Ancient Headache Treatments

Treatments for headaches thru out history included prayers and sacrifices to the spirits to make them happy, or applying an extremely unpleasant material such as goat dung to chase the spirits away. These treatments may have been successful in helping the pain as a result of the placebo effect, since the patients believed that the spirits were causing the pain.

A document, The Ebers Papyrus, which dates back to about 1200 BC, mentions migraine type symptoms, neuralgia and head pain. According to the papyrus, the Egyptians healers would take a clay crocodile with grain in its mouth and use a linen strip to bind it to the patient's head. The strip contained the names of various gods who were believed to cure the Egyptians of their problems. It is believed that the process may have actually helped the patient by compressing the scalp thus putting pressure on the dilated blood vessels that were causing the pain.

Hippocrates is believed to have been the first person to recognize and describe the so-called "aura" that many migraine sufferers experience. He wrote that patients would see a bright light, usually in the right eye, which was followed by extreme pain in the temples and eventually the entire head. In the fifth century BC, Hippocrates made careful observations of headaches. He was the first physician to recognize the headache as a symptom of disease. Imbalances of natural elements in the body were believed to cause illness. Hippocrates felt that a headache could be followed back to fluids circulating in the body known as "humors" rising from the liver to the head. By bleeding the patient to drain the excess humors and then using herbs on the head youcould draw the humors out, and the headache could be treated.

The Roman physician Galen, 600 years after Hippocrates, termed the phrase "hemicrania" for what we commonly refer to as migraines today. Galen stated "How constantly do we see the head attacked with pain when yellow bile is contained in the stomach: as also the pain forthwith ceasing when the bile has been vomited." For 1500 years after Hippocrates, the treatment for headaches was almost completley based on his believes. Even into the late 1800's, many physicians prescribed "liver pills" for migraines. Hippocrates also found that headaches were often associated with physical exertion such as exercise or sex.

Bizarre remedies were widely used for many years: Incipit Epistula Vulturus in 800 AD Wrote" The bones from the head of the vulture, wrapped in deerskin, will cure any headache; its brain, mixed with the very best of oil and put up the nose, will expel all ailments of the head." .Introduction of the first pain relieving drugs occured during the 13th century. These drugs were extremely crude in form. Italian monks would make poultices of opium. These would then be soaked in vinegar and applied to the patient's head. By opening the pores of the skin with vinegar, the opium was easily absorbed. The Incas knew of the pain killing and numbing properties of cocaine. They would treat headaches by making an incision in the patient's head and dripping the juice from the coca leaves into it. This was long before the yuppie movement of the 1980's.

Texts of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1180), a nun who had visions, described detailed drawings and writings of the visions that she experienced. The descriptions are so detailed that they give conclusive evidence that she suffered from migraines, which were causing her mystical visions. These descriptions are so detailed that they give conclusive evidence that she suffered from migraines. It is believed that her mystical visions were the result of these migraines. She wrote, 'I saw a great star, most splendid and beautiful, and with it an exceeding multitude of falling sparks with which the star followed southward … and suddenly they were all annihilated, being turned into black coals … and cast into the abyss so that I could see them no more". As a result of modern medicine, things have improved to quite a degree.