Word: constricting
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...first, the effects of serotonin seemed confined to the body alone: it was found to trigger contractions in the muscles and intestines and to regulate blood pressure by forcing blood vessels to constrict. But experiments at the National Institutes of Health in the 1950s revealed that compounds that depressed serotonin levels depressed patients as well. Not long after, researchers found two more clues to the serotonin-depression connection. The first was that reserpine, an anti-blood-pressure medicine that depresses serotonin levels, can sometimes trigger depression. The second came from iproniazid, originally developed as an anti-tuberculosis agent. The medicine...
...same, medically speaking. Tension headaches, which are the easiest to treat, are triggered by clenched muscles in the head and neck. Migraines, which generate a throbbing pain that is sometimes preceded by an "aura" and can last 12 to 24 hours, are produced by blood vessels that alternately constrict and expand. Cluster headaches are even worse than migraines--if you can imagine such a thing--and scientists suspect that overactive blood vessels play a role in them too. One of the hallmarks of cluster headaches is that they strike in cycles. A victim, typically a man, may experience three...
BETTER DRUGS Researchers have long known that a brain chemical called serotonin plays an important role in triggering migraine headaches. For reasons that are still unclear, serotonin sometimes floods the blood vessels of the brain, causing them to constrict. The body then overreacts, sending serotonin levels plummeting and forcing the blood vessels to expand to several times their normal size. This cycle of contraction and expansion results in the headache's characteristic throbbing pain. In 1993 Glaxo introduced a drug called Imitrex that allowed doctors for the first time to prescribe something that was specifically designed to interrupt the cycle...
...heat on. The risk of heart attack--a major cause of postoperative death--can be cut in half by warming a patient to normal temperatures during SURGERY. Body temperature tends to plummet during an operation, which can cause arteries to constrict and blood pressure to soar. The cost of warming up? Just $15 for a special no-chill blanket...
...ordinary headache, a migraine results when tightened blood vessels in the brain repeatedly expand, squeeze surrounding nerves and then constrict again, resulting in excruciating pain that often leaves sufferers unable to function for days at a time. Migraines are triggered by a variety of sources, from caffeine to changes in weather to menstrual periods--catalysts, doctors believe, that result in a flood of serotonin that causes blood vessels in the brain to contract. Some of the more than 23 million Americans who suffer from migraines can find relief in a new drug, sumatriptan succinate, which blocks serotonin and prevents vessels...