Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Headaches

Episode Date: November 29, 2013

Welcome to Sawbones, where Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy take you on a whimsical tour of the dumb ways in which we've tried to fix people. This week: Get your head straight! Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers (http://thetaxpayers.net)

Saabones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books! One, two, one, two, three, four! We came across a pharmacy with a toy and that's lost it out. We were shot through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around.

Some medicines, some medicines, the escalant macaque for the mouth. Wow! Hello everybody and welcome to Saul Bones, a marital tour of this guy to medicine. I'm here I'm a coach just a macro and I'm Sydney, Macroi. Are you okay Justin? Yes, yes, Sydney. I'm fine I just I have a headache. Oh, I hate to hear that. I'm sorry. And it seems to be all anybody's talking about right now. It's top of Yahoo News, hashtag Justin's headache. Is it really? Cause I thought it was like hashtag Walmart fights or something.

This headache has gone viral, Sydney. It's the biggest deal that is a deal right now. And I think everybody is talking about it. I can't just to be fair, Justin, every time you have an illness, whether it be real or imagined, you tend to think it is the biggest story going on. It is. It's a headline news story.

And here's the problem. Mankind has no way of treating headaches. Oh Is that so yeah, you just where did you read that you just have to live that's something I know that's something you know Institutional knowledge that's the kind of intuition you just have. Yeah, Justin McElroy. I just know there's nothing But I'm I'm sure that we've tried stuff. This is debilitating. I'm barely speaking. I'm barely breathing a little on podcasting And I'm hoping that you've heard of something from the annals of history. Well, I definitely have and I may actually have some ideas for what could fix your headache now But I'm gonna make you sit through the history history of headache curious before I tell you what that is. By the way, this isn't a bit.

I have a pretty bad head. He really does. Just wrapping for the chuckle. Yeah, get ready. I'm sure it'll pass, but close these prices, these Christmas prices, shopping seasons here again. The first. The first question, Justin speaking of headaches

Would be why why does your head hurt do you know? I Don't know I Slept on wrong. Do you think you upset the gods in some way? Yes Absolutely, well, that's always true. I don't keep the Sabbath. I don't keep kosher. I don't you know, I step on cracks in sidewalks. Right. That's definitely that's definitely part of a religion. More frighteningly, do you think you were possessed by a demon? That may be a stretch. I don't know. Because that's I mean, that's a possible cause of headaches,

or at least we thought it was. I used to listen to the cure a lot. Is that the same thing? That's close enough. I think more interestingly and quite possibly, do you think you could have lost some hairs somewhere and maybe somebody stepped on them? Well, yes, that's statistically speaking,

that almost certainly happened. Well, because that could be the reason your head hurts. You just took a shower. You probably stepped on something in my hair. Exactly. It's my fault. You did this. Or, you know, some of those hairs could be used

in a bird's nest, and that could be the cause of your headache, which I love this theory because I guess the cure then would be finding the bird's nest. Mining and dismantling. The only solution, the only treatment you have available is to go bird's nest to bird's nest, it just dismantles it. It's just param apart, that'd be brutal.

The other possibility. And literally the last thing you would feel like doing if you had a really bad headache. I'm not doing that for you. Pan-nabarhood child. Or maybe you just left your hat on the bed? Um. Or maybe somebody else put their hat on your bed? Because either way, whoever sleeps in that bed next might just have a headache.

Wow. I mean, that's a, that doesn't even make a lot of sense, but I guess it's probably accurate. Or maybe you just blew the foam off of your beer. No, who says that? Who would say that? guess it's probably accurate. Or maybe you just blew the foam off of your beer. Now who says that? Who would say that? The Talmud says that that could be the cause of a headache. Maybe you just, you know, maybe you couldn't appreciate that good thick foamy head on your

beer. They blew it off and it gave me a headache. Yep. So any of these things really, since you've done them all certainly, could be the cause of your headache, including demon possession. Not just do that. I mean I seek some of these out like intentionally like you give birds your hair to build their nest out.

It's a very sort of a Disney princess-esque scene where I just extend strands of my hair my hands out stretch and just let neighborhood birds come and take my hair away. And then they dress you. It's either that or... Ribbons and lace. It's either that or pay at MasterCuts and with these Christmas prizes, I'm just not sure I can afford it. This is a very different gifts of the Magi that we're getting into.

