“Nothing burns like the cold.” ~George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

With summer just around the corner what better time to discuss something we have all experienced, that nasty short-lived but rather intense headache known as “Brain Freeze” (aka the “ice-cream headache”).  Technically, for all you Scrabble aficionados, it is known as sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, or nerve pain of the sphenopalatine ganglion.  It is a headache that is most commonly experienced with the rapid consumption, and therefore touching the roof of the mouth (palate), and swallowing of exceedingly cold foods and beverages.  It is a type of headache has an exceptionally rapid onset, and, thank goodness, an almost just as rapid resolution.  It typically appears within seconds of swallowing a super cold substance, and most often resolves in less than twenty seconds.

The mouth, including the tongue is rich with blood vessels, but eating something exceedingly cold like ice-cream, or quickly drinking an icy beverage, does not allow the mouth enough time to effectively absorb the cold.   Brain freeze is a way your body has to tell you to slow down.  According to Dwayne Godwin, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, “One thing the brain doesn’t like is for things to change, and brain freeze is a mechanism to prevent you from doing that.”

So, how does it happen?  When you consume ice cream or other exceptionally cold food or beverage too quickly you are rapidly decreasing the temperature in the back of the throat where two major arteries converge, the internal artery which runs up inside your throat, and the anterior cerebral artery, where the brain tissue begins.  The abrupt rush of cold causes increased blood flow to the brain in an attempt to maintain its temperature…a sort of built-in self-defense mechanism.  This sudden increase in flow is accompanied by an increase in size of the anterior cerebral artery which is believed to be the source of the pain brought on by a brain freeze.  Shortly thereafter, when the blood flow returns to normal and the artery returns to its usual size, the pain disappears.  It’s interesting to note that despite the literally billions of nerves in our brain, the brain itself is not able to actually feel pain.  Rather, it is the protective outer covering of the brain, known as the meninges, which contain the pain receptors.

Although scientifically exploring the cause of an ice-cream headache may seem somewhat silly, doing so has actually helped researchers better understand other forms of headaches.  In fact, recent research has implicated a similar mechanism of blood vessel expansion as seen in brain freeze with the sensory disturbance and throbbing pain phases of migraine headaches.  According to Dr. Godwin, “We can’t easily give people migraines or a cluster headache, but we can easily induce brain freeze without any long-term problems…We can learn something about headache mechanisms and extend that to our understanding to develop better treatments for patients.”

Is there a cure for brain freeze?  Well, sort of.  Remember, if you just wait several seconds it will, almost always, resolve on its own.  However, the suggested “treatment” is to assertively press your tongue against the roof of your mouth in order to quickly warm the palate.  If readily available, it would also help to immediately drink some lukewarm beverage in order to try and warm the area as well.   Others recommend quickly breathing in through your mouth and out through your nose thereby passing warm air through the nasal passages.