Quizzes & Puzzles1 min ago
Brain Freeze
50 Answers
Why when Im drinking a slushy COLD drink does my brain get a striking pain? (brain freeze) What cause's brain freeze? How can something cold going into your tummy effect something in your brain to hurt?
Thanks for your help!
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Ok I found a website.. this woman waffles on abit but she tells me some stuff too:
Brain freeze, also known as ice cream headache, is experienced by about 30 percent of the general population. What happens, for those of you who haven't suffered, is that your head starts to stab for about 20 seconds after you've wolfed down something good and cold. Ice cream is a common culprit, but Slurpees, really cold soda, and other frosty things can do it to you, too.
According to the British Medical Journal, the pain is usually in the "midfrontal" area, but it can also get you on either side or on the back of your head. In rare cases, it can smart for a whole five minutes, but it's usually over within seconds.
The author of the report is Joseph Hulihan, an assistant professor at the appropriately named Temple University. Hulihan describes an experiment in which a subject placed crushed ice on the roof of his mouth to see if he could give himself brain freeze. Hulihan reports that he did, but only during periods of warm weather. Hmm.
But why, if the ice cream is in your mouth and digestive tract, does your head hurt? It's what is called referred pain, or pain that is felt someplace other than where it is caused. Heart attacks, for example, sometimes cause pain in the left arm. But you know your heart isn't in your arm (although it can sometimes feel as if it's in your mouth or your stomach).
With brain freeze, the cold substance causes pain when it crosses your palate (the roof of your mouth), and this pain is "referred" to your head.
Does that help anyone? C'mon.. surely between the four of us we can work it out?
Most people have experienced the dreaded ice cream headache at some point. You are minding your own business, eating something like an ice cream cone, a milk shake, a Slurpee, a snow cone... Then, suddenly you are hit with the most excruciating headache! Fortunately it only lasts about 30 seconds.
So where does this headache come from?
This article by Joseph Hulihan contains some great information. Here's a summary: When something cold touches the roof of your mouth on a hot day, it triggers a cold headache. The cause is a dilation of blood vessels in the head. The dilation may be caused by a nerve center located above the roof of your mouth -- when this nerve center gets cold, it seems to over-react and tries to heat your brain.
Therefore, the easy way to avoid "brain freeze" is to keep cold things away from the roof of your mouth!
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