01/11/2025
Headaches have plagued humanity since ancient times, long before modern medicine offered relief. While **aspirin was synthesized in 1897**, people had been desperately seeking remedies for centuries. A bizarre example from the 1890s shows a treatment called **“vibration therapy”**—captured in a haunting photograph. In this strange practice, a patient’s head was placed under a helmet and struck with a mallet on a metal anvil beneath, creating reverberations through the skull. Whether it relieved pain or simply dazed the sufferer into silence is unclear, but it reflects the extreme lengths to which people went to escape chronic pain.
In the **Middle Ages**, remedies were equally crude. Migraines were often treated with **o***m soaked in vinegar**, applied with a sponge to the patient’s nostrils or temples. The goal was to sedate the person into unconsciousness, numbing not just the pain but all sensation. These treatments walked a fine line between relief and risk, blurring the boundaries between cure and collapse. Pain management, at the time, was more about suppression than healing.
When all else failed, ancient cultures turned to **trepanation**—a practice dating back to 7000 BCE. It involved drilling or scraping a hole into the skull to “release evil spirits” or pressure causing the pain. Though often fatal or debilitating, it was performed for millennia across continents. In contrast, today a **simple paracetamol or ibuprofen** can calm a headache within minutes. Looking back, it’s clear: the journey from anvils and o***m to over-the-counter relief tells a remarkable story of human endurance, faith, and evolving science in the face of suffering.
