was confined for these two days to my bed by a headache. A good-natured old woman, who attended me, wished me to try many odd remedies. A common practice is, to bind an orange-leaf or a bit of black plaster to each temple: and a still more general plan is, to split a bean into halves, moisten them, and place one on each temple, where they will easily adhere. It is not thought proper ever to remove the beans or plaster, but to allow them to drop off, and sometimes, if a man, with patches on his head, is asked, what is the matter? he will answer, 'I had a headache the day before yesterday.'"
Famous migraine sufferers include: Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Cervantes, Pascal, Nietzsche, Tchaikovsky, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Karl Marx Sigmund Freud and George Bernard Shaw.
Sports figures include Chicago Bulls basketball player Scottie Pippen, Denver Bronco football player Terrell Davis, golfer Fred Couples and New York Yankee baseball player Joe Girardi.

Some Think Carroll's Migraines Inspired "Alice"
Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" may have been inspired by migraine hallucinations. In 1999, two doctors published a paper in The Lancet suggesting that the bizarre characters and settings of the two books may have been been born out of migraine-induced visions. In "Through the Looking Glass," Alice meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who agree to battle one another over a damaged rattle. As Alice helps them dress in rags and pots and pans, Tweedledum says: "Do I look very pale?" "Well — yes — a little," Alice replies. "I'm very brave, generally," Tweedledum continues, "Only to-day I happen to have a headache."

Coke Invented as a Headache Cure
In 1886, Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton was searching for a quick cure for headaches. He brought his concoction down to Jacobs' Pharmacy and combined it with carbonated water. The customers who sampled it were enthusiastic, and soon the pharmacy was selling it at the soda fountain for five cents a glass.
:o

Title: Re: Mesopotamia > Coca-Cola (Elvis and more)
Post by Melissa on Nov 24^th, 2005, 7:40am

Ok, who's gonna be the first one to try these??? hehe

I'm gonna do the cabbage leaves pasted on my head and neck, and then swab beet juice in my ears. ....Wonder what hubby will say when he sees me?

;;D

Title: Re: Mesopotamia > Coca-Cola (Elvis and more)
Post by zanychef on Nov 24^th, 2005, 10:23am

aint it easier just making 'shroom tea??? [smiley=laugh.gif] [smiley=laugh.gif] [smiley=laugh.gif]

Title: Re: Mesopotamia > Coca-Cola (Elvis and more)
Post by pattik on Nov 24^th, 2005, 11:23am

I wouldn't mind trying a glass of that "original" Coke! ;;D 8)

Title: Re: Mesopotamia > Coca-Cola (Elvis and more)
Post by Charlie on Nov 24^th, 2005, 1:15pm

That was neat. Thanks

As an aside, you'll find trephines in old medical kits from not so very long ago.

Charlie http://www.netsync.net/users/charlies/gifs/goodjob.gif

Title: Re: Mesopotamia > Coca-Cola (Elvis and more)
Post by zanychef on Nov 24^th, 2005, 4:01pm

on 11/24/05 at 11:23:19, pattik wrote:

I wouldn't mind trying a glass of that "original" Coke! ;;D 8)

must be why drinking straws were invented;)