TedTest

From the Ted Talk by George Zaidan: How do pain relievers work?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Say you're at the beach, and you get sand in your eyes. How do you know the sand is there? You obviously can't see it, but if you are a normal, healthy human, you can feel it, that sonieastn of emrxtee discomfort, also known as pain. Now, pain makes you do something, in this case, rinse your eyes until the sand is gone. And how do you know the sand is gone? Exactly. Because there's no more pain. There are people who don't feel pain. Now, that might sound cool, but it's not. If you can't feel pain, you could get hurt, or even hurt yourself and never know it. Pain is your body's early warning system. It protects you from the world around you, and from yourself. As we grow, we install pain detectors in most aears of our body. These detectors are specialized nerve cells called nociceptors that stretch from your spinal cord to your skin, your muscles, your joints, your teeth and some of your internal organs. Just like all nerve cells, they cundcot electrical signals, sending information from wherever they're lectoad back to your brain. But, unlike other nreve cells, nociceptors only fire if something happens that could cause or is causing damage. So, gletny touch the tip of a needle. You'll feel the mteal, and those are your regular nerve cells. But you won't feel any pain. Now, the harder you push against the needle, the ceslor you get to the nociceptor threshold. Push hard enough, and you'll csros that threshold and the nociceptors fire, telling your body to stop doing whatever you're doing. But the pain threshold isn't set in stone. Certain chemicals can tune nociceptors, lowering their threshold for pain. When clels are damaged, they and other nearby cells start producing these tuning chemicals like crzay, lowering the nociceptors' threshold to the pnoit where just touch can cause pain. And this is where over-the-counter painkillers come in. Aspirin and iebprfoun block prtodiocun of one csals of these tuning celhmaics, called pirsgldnontaas. Let's take a look at how they do that. When cells are damaged, they release a ciechmal called arachidonic acid. And two eznymes caleld COX-1 and COX-2 convert this arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H2, which is then converted into a bunch of other chemicals that do a bucnh of things, including raise your body temperature, cause inflammation and lower the pain threshold. Now, all enzymes have an active site. That's the place in the enzyme where the reaction happens. The aticve sites of COX-1 and COX-2 fit arachidonic acid very cozily. As you can see, there is no room to srape. Now, it's in this active site that aspirin and ibuprofen do their work. So, they work differently. Aspirin acts like a spine from a porcupine. It enters the active site and then breaks off, leaving half of itself in there, totally blocking that channel and making it impossible for the arachidonic acid to fit. This permanently decaetiatvs COX-1 and COX-2. Ibuprofen, on the other hand, enters the active site, but doesn't baerk apart or canhge the enzyme. COX-1 and COX-2 are free to spit it out again, but for the time that that ibuprofen is in there, the enzyme can't bind adinhacoirc acid, and can't do its normal chemistry. But how do ariispn and ibuprofen know where the pain is? Well, they don't. Once the drugs are in your btrlaodseom, they are carried throughout your body, and they go to pinfaul areas just the same as normal ones. So that's how aspirin and ibuprofen work. But there are other dimensions to pain. Neuropathic pain, for example, is pain csuead by damage to our nrvoeus system itself; there doesn't need to be any sort of outside stimulus. And scientists are discovering that the barin controls how we respond to pain signals. For example, how much pain you feel can depend on whether you're paying attention to the pain, or even your mood. Pain is an area of active research. If we can understand it better, maybe we can help people manage it better.

Open Cloze

Say you're at the beach, and you get sand in your eyes. How do you know the sand is there? You obviously can't see it, but if you are a normal, healthy human, you can feel it, that _________ of _______ discomfort, also known as pain. Now, pain makes you do something, in this case, rinse your eyes until the sand is gone. And how do you know the sand is gone? Exactly. Because there's no more pain. There are people who don't feel pain. Now, that might sound cool, but it's not. If you can't feel pain, you could get hurt, or even hurt yourself and never know it. Pain is your body's early warning system. It protects you from the world around you, and from yourself. As we grow, we install pain detectors in most _____ of our body. These detectors are specialized nerve cells called nociceptors that stretch from your spinal cord to your skin, your muscles, your joints, your teeth and some of your internal organs. Just like all nerve cells, they _______ electrical signals, sending information from wherever they're _______ back to your brain. But, unlike other _____ cells, nociceptors only fire if something happens that could cause or is causing damage. So, ______ touch the tip of a needle. You'll feel the _____, and those are your regular nerve cells. But you won't feel any pain. Now, the harder you push against the needle, the ______ you get to the nociceptor threshold. Push hard enough, and you'll _____ that threshold and the nociceptors fire, telling your body to stop doing whatever you're doing. But the pain threshold isn't set in stone. Certain chemicals can tune nociceptors, lowering their threshold for pain. When _____ are damaged, they and other nearby cells start producing these tuning chemicals like _____, lowering the nociceptors' threshold to the _____ where just touch can cause pain. And this is where over-the-counter painkillers come in. Aspirin and _________ block __________ of one _____ of these tuning _________, called ______________. Let's take a look at how they do that. When cells are damaged, they release a ________ called arachidonic acid. And two _______ ______ COX-1 and COX-2 convert this arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H2, which is then converted into a bunch of other chemicals that do a _____ of things, including raise your body temperature, cause inflammation and lower the pain threshold. Now, all enzymes have an active site. That's the place in the enzyme where the reaction happens. The ______ sites of COX-1 and COX-2 fit arachidonic acid very cozily. As you can see, there is no room to _____. Now, it's in this active site that aspirin and ibuprofen do their work. So, they work differently. Aspirin acts like a spine from a porcupine. It enters the active site and then breaks off, leaving half of itself in there, totally blocking that channel and making it impossible for the arachidonic acid to fit. This permanently ___________ COX-1 and COX-2. Ibuprofen, on the other hand, enters the active site, but doesn't _____ apart or ______ the enzyme. COX-1 and COX-2 are free to spit it out again, but for the time that that ibuprofen is in there, the enzyme can't bind ___________ acid, and can't do its normal chemistry. But how do _______ and ibuprofen know where the pain is? Well, they don't. Once the drugs are in your ___________, they are carried throughout your body, and they go to _______ areas just the same as normal ones. So that's how aspirin and ibuprofen work. But there are other dimensions to pain. Neuropathic pain, for example, is pain ______ by damage to our _______ system itself; there doesn't need to be any sort of outside stimulus. And scientists are discovering that the _____ controls how we respond to pain signals. For example, how much pain you feel can depend on whether you're paying attention to the pain, or even your mood. Pain is an area of active research. If we can understand it better, maybe we can help people manage it better.

