Why Do We Get Brain Freeze?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- You know when you eat ice cream too fast? You get a searing, screeching, scorching headache. It hurts -- but only for a minute.
Ray from Andover wants to know why.
Experts aren't exactly sure what's behind the brain freeze or cold stimulus headache -- also called sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia -- but they do have a theory.
When something cold touches our mouth or throat, the blood vessels there constrict and dilate very quickly.
The pain receptors in that area also feel it and send that message to the brain. It uses a nerve that carries signals from the face, so the brain thinks the pain is coming from your forehead rather than your mouth.
That's called referred pain. Like if you have a heart attack but it's your shoulder that hurts.
There's really no way to stop brain freeze. Just slow down when you're eating ice cream or popsicles or slushies or ice-cold water.