It gave birds my hair. I gave my watch to a bird. That's so ironic because I bought a cage to a bird. That's so ironic, because I bought a cage for a bird. It turns, it turns, it turns, it turns gives the match eye into like the sweetest bird story ever. Like it's a very heartwarming story for birds. Maybe that's the story, maybe that's the version they tell birds. A human gave me hair. A human gave me a watch.

What are we gonna do with these? What are we gonna do with a watch? It's true. And then birds began to tell time. Oops. And everything changed. Bird voluotion started there and then it became Birdman. So let's talk about some ways to fix this headache.

Thank God. The ancient Egyptians had a great idea. So just, okay, take some clay and then kind of sculpt it into a crocodile that's holding grain in its mouth. That's key. It's got to be a crocodile that's holding some grain in its mouth. And then I guess you fire it or however you, you know, harden it. So now you have a clay crocodile and then you're going to bind that to your head, like just kind of put it on your head and then wrap a piece of cloth around there to hold it in place.

But make sure that you've written the names of the gods that you wanna help you on the cloth. My head hurts. I don't wanna do any of this. Well, you gotta take the time to make a clay crocodile if you wanna make that head go. There's no part of me that wants to belly up to the kiln when my head is throbbing, especially not when there's gonna be some intricate grain work.

Well, maybe the Greeks had a better idea. So as we move into all the theory of humors, a lot of, you know, we've talked about this before that you have four humors and you got to get them in balance. So it was noted by hypotheses that a lot of people threw up when they had a really bad headache and that they tended to feel better. So just go puke. Okay, easy. I'll be our pack.

It didn't work. I threw up. Well, okay. Then let's try some bloodletting. Oh, great. Bloodletting is always a big favorite when it comes to curing, well, anything. But specifically, if you wanna cure a headache with blood letting out, I found this particular technique

intriguing, so take a goose feather. All of these are so involved for somebody with a headache. I know, I have a headache. I don't know what old-timey people were doing. I think the main thing was to take up so much of your time in the headache cure that by the end statistically, your headache was probably gone. Right.

So take a goose feather, and you're gonna take like the end that, you know, is connected to the goose, like the little stem, whatever you call that. A goose end. The goose end of the feather. And you're gonna kind of cut teeth into it, like it's a little saw.

Okay. And then you're gonna stick that up inside your nose, and you're gonna kind of move it around until you bleed a whole lot. I wish you all could see my face right now. This is ghastly. What, why? Why a goose feather?

Why you have to cut it into a saw? Why not just a stick? Why your nose? I think the idea was that there are a lot of blood vessels there so you bleed well. And I mean, it's close to your head. I guess, right, but is it, I mean, is it really a problem with my blood brain volume?

Well, it could be. Okay, so this could work. Definitely, it kind of jumped in ahead a little bit by the 1600th's trepidation was also being used for headaches. So it could be your blood brain volume. Who else, who else has done it before me? Because the huge feather thing didn't work and there's a mess.

Well, this was also about the time when people would try cupping, are you familiar with cupping? I am a little bit, it's where you create like a vacuum with a cup by setting a match inside of it right and it sucks up all the oxygen. Exactly. At the time, they were more like glass tubes and then they would they'd get them hot, create a vacuum, put it on the skin, and it would, the idea was to form like a blister of some sort, a sore blister. You could also just kind of burn somebody. But then the stuff that would seep out of it

hopefully would be whatever was causing the pain or infection or whatever. And you could do this on your head if you wanted to cure a headache. But I thought it was interesting. Hypocrites did note that if your headache was brought on by either exercise or sex, which I think he called a venereal activity.