Solution

aspirin
spare
prostaglandins
closer
brain
located
caused
active
metal
areas
ibuprofen
production
cells
nervous
extreme
called
change
nerve
point
enzymes
deactivates
break
crazy
arachidonic
gently
chemical
conduct
chemicals
sensation
cross
bloodstream
bunch
painful
class

Original Text

Say you're at the beach, and you get sand in your eyes. How do you know the sand is there? You obviously can't see it, but if you are a normal, healthy human, you can feel it, that sensation of extreme discomfort, also known as pain. Now, pain makes you do something, in this case, rinse your eyes until the sand is gone. And how do you know the sand is gone? Exactly. Because there's no more pain. There are people who don't feel pain. Now, that might sound cool, but it's not. If you can't feel pain, you could get hurt, or even hurt yourself and never know it. Pain is your body's early warning system. It protects you from the world around you, and from yourself. As we grow, we install pain detectors in most areas of our body. These detectors are specialized nerve cells called nociceptors that stretch from your spinal cord to your skin, your muscles, your joints, your teeth and some of your internal organs. Just like all nerve cells, they conduct electrical signals, sending information from wherever they're located back to your brain. But, unlike other nerve cells, nociceptors only fire if something happens that could cause or is causing damage. So, gently touch the tip of a needle. You'll feel the metal, and those are your regular nerve cells. But you won't feel any pain. Now, the harder you push against the needle, the closer you get to the nociceptor threshold. Push hard enough, and you'll cross that threshold and the nociceptors fire, telling your body to stop doing whatever you're doing. But the pain threshold isn't set in stone. Certain chemicals can tune nociceptors, lowering their threshold for pain. When cells are damaged, they and other nearby cells start producing these tuning chemicals like crazy, lowering the nociceptors' threshold to the point where just touch can cause pain. And this is where over-the-counter painkillers come in. Aspirin and ibuprofen block production of one class of these tuning chemicals, called prostaglandins. Let's take a look at how they do that. When cells are damaged, they release a chemical called arachidonic acid. And two enzymes called COX-1 and COX-2 convert this arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H2, which is then converted into a bunch of other chemicals that do a bunch of things, including raise your body temperature, cause inflammation and lower the pain threshold. Now, all enzymes have an active site. That's the place in the enzyme where the reaction happens. The active sites of COX-1 and COX-2 fit arachidonic acid very cozily. As you can see, there is no room to spare. Now, it's in this active site that aspirin and ibuprofen do their work. So, they work differently. Aspirin acts like a spine from a porcupine. It enters the active site and then breaks off, leaving half of itself in there, totally blocking that channel and making it impossible for the arachidonic acid to fit. This permanently deactivates COX-1 and COX-2. Ibuprofen, on the other hand, enters the active site, but doesn't break apart or change the enzyme. COX-1 and COX-2 are free to spit it out again, but for the time that that ibuprofen is in there, the enzyme can't bind arachidonic acid, and can't do its normal chemistry. But how do aspirin and ibuprofen know where the pain is? Well, they don't. Once the drugs are in your bloodstream, they are carried throughout your body, and they go to painful areas just the same as normal ones. So that's how aspirin and ibuprofen work. But there are other dimensions to pain. Neuropathic pain, for example, is pain caused by damage to our nervous system itself; there doesn't need to be any sort of outside stimulus. And scientists are discovering that the brain controls how we respond to pain signals. For example, how much pain you feel can depend on whether you're paying attention to the pain, or even your mood. Pain is an area of active research. If we can understand it better, maybe we can help people manage it better.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
arachidonic acid	4
active site	3
nerve cells	2
pain threshold	2

Important Words

acid
active
acts
arachidonic
area
areas
aspirin
attention
beach
bind
block
blocking
bloodstream
body
brain
break
breaks
bunch
called
carried
case
caused
causing
cells
change
channel
chemical
chemicals
chemistry
class
closer
conduct
controls
convert
converted
cool
cord
cozily
crazy
cross
damage
damaged
deactivates
depend
detectors
differently
dimensions
discomfort
discovering
drugs
early
electrical
enters
enzyme
enzymes
extreme
eyes
feel
fire
fit
free
gently
grow
hand
hard
harder
healthy
human
hurt
ibuprofen
impossible
including
inflammation
information
install
internal
joints
leaving
located
lowering
making
manage
metal
mood
muscles
nearby
needle
nerve
nervous
neuropathic
nociceptor
nociceptors
normal
organs
pain
painful
painkillers
paying
people
permanently
place
point
porcupine
producing
production
prostaglandin
prostaglandins
protects
push
raise
reaction
regular
release
research
respond
rinse
room
sand
scientists
sending
sensation
set
signals
site
sites
skin
sort
sound
spare
specialized
spinal
spine
spit
start
stimulus
stone
stop
stretch
system
teeth
telling
temperature
threshold
time
tip
totally
touch
tune
tuning
understand
warning
work
world