How Does Aspirin Find a Headache? (16 page)

The breakthrough came more than seventy years after the introduction of the best-selling pharmaceutical in the world, when researcher John Vane discovered that aspirin inhibited the synthesis of prostaglandins, fatty acids manufactured by virtually every cell in the human body. They resemble hormones, insofar as they secrete into the bloodstream, but unlike most hormones, they tend to stay near their point of manufacture. Prostaglandins serve many biological functions, but the particular ones that cause headache pain, usually known as PGE 2, increase the sensitivity of pain receptors.

So the function of prostaglandins seems to be to produce discomfort, inflammation, fever, and irritation in areas of the body that are not functioning normally, thus serving as an internal warning system. According to Harold Davis, consumer safety officer with the Food and Drug Administration, prostaglandins dilate blood vessels, which can also produce headaches.

The discovery of the role of prostaglandins in producing pain explains why aspirin works only on malfunctioning cells and tissues; if aspirin can stop the production of prostaglandins, pain will not be felt in the first place. Still, aspirin doesn’t cure diseases; it can alleviate the symptoms of arthritis, for example, but it doesn’t stop the progress of the condition.

In all fairness, scientists still don’t know exactly what causes headaches, nor all the ways in which aspirin works to relieve pain. Unlike morphine and other mind-altering drugs, aspirin works peripherally. The key to the success of any peripheral painkiller is in reaching the pain receptors near the irritation or inflammation, not simply in reaching sufficient concentrations in the bloodstream. In the case of aspirin, the ASA is connected to the bloodstream; the bloodstream’s connected to the prostaglandins; the prostaglandins are connected to the receptors; and the receptors are connected to the headache.

Is
Goofy Married? If Not, Where Did Television’s Goofy, Jr., Come From?

Do you really expect Disney to give old Goof a child out of wedlock? We are pleased to announce that Goofy is, or possibly only was, married to a lovable mate named Mrs. Goofy.

Mrs. Goofy first appeared in a short, “Fathers Are People,” but was far from salient; in fact, she can be seen only fleetingly. Although she was a Donna Reed-like suburban housewife, she had her husband well trained: Goofy’s response to just about everything she ever said was, “Yes, dear.”

Junior, with a red nose at the end of his snout and a mop of red hair on his head, was featured more often and prominently than his mother, but as Disney’s Rose Motzko told
Imponderables
, “Goofy, Jr.’s main function was to allow his father to burst with pride while allowing his father not to live up to [minimal] expectations.” Junior understood that his father was not a brain surgeon but tried hard not to let his father know.

On the current cartoon series
Goof Troop
, Junior is called “Max.” Goofy is a single father, and Goofy’s mother is never discussed. But come to think of it, most of the “family” TV sitcoms with live actors feature single parents, too: Max has plenty of company.

Why
Is “$” the Symbol for the American Dollar?

We remember reading a numismatics book thirty years ago that stated the $ was derived from a stylized version of an “S” superimposed on a “U.” We never understood this explanation, because we could never see the “U” in the dollar sign. A professor of the history of mathematics at the University of California, Dr. Cajori, spent decades researching this Imponderable in the 1910s and 1920s. He concluded:

Cajori pored through hundreds of early colonial manuscripts and could find no proof of the “US” theory.

So, the official position of the Department of Treasury is that the “S” gradually came to be written over the “P” in the “pesos” abbreviation,

Indeed, as we discussed in
Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise
?, Spanish and Mexican coins were the main currency in many parts of the United States in the eighteenth and much of the nineteenth centuries. We’re still not sure if the $ looks any more like a P and an S than a U and an S, but at least the abbreviation of “pesos” makes more sense than a shortening of “United States.”

What
Do Paper Manufacturers Do with the “Holes” Punched Out of Looseleaf Paper? Do They Recycle Them?

You can bet your bippy that manufacturers recycle the liberated hole punches. But they differ in how they recycle. Forest products giant International Paper, for example, boils more than 90 percent of its paper byproducts to power the very plant that manufacturers looseleaf paper, according to IP representative Michael Goodwin.

But Mead’s strategy is more common. Mary Potter, Mead consumer relations representative, told us:

Indeed, when we asked this Imponderable of Fort Howard, its consumer affairs coordinator responded, “Nearly all Fort Howard products [mostly toilet paper, facial tissue, paper towels, and napkins] are made from 100% recycled paper fiber.”

Bet you never considered that the missing dots in your notebook paper made their way into your toilet paper.

Why
Do We Bury the Dead with Heads Toward the West Facing East?

The following passage appears in Matthew 24: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

Interpreting this as an indication that when Jesus is resurrected he will appear in the east, early Christians buried the deceased with the feet nearest the east and head towards the west (but facing east) so that the dead could best see and then hurry to rise up to meet Him. Dan Flory, president of the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Sciences, wrote
Imponderables
that this custom inspired the phrase “the wind of the dead man’s feet” to describe an east wind.

The practice, both in Europe and North America, has steadily declined over time, but our informal observation is that the older the gravesite, the more likely the headstones will be situated in the western portion of the plot. In fact, burying the dead with this east-west orientation predates Christianity. Pagan societies, being sun worshipers, lay their deceased down to face the sunrise or sunset, depending upon the particular religion.

Why
Do Birds Usually Take Flight Against the Wind?

Nancy Martin, naturalist at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, points out that, given the constraints of runway design, airplane pilots prefer to take off against the wind as well. And for the same reason: It facilitates lift because of increased air speed. Martin elaborates:

Janet Hinshaw, librarian at the Wilson Ornithological Society at the University of Michigan, adds that birds with disproportionately heavy bodies for the size of their wings would probably take off against the wind more consistently—they can use all the lift they can get.

Why
Do Geese Honk Furiously While Migrating? Doesn’t Honking Squander Their Energy on Long Flights?

Unlike humans, geese and other migrating birds don’t have car radios and Stuckey’s to keep them occupied on long trips. Honking allows geese to maintain communication during long flights. Most importantly, it helps them to avoid midair collisions. As Todd Culver, education specialist at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, succinctly states, “Honking is cheap compared to crashing.”

Culver adds that the call and response of birds is the main reason for flying in “V-formation.”
Imponderables
has no desire to enter this raging debate, which we get asked about frequently. But our province is questions that aren’t so well traveled. We have read theories about the etiology of V-formations ranging from greater aerodynamics to superior defense against predators and from facilitation of vision to Culver’s theory about better auditory communication.

Janet Hinshaw, of the Wilson Ornithological Society, assures us that honking doesn’t sap geese of vital energy: “They honk while exhaling, which they obviously have to do anyway.”