More mantic. Then there was no hope. Don't try cupping, don't try bloodletting, you're just going to have to let it ride. Just live with your sex headache. In the late 1900s in Spain, Albu Cases, who was the surgeon, the royal surgeon for the king, had a great idea, which was, so, you know, your head hurts. It's something going on with your head, obviously. That's where the problem is. Yeah. So let's just cut up in the skin at your temples. Done. And put

some garlic cloves in there. Okay, see that doesn't, that is good if it is a vampire centric headache or a vampire is in your brain causing the headache, a tiny vampire, but I don't even think they have vampires in the late 900s in Spain. When were vampires invented, honey? They didn't get over to Spain until like 1910 or 1950. Where, what history book are you reading? Vampires, a world tour by Justin Macaron. Did you see this on the

Discovery Channel over Halloween? Yeah, it was in there on the history channel. It was in their special vampires or World Tour based on the book. Vampires or World Tour by Justin Macaron. You have to write that book now. I smell like Kickstarter. Yeah, I got to claim the ISD a number now. It's already been registered in the Library of Congress since I said it out Now shoving garlic under your skin is a terrible idea For headaches, but if you're making a chicken that's a great idea for flavor Yeah, if you're making chicken out of your head. Well, no, I don't I'm in like an actual chicken like you know Put it under your skin some some butter, maybe some fresh herbs.

Yeah. Yeah, and I'm hungry. And had a headache. Cool. So in the medieval times, and they always had great ideas in the medieval times, really. At least this isn't, I don't think this is particularly gross. So I will say that for, for medieval people, usually it involved like putting some kind of excrement on your body

to fix something. All they advise for headache, just try a mixture of opium and vinegar and rub it all over your head. And I like that because the idea was, we knew opium helped with pain. So maybe, and vinegar was thought to kind of open the pores. And so you put vinegar up there, it opens the pores, you put opium up there, you absorb it faster,

and then you're high on opium and who cares about the headache? Yeah, headache gone, solved. I think the vinegar could have been cut out for a more effective and fast cure. Yeah. But just eat some opium. Similarly, I like this, in the 1600s, it was advised that you could, if you wanted to fix your headache, you can shave your head, drastic. Yeah, a little bit.

Cause it, who knows it might pass. Cause that's a serious headache. And that's what I have to assume with a lot of these treatments that these were like last resort kind of things. Right. That like, if your head hurt a little bit, like I don't know, they just like sprinkled some magic water on your head or prayed over things. Right. That like, if your head hurt a little bit, like, I don't know, they just like sprinkled some magic water on your head or prayed over you or something, but it's when like your head

won't stop hurting. Then you go in and you're like, dude, just shave my head and you're not allowed to do this by the way. Okay. And then you apply can't the ridden to your head. Now, what is that you may ask? I am asking that. Well, that's Spanish fly, Justin.

Oh, my, oh, my. So, so it's an irritant. It's from a beetle. Oh, so it's from a Spanish fly from a bug. Right. And it will irritate your skin. So it will actually probably cause some blistering on your head, which is the thought that that's why it would work again. You form a blister. Stuff comes out of the blister, that's the pain coming out. But Spanish fly also is known to be a potent affidiziaque. I think they were trying to remove a woman's excuse to, you know, I'll not tonight I have a headache. Yeah, well, I'm gonna show you.

Yeah, you're about to shave your head and rub Spanish fly on you. You're about to be ent twine with lust for me. I thought it was interesting. It said that it was, you would know you would put too much on when you began to have dysuria, which is burning when you pee. And I thought, well, that's interesting. Why would an aphrodisiac cause burning when you pee?

That seems like something that would not make you want to have sex. Right. Uh, that irritation of the genitals is what it's supposed to do to make you want to have sex. Yeah, that's the way that they, I guess it, I guess it's small amounts in small amounts. It just like mildly irritates them. Maybe like tickles. I don't know. And that would make you want to do it. Isn't that weird? I didn't know. And that would make you wanna do it. Isn't that weird?

I didn't know that's how that works. That's how Spanish fire works. You rub it down there and it gets like whole itchy. Well, I don't think you rub it down there. I think people take it orally. Okay. I saw it once in a gas station bathroom, you know, one of those dispensaries

like in the, they give you condoms and Spanish fly. Yeah. You know, it's funny selling affidies, shacks in a gas station. I would say that if you're willing to buy any sort of sexual aid from a gas station vending machine, you're already pretty horny. Like, your libido is just fine right now.

You're buying this from a gas station. Yeah, nothing will stop you. Yeah, you are a force of nature at that point. You're not gonna be dissuaded from it. Why do you need something to amp you up? You were gonna be waiting in line in a minute and staring at packs of cigarettes and those rotating tequitos that have been there for three years.

