How Brain Freeze Causes Intense Headaches

Ice cream is one of the best ways to cool off in the extreme heat of summer.  An ice cream cone is a wonderful treat to enjoy while sitting on your front steps unless you get an ice cream headache.  Why does a harmless treat cause a person to stop eating and grab their head in pain?Do you wonder what stimulates a brain freeze?

Ice cream is not the only thing that can cause brain freeze.  When any cold item is drank or eaten too fast it may cause brain freeze.  This will more often happen as people are attempting to cool off in the height of the summer and eat something cold, too fast.After ingesting something cold the pain will peak in thirty to sixty seconds then the pain will then recede after ten to 20 seconds after it has begun.  Rare cases have been known to last two to five minutes.

What the cause generally always has in common is that it happens when a cold liquid, water or ice cream touches the roof of your mouth.  Frozen yogurt which traditionally maintains a more liquid state than regular ice cream at lower temperatures, has been found in test subjects, to trigger brain freeze faster than ice cream, ice, or cold drinks.

There is a medical explanation for this painful and usually harmless shock. The roof of your mouth contains blood vessels which are connected to other parts of your head. Blood vessels expanding and contracting more than normal may be a brain freeze cause. Another possible cause is when these blood vessels contract they in turn can cause muscles around your head to also contract, this can cause headaches.

The blood vessels found behind the eyes have the greatest reaction response. That is why it is not uncommon to feel ice cream headaches behind our eyes.  Near the eyes the muscles are extremely sensitive, especially when the muscles near the skull unexpectedly contract.  Unlike other headaches, brain freeze is a fairly, short-lived pain.

It's been estimated that one in three people get the pain from brain freeze when eating ice cream.  It was found in some studies people who experience migraines are more likely to experience brain freeze.  But other studies have also shown the opposite.

Is there any cure for a headache caused by ice cream?

By eating and drinking cold beverages and foods more slowly prevented and taking breaks in between each bite so letting your body can adjust, brain freeze may be prevented.  Some people think sipping warm beverages will help brain freeze, but this is to the contrary.  This also causes the blood vessels to expand and contract, thus acting as another stimulus.  There is only one solution to the problem, let the pain take its course.  Remember it will be short-lived.