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 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 dectertos are specialized nerve cells claled nociceptors that stretch from your spinal cord to your skin, your muscles, your joints, your teeth and some of your iatenrnl organs. Just like all nerve cells, they conduct eeacrtilcl signals, sending information from wherever they're located back to your biarn. But, unlike other nerve cells, nociceptors only fire if something happens that could cause or is causing damage. So, gently tcouh the tip of a needle. You'll feel the metal, and those are your ralegur nerve cells. But you won't feel any pain. Now, the hedarr you push against the nedlee, the closer you get to the nociceptor thoslrehd. Push hard enough, and you'll cross that threshold and the nociceptors fire, tniellg your body to stop doing whatever you're doing. But the pain threshold isn't set in stone. Certain chemicals can tune nperocotcis, lowering their threshold for pain. When cells are damaged, they and other nearby cells start producing these tuinng chemicals like czary, lrewinog 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 bolck production of one clsas of these tuning chemicals, called prostaglandins. Let's take a look at how they do that. When cells are dmeagad, they release a chemical called adhcinoairc acid. And two enzymes called COX-1 and COX-2 cvnoret this arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H2, which is then converted into a bunch of other chemicals that do a bunch of things, ilincnudg raise your body temperature, cause inflammation and lower the pain threshold. Now, all enmzyes have an aictve 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 cloizy. 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 spnie from a porcupine. It enters the active site and then breaks off, leinvag half of itself in there, tollaty blocking that channel and mkinag it impossible for the arachidonic acid to fit. This permanently dtcvaeieats 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 apirsin 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 pnfiual 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 sitceistns are discovering that the brain controls how we ronpesd 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 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 _________ are specialized nerve cells ______ nociceptors that stretch from your spinal cord to your skin, your muscles, your joints, your teeth and some of your ________ organs. Just like all nerve cells, they conduct __________ signals, sending information from wherever they're located back to your _____. But, unlike other nerve cells, nociceptors only fire if something happens that could cause or is causing damage. So, gently _____ the tip of a needle. You'll feel the metal, and those are your _______ nerve cells. But you won't feel any pain. Now, the ______ you push against the ______, the closer you get to the nociceptor _________. Push hard enough, and you'll cross that threshold and the nociceptors fire, _______ your body to stop doing whatever you're doing. But the pain threshold isn't set in stone. Certain chemicals can tune ___________, lowering their threshold for pain. When cells are damaged, they and other nearby cells start producing these ______ chemicals like _____, ________ 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 _____ production of one _____ of these tuning chemicals, called prostaglandins. Let's take a look at how they do that. When cells are _______, they release a chemical called ___________ acid. And two enzymes called COX-1 and COX-2 _______ this arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H2, which is then converted into a bunch of other chemicals that do a bunch of things, _________ raise your body temperature, cause inflammation and lower the pain threshold. Now, all _______ have an ______ 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 ______. 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 _____ from a porcupine. It enters the active site and then breaks off, _______ half of itself in there, _______ blocking that channel and ______ 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 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 _______ 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 _______ 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 __________ are discovering that the brain controls how we _______ 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
regular
brain
damaged
touch
active
threshold
internal
scientists
telling
called
leaving
tuning
spine
harder
enzymes
detectors
lowering
block
deactivates
needle
crazy
totally
arachidonic
making
convert
nociceptors
including
electrical
respond
cozily
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