Exploring the Wonders of the Human Anatomy
Have you ever experienced a sudden, sharp headache when eating or drinking something very cold, like ice cream or a Slurpee? This is called brain freeze, and it is a brief but painful headache that generally lasts less than thirty seconds.
You usually experience brain freeze while eating or drinking something very cold, too fast. When something very cold touches the roof of your mouth (the palate), the sudden temperature change of the tissue stimulates nerves to cause the blood vessels in your brain to swell. This is an attempt to direct blood to the cold area in order to warm it up. The swelling of the blood vessels is what causes the pain in the head.
Doctor Talk
The medical term for brain freeze, also known as the “ice cream headache,” is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, which means “nerve pain of the sphenopalatine ganglion(a bundle of nerves located deep in the face).”
Brain Freeze Relief Tips
To relieve the pain of a brain freeze, you need to warm up the roof of your mouth for the blood vessels to constrict. The quickest way to accomplish this is by pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Other easy ways to relieve the pain is by drinking a warm liquid, or by breathing in through the mouth and exhaling through the nose, thereby allowing warm air to pass through the nasal passages.
To prevent having a brain freeze altogether, remember to consume cold foods slowly and to pause between bites or sips to give your palate a break from the cold.
10, 9, 8, 7, …
Brain freeze typically hits about ten seconds after chilling your palate.
FACT or FICTION???
Everyone is equally likely to get brain freeze.
This is false! Some people are more sensitive due to nerve response or sinus structure.