Q: Why does my head hurt when I eat ice cream?

Answer:

People have described a “brain freeze” as a stabbing or aching pain on the forehead that usually lasts 10 to 20 seconds. It happens often during the summer, after a quick lick of ice cream, bite of a snow cone, slurp of milk shake and anything else cold.

Scientists have discovered that when something cold touches the roof of your mouth, nerve endings shoot up warnings to other nerves that are in charge of protecting your brain. These other nerves work instantly to get your brain back to a normal temperature of 98.6ºF by stretching the blood vessels in your head, eventually causing the headache after 30 to 60 seconds of eating or drinking.

Ice cream headaches are rarely serious, and they should go away quickly. It’s easy to avoid them altogether, as long you let your tongue do the work and not the roof of your mouth.

Tadeusz F. Poplawski, M.D.
Child & Adult Neurology and Durham Regional Hospital

Activities:

Survey It!

Take a survey of your classmates to determine how many students have experienced a “brain freeze.” Make a Venn diagram to chart your results. Questions to ask: 1) Have you experienced a brain freeze? 2) If so, how long did the pain last?

Did You Know?

7-Eleven (a convenience store) registered the term “brainfreeze” in 1994 to communicate the painful joy of drinking a frozen Slurpee beverage.