And you're thinking about bone and down. So you don't have a problem. All you're thinking about. What else. So you don't have a problem. All you're thinking about. What else did? Well, it follows fails. It has. And we're still in the 1600s at this point. What you can do is just so take a hot iron

and put it on your head. Okay, wherever it hurts. Wait one second. All right. Okay, just the place where it hurts. It hurts right about where I put the hot iron. Right. And just keep cauterizing right down to the muscle.

Okay, hold on one second. And yes, cauterized. Right. And this is still extremely painful. Right. Well, yeah. Now, wait, I forgot to ask, are you someone with a vigorous body and much courage? Uh-huh, yeah.

Because this should not be undertaken. Look at my business card. Look at this t-shirt I'm wearing. Of course, it says exactly that right now. Just a maceroy. I have a vigorous body and much courage. You're right it does. Yeah, that's right there.

Well, that was one thing that this one stipulation is that if you're going to cauterize someone's head down to the muscle, you wanna make sure that they are vigorous and courageous. Now, if you want to cauterize down to the bone, which how you determine, I guess it depends which kind of weirdo doctor you are, you might want to pick an area without a lot of muscle because I knew that cauterizing muscle was painful, which I think cauterizing anything on your head

is probably painful. Cauterization general is not like a pleasant. But once you get to the bone, obviously you can't keep cotterizing the bone, so then you start chiseling. Did they think that they were just going to find like a frigging grimland at some point? Like, oh, here's your problem. There's a little guy in here causing it. He's inside your, he lived inside your bone.

A lot of this, you have to, it was the same kind of time where they were doing things like treponation. And there were people who would try to cure headaches with trepination and find like maybe like a bleed. Maybe they would chisel in and then they would find some blood there and then they, and then relieving the pressure of that blood would actually relieve the headache. So that happens once and then all the sudden everybody's doing it. Yeah, everybody has a whole head fever. Now by the 18th century,

and I think we've mentioned this before, electricity was a very popular thing to be used in medicine. But at the time, we didn't have a lot of ways of generating electricity just everywhere, everybody. So the best thing to do is if you had a headache, just grab an electric eel. Yeah, I don't have one of those lying around, but I'm sure if I drove to a local aquarium.

There were many different species of electric fish that they recommended, but there were particularly some eels that were the most that had the highest voltage, I guess. And so you could do that. If you don't live near electric eels, then there were machine generated electrical currents that you could be shocked with in order to get rid of your headache.

I'm a purist. I like free range electrical animals. You can grab your eel with your back. I'm using a machine to do it for me. The way you do that by the way is you grab the eel in one hand and then you put your other hand on your head. I would create it. Well, let's say I could put a circuit, I don't know.

I mean, it's that you're already grabbing it, right? Yeah. Like it doesn't. Yeah. It's going to shock your head. Well, if you just put a light bulb in the other hand, entertain the neighbors. That's in the footnotes. Okay, good.

And at the time, you know, a lot of the things that were being tried for anything else was also being tried for headaches, like hydrotherapy, mustered baths, vibration therapy. So they thought that if you wrote in a, like a buggy for a long time, your headache went away. So maybe if we put you in a vibrating chair, dunk you in cold water, Darwin's granddad was a scientist working at the time and he advised spinning people

around like by their head so that all the blood would rush to their feet to relieve the pressure from the blood in your head and then that would happen. This is only possible, of course, if you have a very large big brother, people doing that for you. And I hope they weren't grabbing people by the head. No, I think you grabbed them by the arms. And I mean, but you really need like an Andre the giant ask figure at this point for me. Did you do that to your little brother?

Yeah, I would never little, but they didn't have headaches. They just had dumb faces that needed to be put in check. How many times did you drop them? None. That I will limit to. In the 19th century, some medications were actually being and, and of course, all throughout time there were medications that were funny and ridiculous. But one that I like by gowers, who is an important figure in the

history of neurology, is a concoction of nitroglycerin and alcohol. Okay. Sure. Yeah. That will probably make you feel better. That's potent. But he said, you know what, if you don't have time, I guess, to stop by the drugstore or wherever my house and get some of this, just smoke some pot. Well, okay, now you're cheating. That was one of his biggest recommendations. If you're somebody with a lot of headaches and they won't go away, just, you know, probably smoke a dube smoke a dube, she says. Brought to you by avid drug user, obviously, I know all the Wingo. Sidney. I'm such a nerd. All right, Lodnam was also around then speaking of drugs.

