Not Tonight, I Have a Headache... Trivia Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What is the medical term for a headache?

Answer: Cephalgia

A headache is defined as pain anywhere in the head or neck. So, if you think someone is a pain in the neck, that person is really a headache. The brain doesn't feel pain caused from a headache because it lacks pain receptors. The pain instead is felt by sensitive structures around the brain, such as muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, sinuses and so on.

2. Is it true that there is an International Headache Society?

Answer: Yes

This is a charity organisation which began in 1981. It isn't for people experiencing headaches as such, although it does have 1,000 ordinary members. It is more for professionals who work in the area of headache disorders.

3. A thunderclap headache falls under which of the following classifications?

Answer: Severe

These headaches are severe and can come on suddenly, reaching maximum intensity in only a few seconds sometimes. They can be life-threatening because of the indications that something far more serious is doing its deadly work behind the scenes - such as a stroke and so forth. Further investigations need to be carried out to find out their cause. Lasting for several days, these horrible headaches can come hand in hand with seizures, vomiting, visual trickery and pain all over the head and neck. I've never heard of them thankfully, but if having to make a guess, would think if such a thunderclap headache manifested itself, it was probably a warning from the Lord.

4. Is it true that there are over 200 different types of headaches?

Answer: Yes

Oh, that's so terrible - and depressing - for those people who are prone to headaches. There's no wonder then that doctors take them so seriously and that there are professional organisations dealing with the issue. Of these 200 classifications, they are put into either primary or secondary categories, They range from harmless to life-threatening. One example of a primary headache would be a migraine, and high blood pressure is an example of a headache fitting into the secondary category.

5. It has been suggested that lower than normal levels of which of the body's neurotransmitters can play a part in the degree of pain that headache sufferers feel?

Answer: Endorphins

Endorphins are "endogenous opioid peptides that function as neurotransmitters". They are produced by the body's "pituitary gland and hypothalamus during times of exercise, or an exciting or painful event, after eating spicy foods (shudder) and whilst making love and having an orgasm". Oh dear, that explains a lot.

6. Found in an old nursery rhyme, what did people once believe would cure a headache?

Answer: Vinegar and brown paper

Perhaps it does. Who knows? Here's the nursery rhyme relating to the above question: "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water/ Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after/ Up Jack got and home did trot as fast as he could caper/ To old Dame Dob who patched his nob with vinegar and brown paper".

The earliest publication of this rhyme was in the 1760s and various sources are said to have inspired it. These include the belief that Jacks and Jills were different coins and rising prices caused them to go up in value.

When the financial crash came, as it always seems to do, the Jacks and Jills were devalued again, i.e. the crown (another old coin) was broken. So interesting.

7. In the Kentucky Mountains, the people believed, and perhaps still do, that a poultice of which food would cure a headache?

Answer: Cornmeal

Cornmeal is flour ground from dry maize or corn. Finely ground cornmeal, in the United States, is known as cornflour, but in the United Kingdom it is known as cornstarch and made from corn only. Kentucky has some fascinating old superstitions and I may do a separate quiz on them one day - when my headache has gone.

8. In the earlier days following settlement of central North America, it was once believed that to avert headaches, your frontal hair should be worn in which style?

Answer: Four plaits hanging over your face

I truly believe I'd prefer the headache, rather than going round like a goose with four plaits hanging down over my face.

9. It was also believed in North America that one could cure a headache by swallowing which animal structure?

Answer: A spider's web

So what would you prefer? Looking like a plaited dill, or choking to death on a spider's web? Some other headache superstitions and old wives tales from this time include the beliefs that headaches could be prevented by carrying a buckeye in one's pocket (one presumes they didn't mean the tree or the chicken); placing hair from your comb under a hidden rock somewhere; carrying one of your teeth around your neck (first have it knocked out); wearing a horse-radish leaf to your head; wearing a match in your hair (hopefully unlit or your plaits would burn); and wearing a snake-rattle in your hair day and night.

They all sound like horse feathers to me.

10. An old superstition has it that if you wish to avoid having headaches for the forthcoming twelve months, you need to have your hair cut on which holy day of the year?

Answer: Good Friday

Good Friday, for those of a different faith, is the day that Christians believe Jesus was crucified and died on the cross for the sins of the world. A mighty sacrifice by a mighty man.

Source: Author Creedy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Pagiedamon before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Not Tonight, I Have a Headache... Quiz

In response to a challenge from Tizzabelle for the Author Challenges badge, here are ten questions on the headache. Pass the aspirin please.

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>