You take a huge bite of ice cream on a hot day. For one second, nothing happens. Then a pain hits your forehead, as if someone pressed a cold finger right into your brain. You grab your head and squeeze your eyes shut. Three seconds later, it is gone. What just happened in those three seconds?
This strange headache has a name: brain . Doctors call it a "cold stimulus headache." Nearly everyone has felt it at least once. It lasts only a few seconds, yet those seconds feel terrible. So what this tiny attack?
The cold does not need to reach your . The problem starts higher up, at the roof of your mouth. When ice cream sits there, it drops the of the tissue very quickly. Your body does not like changes. The vessels near that area — they open wide to rush warm blood upward and protect the brain.
Then, just as fast, those vessels again. This change sends a through a large called the trigeminal nerve, which covers both the roof of your mouth and your forehead. When the brain receives the signal, it cannot tell where the trouble started. It reads the as coming from the forehead. Scientists call this "referred pain."
Why does the body do this at all? Some scientists believe it is a way of you. Too much cold near the brain could be dangerous, so the headache forces you to stop eating for a moment. Your body cannot send you a text message, so it sends pain instead.
The good news is that comes fast. Next time brain freeze hits, your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth. The warmth heats the tissue back up, the vessels calm down, and the pain fades within seconds. Now you can finish your ice cream. Just take smaller bites this time.