Everybody's on that Lodnam tip. Yeah, so everybody was, you know was taking Lodnam for their headaches, wink, wink, and their female troubles. Now by the 20th century, people started doing surgeries for headaches, and this is kind of scary. So some of these surgeries we understand and are familiar with today, like taking out your tonsils and your ad noise, or doing some kind of sinus surgery.

So being that you had some kind of sinus problem nasal drainage, something like that that was causing your headaches, which actually may have been possible that you had a sinus itis or some kind of sinus problem and that was the cause. But they also started doing a lot of really complex surgeries where they were trying to stop different nervous pathways in the head and neck and brain area. And all of that is probably a bad idea. They also did lumbar punctures a lot for headaches.

Now, does any of this have any sort of ground, I mean, 20th century, I start to assume that there's some sort of grounding in reality for treatments. Well, some of these things, I mean, like I said, we were starting to understand, like, certainly there were probably some people who had headaches because of sinus problems. There were probably some people who, you know, who had migraines and trying to start working on, like, vascular pathways. Was it because a lot of the people were contemplating? Is it because veins are dilating or because they're constricting or was it certain nerve bundles that are causing it?

We were starting to understand why headaches were happening in a little bit and we were dividing headaches into different categories. This is attention headache. This is a cluster headache. This is a migraine, that kind of thing. Yeah, to some extent, we kind of knew what we were doing. And certainly, if you have increased intracranial pressure, doing a lumbar puncture would probably, you know, release that pressure and fix your headache. But most people with headaches do not have increased intracranial pressure.

So, you know, kind of like the same thing with trepidation. Most people with a headache don't have a bleed in their head that they need to be relieved by drilling a hole in their skull. But if you are that person, I guess that works. You could also, at that point, we started doing things like hypnosis and psychotherapy, recognizing that some people who had chronic headaches might, as a result of, you know, depression or anxiety or, you know, stress, tension, those kinds of things. I don't know so much about the hypnosis.

Yeah, I don't know if you could, this seems a little, little, ungrounded in science for me. You could hypnotize someone out of the eggs. You're against the hypnosis. I am not a fan of hypnosis. So you're going to let me remove your adenoins, tonsils, do a sinus surgery on you that I don't know how to do,

and a lumbar puncture, which I actually can do, and some psychotherapy, but the hypnosis is where you draw the line. What if you try to subliminize me? Why I'm under? Subliminize you? Yeah, you try to subliminize me and give me like messages that would be stuck in my, you know, way back of my brain, towards my hypothalamus, and you would give me messages. You're really good with your neuro anatomy by the way. Oh, thank you.

And you would give me like sear commands or you could make me like, bark like a chicken when you say suitcase or something like that. I can't, I can't leave my psyche open. What I'm saying, Sydney, is that I can't leave my psyche open to attack like that. I can't, I can't be defenseless in that manner. But you're okay with me cauterizing your head down to the muscle.

Yeah, I mean, I'll try stuff physically, but I need to have my wits about me at all times. Let's try some folk remedies. What do you think? Yeah, those are my notes. So there are a whole lot of folk remedies for getting rid of a headache that when did they first you know show up? Who knows some of them? Obviously people aren't doing now and then probably others of these there are people still trying today So one that I really liked was if your head's hurting all you got to do is find a rope and wrap it around your head now One stipulation this has got to be a rope that was used to hang someone.

Okay, what? Yeah. Okay, where are you even finding that? eBay. Okay. I don't know. Fair dinkle. Yeah, probably eBay.

I guess hang somebody. They got everything there. Oh man, how bad is your headache after being before you hang a fool? So hang somebody and then tie the rope around your head after you're done hanging them. Done. Actually, they said if you could find a rope

that was used in a suicide, that those ropes have special powers and those might cure your baldness or your gray hair as well. So that's like the foil wrap chase card of suists of ropes. I want the le wrap chase card of ropes. I want the Lexus of hanging ropes. Right, that's a rare one.

