There’s nothing better than a cold, creamy scoop of ice cream to sweeten the summer doldrums.
And there’s nothing worse than the sharp, stabbing headache ““ technically referred to as sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia — that sometimes follows the indulgence.
Fortunately, the pain doesn’t last long ““ usually less than a minute, according to the pain management experts at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. And ice cream headaches ““ sometimes called brain freezes ““ don’t require treatment.
Unfreeze your brain
Experts don’t know exactly why people get the headaches, which occur when something cold ““ ice cream, of course, but some people also get them from cold soda, ice or other treats ““ passes across the warm roof of the mouth and back of the throat.
Experts theorize the sudden cold causes blood vessels to quickly constrict, then expand again, resulting in the intense pain sensation. The action of the blood vessels stimulates the trigeminal nerve, one of the major facial nerves, and triggers a pain response.
It’s only a theory, but it might explain why people who are prone to migraines ““ also linked to constricting blood vessels ““ also tend to get ice cream headaches, according to the Mayo.
How to stop an ice cream headache
To help ease the pain, some suggest pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth to warm the area or tilting the head back for a few seconds to help speed up blood flow. Drinking something warmer than the ice cream or cold soda might also help.
The best way to prevent ice cream headaches is to avoid ice cream.
Since that’s not likely to happen for most of us, the second-best option is to eat the cold treat slowly, and maybe let it melt just a bit so it’s not as cold when it enters your mouth, say the experts at the Mayo Clinic.
Some studies showed that test subjects who ate a small amount of ice cream in less than 30 seconds were more likely to suffer brain freeze than those subjects who ate it more slowly, but none of the studies showed a clear correlation between the speed at which subjects ate the ice cream and the incidence of the headaches.
