Headache?

April 23rd, 2022| Topic: RaMbLeS | 3

If you thought you were the only one getting more headaches these days, you’d be mistaken. No, you’re not alone. Apparently more than half the entire global population is suffering from some form of headache disorder.

So proclaimeth scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, and Imperial College London, London, in “The Global Prevalence of Headache: An Update, with Analysis of the Influences of Methodological Factors on Prevalence Estimates,” published in The Journal of Headache and Pain a couple of weeks ago.

They studied 357 publications between 1961 and 2020 that had prevalence data on headaches, using the search phrases “headache epidemiology,” “migraine epidemiology,” “headache prevalence,” or “migraine prevalence.”

Globally, an active headache disorder of any type was present in 52.0% of the populations studied (males 44.4%, females 57.8%).”

Highest was in Latin America (61%) and the lowest in Southeast Asia (39%). Most adults, aged 20 to 65 (including some children as young as 5), reported headaches of some sort.

With all that is going on in the world today, this is not at all surprising.

My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
My God, I call by day, but You do not answer;
and by night, but there is no silence for me.
Psalm 22:1–2

God is far, but suffering is near; God is silent, but suffering is loud (there is “no silence” for the sufferer). Interestingly enough, the petition is not actually a plea for help, but for understanding: “Why?”

In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You saved them.
To You they cried out and they were liberated;
In You they trusted, and they were not ashamed.
Psalm 22:4–5

The forefathers “trusted” and they were saved. “But I”?

But I am a worm and not a human,
a reproach of mankind and despised by people.
All who see me mock me. …
I have been poured out like water,
And all my bones have been dislocated;
my heart has become like wax;
it has melted in the middle of my insides.
Psalm 22:6–7, 14

The plight of the psalmist is so threatening that that he is unable to hold himself together; he is disintegrating, being poured out like water, bones dislocating, heart melting, strength drying, tongue paralyzing, lying in the dust of death. Worse than any headache! Jesus’s application of portions of this psalm to his sufferings on the cross makes this lament even more poignant.

But You, Yahweh, be not far away;
my strength, hasten to my help.
Psalm 22:19

And then suddenly one lands upon …

You answered me!
Psalm 22:21

The faith of the sufferer is evident: God has answered (with a promise of deliverance?) and God will keep his word, so everyone rejoices already!

I will recount Your name to my kindred;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise You. …
They will eat and worship, all the prosperous of the earth;
Before His presence they will bow, all those who go down to the dust
and he [who] cannot keep his soul alive.
[Their] descendants will serve Him;
it will be recounted of the Lord to the [future] generation.
Psalm 22:22, 29–30

Even those near death, would, post-deliverance, be able to eat and worship in the company of God’s people. And not only that, their descendants and future generations and those yet to be born would continue to do so to, a vision transcending both space and time!

Headaches begone!

SOURCE:
The Journal of Headache and Pain; Fox News