Brain freeze, cold headache, ice cream headache, shakeache, frigid face, freezie, Frozen Brain Syndrome, cold-stimulus headache, or its given scientific name sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia are terms used to describe a form of cranial pain or headache which people are known to sometimes experience after consuming cold beverages or foods such as ice cream, slurpees, or margaritas, particularly when consumed quickly. A live creation by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist (from Jurassic 5) of hit funk, soul, rock and jazz singles on 45 rpm vinyl records. ... Cranium can mean: The brain and surrounding skull, a part of the body. ... Pain redirects here. ... A headache (cephalalgia in medical terminology) is a condition of pain in the head; sometimes neck or upper back pain may also be interpreted as a headache. ... The word drink is primarily a verb, meaning to ingest liquids. ... Missing image Ice cream is often served on a stick Boxes of ice cream are often found in stores in a display freezer. ... In 1967, 7-Eleven licensed the frozen carbonated beverage from the ICEE Company, and began selling the product as the Slurpee. ... For other uses, see Margarita (disambiguation). ...

Mechanism and cause

The reaction is usually triggered within a few seconds after a very cold consumed substance comes into contact with the roof of the mouth. The pain is not caused by the cold temperature alone, but rather, quick warming of the hard palate. Letting the mouth slowly return to normal temperature can prevent this from occurring. Brain freeze is often a result of speaking or breathing out of the mouth after consuming something cold. The body's response to cold environments is to vasoconstrict the peripheral vasculature (to reduce the diameter of blood vessels). This vasoconstriction takes place to reduce blood flow to the area and thus minimize the body's heat loss. After vasoconstriction, the vessels return to their normal state, resulting in massive dilation (vasodilation) of the arteries that supply the palate (descending palatine arteries). The nerves in the region of the palate (greater and lesser palatine nerves) sense this as pain and transmit that sensation back to the trigeminal ganglia. This results in pain that is referred to the forehead and below the orbit, and other regions from which the trigeminal nerve receives sensation. (This phenomenon is similar to the pain that is present in the left arm when someone is having a myocardial infarction or heart attack). A similar effect occurs when one takes a prescription vasodilator, such as Nitroglycerin or Viagra. It is a stabbing or aching type of pain that usually recedes within 10–20 seconds after its onset, but sometimes may last 30–60 seconds; in rare cases it can persist for up to five minutes. The pain is usually located in the midfrontal area, but can be unilateral in the temporal, frontal, or retro-orbital regions.^{[citation needed]} The hard palate is a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull, otherwise known as the palatine process of the maxilla, located in the roof of the mouth. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In anatomy, the orbit is the cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated. ... The trigeminal nerve is the fifth (V) cranial nerve, and carries sensory information from most of the face, as well as motor supply to the muscles of mastication (the muscles enabling chewing), tensor tympani (in the middle ear), and other muscles in the floor of the mouth, such as the... Heart attack redirects here. ... A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ... Vasodilation is where blood vessels in the body become wider following the relaxation of the smooth muscle in the vessel wall. ... Nitroglycerin (NG), also known as nitroglycerine, trinitroglycerin, and glyceryl trinitrate, is a chemical compound. ... // ...

It has been reported that the pain can be relieved by moving the tongue to the roof of the mouth,^[1] which will cause greater warmth in the region; it is also believed that the pain can be relieved by slowly sipping room temperature water. Laying the head to the side may also provide relief. Creating a mask with one's hands placed over the mouth and nose while breathing rapidly is also said to be useful since the temperature in the mouth rises quickly. A report was submitted to the British Medical Journal on brain freeze; it focused on the effect of speed of consumption of ice cream on causing brain freeze. Commonly referred to as "ice cream headaches," it has been studied as an example of referred pain,^[2] an unpleasant sensation localized to an area separate from the site of the painful stimulation. This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... For other uses, see Temperature (disambiguation). ... The British Medical Journal (BMJ) is a medical journal published weekly in the United Kingdom by the British Medical Association (BMA)which published its first issue in 1845. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

It has been estimated that "30% of the population" experiences brain freeze or freeze head from ice cream.^[3] Some studies suggest that brain freeze is more common in people who experience migraines. Raskin and Knittle found this to be the case, with brain freeze occurring in 93% of migraine sufferers and in only 31% of controls. However, other studies found that it is more common in people without migraines.^{[citation needed]} These inconsistencies may be due to differences in subject selection: the subjects of the first study were drawn from a hospital population, whereas the controls in the second were student volunteers, making the tests inconclusive.^{[citation needed]} It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with scientific control. ...

References

External links

• "Ice cream evoked headaches (ICE-H) study: randomised trial of accelerated versus cautious ice cream eating regimen"