Brain freeze, brain freeze, cold headache or ice cream headache are all terms for a headache caused by eating very cold foods. This phenomenon usually causes a very intense and temporary pain in the head that would be best avoided! But why do we feel this pain and how can we avoid it?
Brain freeze, where does this intense pain come from?
The scientific term for brain freeze is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. So, if it suits you, I will continue to use the term. brain freezee, huh?
Le brain freeze is a pain that occurs when you quickly eat a very cold food such as ice cream or a cold drink and it touches the back of your palate. This causes the blood vessels in the area above your palate to constrict, decreasing blood flow. In response to this stimulus, a bundle of nerves in your mouth that respond to cold are activated.
Basically, what these nerves do is alert you to a change in blood flow. But when the brain receives the sensory information, things get complicated. It responds by dilating its anterior and medial arteries to keep the temperature from dropping, in an extremely painful phenomenon called "brain autoregulation."
This is why, a few seconds after eating something cold, we feel a twinge in the head. This short but intense sensation comes from the contraction and dilation of the blood vessels in the brain.
This effect, known as "brain freeze," occurs in our brain to protect it. More precisely, to protect it from a sudden drop in temperature. That's why it only appears when we eat ice cream or carbonated drinks very quickly.
STEPHANIE VERTREES, MIGRAINE SPECIALIST AT TEXAS A&M COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Can we avoid brain freeze?
Brain freezes are not dangerous and will resolve on their own, but they can be very painful. So, you might as well try to avoid them as much as possible. As seen above, the brain freeze is caused by rapid cooling of small blood vessels located at the back of the palate, so you will have to be careful when eating very cold food.
So, it is recommended to eat very cold foods very slowly so that your mouth can warm them up. Also, you should keep them at the front of your mouth while they are very cold, because it is the back of the palate that is involved in this phenomenon!
How to alleviate brain freeze?
If you haven't been able to avoid brain freeze by eating a good ice cream, there is a trick you can try to help ease the pain faster.
As soon as you start to feel a brain freeze, press your tongue to the back of your palateThe heat from your tongue will warm the small veins located in the sinuses, behind your nose, then the nerves that make up the sphenopalatine ganglion which is the origin of the headache.
Another solution is to drink or eat warmer foods to warm your mouth.
Finally, you can inhale air through the mouth and exhale it through the nostrils to warm your nasal cavities.
In short, the brain freeze, although painful, is a natural phenomenon that aims to protect your brain from a sudden drop in temperature. To avoid this unpleasant sensation, remember to consume your cold foods and drinks slowly and keep them in front of your mouth. However, if you do suffer from brain freeze, some tips simple steps can help you ease the pain quickly.
Now that you know more about the brain freeze and how to avoid it, feel free to share these tips with your loved ones to allow them to fully enjoy their frozen drinks and desserts without fearing this intense pain. And if you have other tips or experiences related to the brain freeze, we would love to hear about them in the comments of this article.