It's the Charizard of ropes that you used to kill people and also cure headaches. You could also, if you don't like that idea, maybe you don't know anybody who hung themselves, hanged themselves, hanged themselves. Hanged, yeah. You could just take some earthworms, okay?

Mash them up, and then apply it. Now, make sure that you mash them up and you know how many are in each little earthworm mushy pile because you need to rub an even number into your forehead and each temple. Otherwise, you'll just look ridiculous. I mean, if you rub like three into each temple and two into your forehead, what are you even doing?

It'll be a laughing stock. And that's gonna work for sure. Okay, I tried that. Or you could go outside and feed some birds afterwards. Yeah, from your head. That's nice. Stick them in a bird's nest. Oh no, don't let them get your hair.

Or you could in the great medical tradition of strapping animals to your body, which is one of my favorite things. You could strap a frog to your head. There's no way. There's no way I've already got a clay alligator up there. There's no frog to get up there. Freak, he'll lose his mind. Well, you leave it there till it dies. Oh, perfect. Okay. Well, good. Yeah. Or you could just go ahead and if you just want to deal with something that's already dead, so you don't have to worry about it struggling and trying to hold it there and maybe peeing on you or whatever, a dead mole will work.

I would give any price to watch some, I have to see the entire thing though. I have to see someone walking along with a headache, seeing the mole on the ground, looking to see if anyone's watching, they don't see me, and picking up a mole and just tying it to their head. I have to see that I would pay any price. Well, why don't you go do it and I will film you and Chris. Chris is just around the corner, Sydney.

All I want is a video of someone putting a mole on their head. All right, you heard it internet. You got to help me out. P.O. Box 54, honey, which Virginia, 257.06. Send me a dead, no, don't send me a dead mole. Send me a video. Don't send me a dead mole. Send me a video of somebody strapping a dead mole on their head.

Send me a USPS as a federal crime, send moles. Is it? Oh, I don't know. A lawyer. You could also wrap a snake around your head. I'm hoping it's a dead one, I don't know. Not a lawyer. You could also wrap a snake around your head. I'm hoping it's a dead one. It doesn't specify. If it's not dead beforehand.

Let's go with dead, just we're gonna win a lawsuit. Yeah. Or a dead salt herring will work. So lots of dead animals you can strap on your head. So go ahead and do all that, Justin. Along with that clay out there with the green, it's mountainous. I'm honestly running out of space up here. I'm running out of real estate of animals

and animal shaped clay figurines to attach to my head. Well, maybe we should have just, you know, focused on preventing the headache to begin with. Okay. So here's something. It's a little late for that, but fine. Here's some things you should have done. It's too late, but hey, maybe our listeners

will benefit from this. Carry a buck eye or a nut with you at all times. Care already do that. Which one? Yes. Absolutely. Carry a buck eye and a nut, one in each pocket to balance me out. Why do you do that?

Slink shot. Oh, okay. Of course. It's ready at all times. You're like Dennis the Minus. Exactly. Like Dennis the little scamp. Yeah, little Justin. Little. This slingshot is nuts in each pocket.

And his clay alligator strap too is having next to the dead salt herring. And the mole. You could also wear a popular child. You could also wear a coral or a jade necklace that can help. Beautiful. Yeah, that's love. That seems harmless enough. This is a look now.

This is coming together as a look. This is a fairy. This is what you're going as for Halloween next year. Yeah, next year. A guy who's desperate to get rid of his head. Got the headache. Got the super bad headache. Or you could have just, so catch a rattlesnake.

Kill it. Don't kill it. I'm not recommending anybody kill any animals. This is hypothetical. Kill it, take its rattle, and strap it to your hat band. That'll work. That'll work. That'll work. That'll look fancy too. There were, there are all kinds of, that on a trail trowel bee, that's kind of a real nice. There are all kinds of poltuses, you know, that people are always a fan of. Some of the ones I particularly liked, you could put some potato and some salt on your head,

some buck, buckwheat cakes, but only if they're Pennsylvania Dutch buckwheat cakes. That's the only ones that work. That sounds like a, sounds like an advertising boy. Try genuine Pennsylvania Dutch buckwheat cakes for a headache. The only buckwheat cakes guaranteed to get rid of that headache. And by guaranteed, we mean we're lying. Sorry.

