| Who hasn't ran up to that jangling truck and | | | | Cream Headache |
| bought an frozen treat, only to eat it too fast, | | | | Researchers have little knowledge of why we get |
| and end up with a headache. I know I have, more | | | | ice cream headaches, but they do have some |
| times than I could count. | | | | theories. |
| It's quite amusing to consider the fact that there's | | | | One such theory is that the nerve that controls |
| a headache named after such an innocent, sweet | | | | sensations, the glossopharyngeal nerve, causes |
| and creamy treat. | | | | the headache pain. When the cold of the food |
| I found it interesting to learn that the "ice cream | | | | touches the palate, tonsils, or pharynx, this nerve |
| headache" is more than a common turn of | | | | interprets the intense cold instead as pain. |
| phrase. | | | | Other researchers instead blame the palate, or |
| In 1850, almost 150 years after ice cream was | | | | the roof of your mouth. |
| first made, Daniel Drake first recorded the | | | | Because there are so many nerves and blood |
| phenomenon of it upsetting eater's stomachs, of | | | | vessels located inside your mouth, your palate is |
| making them overly cold, or causing pain in the | | | | extremely sensitive to cold. When you take a sip |
| pharynx. He was also the author of "Principal | | | | of your slushy, the blood vessels in the palate |
| Diseases of North America", though the ice cream | | | | swell that makes your head ache. |
| headache was not among those conditions | | | | To avoid getting brain freeze, consider eating |
| described in the book! | | | | your cold food more slowly at first, until your |
| When you eat any ice cold food, brain freeze | | | | mouth is accustomed to the temperature. You |
| sometimes sets in. A headache starts very | | | | can also move the food from side to side in your |
| rapidly, peaking after only 20 to 40 seconds, and | | | | mouth, trying to avoid the palate area. |
| disappearing soon afterward, in most people. | | | | (Some people suggest warming up your cold |
| Some unfortunate souls live with their ice cream | | | | food, but that just seems silly to me.) |
| headache for as much as 5 minutes before it | | | | One good thing to know is that ice cream |
| subsides. | | | | headaches are temporary, and they're not |
| Ice cream headache pain is usually located toward | | | | dangerous at all. No long-term damage results |
| the middle of a person's forehead, though the pain | | | | from experiencing brain freeze. And while it may |
| can be felt anywhere. I actually often feel it in my | | | | make sense to try to avoid them, in some ways, |
| temples, and some other people will feel it in their | | | | it's part of the fun, and magic, of an frozen treat |
| eyes. | | | | on a hot summer day... |
| One Third of All Americans experience an Ice | | | | |