A question that bothers quite a few people at some point in their lives concerns the sharp pain felt between the temples after a bite of too much ice cream, or as it is popularly called brain-freeze.
A question that bothers quite a few people at some point in their lives concerns the sharp pain felt between the temples after a bite of too much ice cream, or as it is popularly called brain-freeze.
Reporter Bjorn Curry from a magazine Popular Science He tried to answer the burning question and turned to medical experts to give their opinion on the matter. Unsurprisingly (and perhaps yes), no systematic research was conducted to find out the meaning of the mysterious pain. But it turns out that medicine did bother to give it a name: "ice-cream headache".
Among the doctors and scientists, two possible explanations for the origin of the pain are accepted: the first claims that the cold from the ice cream causes blood vessels in the sinuses to constrict, which damages the blood flow in a similar way to what happens during a migraine, and therefore pain is felt. The second explanation is overstimulation of the fifth cranial nerve (trigeminal) which is responsible for the sensation in the face. The nerve passes through the mouth and is therefore exposed to the cold of the ice cream.
The good news, in case you were worried that the pain might cause some brain damage, is that it doesn't. Here are two reassuring explanations: a. The two accepted explanations for the formation of pain are not related to the brain. B. Doctors routinely lower the temperature of the brain during certain surgeries. So far, no direct damage has been recorded as a result of the cold, the brain returns to full activity with the increase in temperature.
Comments
to me:
I recently got to watch the movie "The World Is Not Enough" from the James Bond film series. One of the characters there has no ability to feel anything. Encouraged! you are not alone.
You probably have no brain
But it's not pain that all people have..some people don't have "brain freeze"
for me,
I have never had such pain in my life.
I can drink a glass of ice cream in seconds, and I eat ice cream very quickly (both in winter and in summer) and I never felt any pain like that..
as suffering from sinusitis,
I have no doubt that such pain appears with much greater intensity when the sinuses are "clogged"
Really interesting! It's good to see that you write in other places besides the blog.
A glass of water and the pain disappears immediately
Great article 🙂 Thanks
Every now and then it's good to refresh yourself from digging letters 😉
The name is misleading. The headache occurs when the ice cream slides down the throat and away from the brain. It is not the brain that freezes, but the swallowing tube that is exposed to the low temperature