You could try some cucumber peels, some gymson weed. No, I'm not trying any of this. No. Okay. Is there anything real? You know throughout all of all these different time periods as I was researching all of these terrible ideas for headaches A lot of people said things that probably would work occasionally So cold compresses were were recommended many different many different times all throughout the years Massage was recommended

Especially as you move into the 18th century. And you know if you have a really bad tension headache a nice neck back massage could help. Getting a good night's sleep was something that a lot of people recommended. So that can help with certain kinds of headaches or or taking a warm bath as they got into like hydrotherapy. There was weird stuff like we're gonna squirt warm water at your feet. But then there was like good ideas, just take a warm, relaxing bath with some herbal things

and it that smell nice. And, you know, that kind of thing, depending again on the kind of headache, might've helped. And then there was also a push to try to identify, like, hey, when you have a headache, is it just when you drink alcohol? Cause maybe that's causing your headache.

And of course, whenever any of these triggers would be found, it would be generalized to everybody. So, oh, nobody can eat potatoes now or whatever. But trying to avoid your headache triggers is actually something we still recommend, patients. For real, though, it depends on the kind of headache. And getting into all of the different treatments for whether you have tension headaches or migraines or cluster headaches or chronic daily headaches

or just your regular old run of the mill, everybody gets them every once in a while kind of headache, it really depends. There you go. Well, I'm not gonna, there's a lot of, you know, headaches. Just go take some pills for it. Oh no, headaches. No, don't, you know headaches. Just go take some pills for it. I don't know, headaches.

No, don't, no, don't just go take some pills for it. Take a pill. Now, most of the regular old average headaches that I get or that you get, Justin. Minor, no, not average city. There's nothing average about my headaches. They're set in the world on fire. Have you tried to take any over-the-counter pain relief

or Justin? Yeah, I took through I be pro-fin. Has it helped? I don't know. I said, yeah, I took a minute. What do you mean, you don't know? They take a half hour to work. I took a like 25 minutes ago before we started recording.

Well, okay, wait, there, no, yeah, it's a little better. Well, there you go. Thank you so much. We hope our show was not a headache for you till we listen to you. Yeah, did you get that? Did you get that great joke? Okay, listen, this is the best I can do right now, right?

Cut me some slack. Thank you to people too, and you got the show like Aubrey Ralph. And can I just say if you really do need help with your headaches, you should probably talk to your doctor. Yeah, like, but that's like everything. If you really do need medical treatment. I don't want everybody just doing what you do,

strapping a bunch of crap to your head and taking ibuprofen. It's a look. Sam Fyfer, thank you for tweeting with the show, as well as Doug Piker, Joe Pangraice, Justin Lewis, Bubba Monkey, Ian Kelly, Max, Peter, Tom, Jackie Collins, Richard Laurie, Carl Gladstone. We really appreciate you guys sharing the show. We're at Salbones on Twitter. Or you can tweet at us at Justin McRoy.

She's at Sydney McRoy, SWIT, NE. We're sorry last week for missing our episode. We're out of town. Sorry. We were across the Atlantic, but we are back. And I wish you all a happy, belated Thanksgiving. Everything is going to be great now, because we're home. Don't worry. Don't worry. Everybody calm down. I just relax. Calm down. Take a warm soothing bath. Garvey us on iTunes. And make sure to listen to some other shows on the maximum fun network. Like Jordan Jesse Goat, Judge John Hodgman. stop podcasting yourself. My brother, my brother and me. Tickets went on sale today for Max FunCon. Go buy your tickets for that right now.

Immediately, stop, drop everything you're doing. Drop what you're doing, stop, go. Unless you're in the bathtub, then just treat yourself. Yeah, just relax. So then go buy. So then go. I used to go headache passes. And that's gonna do a first. Make sure you join us again next Friday on Sabo's

until then, I'm Justin McElroy. I'm Sydney McElroy. And as always, don't drill up all over your head. Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone Listener Supported