Of course there is nothing more disturbing the enjoyment of a glass of ice on a very hot day than the painful feeling of a brain suddenly freezing. This feeling is known as "brain freeze". This is also known as an ice cream headache, or a headache due to a cold substance attacking the vessels in the brain. The medical term is “Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia”. Fortunately, when someone is hit by a brain freeze attack, there are still ways to overcome it. With some preventative knowledge and care tips, you can still enjoy your ice cream without a headache.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Cure Brain Freeze
Step 1. Recognize the symptoms
Brain freeze is characterized by attacks of headaches that feel stabbing in the forehead. The pain will occur about 30-60 seconds from the first time the cold stimulus appears. Brain freeze will subside on its own after a few minutes (usually no more than 5 minutes).
The mechanism that causes brain freeze turns out to be closely related to migraines. If your headache doesn't go away after 5-10 minutes or if you have brain freeze symptoms even though you haven't eaten anything cold, you should see your doctor right away
Step 2. Eliminate distractions
If you've just had a cold soda or ice cream and you suddenly have a brain freeze, you should stop drinking it immediately.
Step 3. Warm the roof of your mouth with your tongue
You can immediately relieve brain freeze pain by warming the roof of your mouth (the soft palate is made up of two parts: the soft and the hard. The hard part is bony, and the soft is not). If you do it fast enough, blood flow to your brain will return to normal.
- Touch your tongue to the soft palate. If you can roll your tongue toward the back of your tongue, press the underside of the rolled-up tongue so that it touches the roof of your mouth. The bottom of your tongue may feel warmer than the other side (which must have frozen over from the Slurpee you drank).
- Some people have proven that pressing the roof of the mouth with the tongue can relieve brain freeze, so what are you waiting for? Press harder!
Step 4. Consume warm food or drink
It doesn't need to be too hot, just choose a menu that is room temperature or above the temperature of the food/beverage you normally consume.
Drink slowly and let the drink pass through the area around the oral cavity. This can warm the frozen upper cavity of your mouth
Step 5. Cover your mouth and nose with both hands
Breathe quickly, but make sure your hands are still cupped. This will increase the temperature in your mouth as your breath warms up.
Step 6. Press the roof of your mouth with your warm thumb
Make sure your hands are clean before doing this. Since your body temperature is much higher than the temperature inside your mouth suddenly freezing, the contact that occurs can help relieve pain.
Step 7. Wait a moment
Brain freezes will generally subside after 30-60 seconds. Sometimes the shock caused by brain freezes will feel more severe, but don't worry, this will also subside. You don't have to exaggerate it until it becomes a trauma for you.
Method 2 of 2: Preventing Brain Freeze
Step 1. Understand the causes of brain freeze
Surprisingly, scientists don't yet know what causes brain freezes, but recent research has revealed a solid theory. Two mechanisms are at work in your mouth, when suddenly something cold enters (for example, normal body temperature is around 36-37 degrees Celsius, but the normal temperature of ice cream is around -12 degrees Celsius).
- When you eat a very cold object too quickly, the temperature at the back of your throat, which houses the meeting point of the internal carotid artery and the anterior cerebral artery, changes rapidly and suddenly. This change in temperature causes the arteries to widen and narrow very quickly and your brain will interpret this as pain.
- When the temperature inside your mouth suddenly drops drastically, the body will quickly dilate the blood vessels in several areas to ensure that blood flow (and a feeling of warmth) goes to the brain. The anterior cerebral artery (which is in the center of your brain, just behind your eyes) expands to carry this blood to the brain. The sudden expansion of the vessels can cause a shock and pressure effect on the skull bones, resulting in a sensation of pain in the head.
Step 2. Avoid cold food from touching the roof of your mouth
This doesn't mean you have to avoid all cold foods so you don't get a brain freeze. However, bite or lick some cold food before it hits the roof of your mouth. If you are eating ice cream, use a spoon and place the spoon in a way that it does not touch the roof of your mouth when you eat.
Avoid using a straw when you drink cold drinks. Drinking a milkshake, for example, with a straw can trigger a brain freeze. If you must use a straw, keep it away from the roof of your mouth
Step 3. Eat cold food and drinks slowly
Having a quick cold drink or eating half an ice cream in one bite is fun, but they can leave you feeling sick to death from a brain freeze. In other words, eating slowly can prevent the cold from affecting the blood vessels that are startled by changes in temperature in the mouth area.
Step 4. Stop when you feel your mouth freeze
If you feel like a brain freeze is about to strike or your mouth is starting to feel very cold, stop putting food in your mouth for a while so the roof of your mouth can warm up again.
Tips
Similar to hiccup relief, the steps in this article may or may not work for everyone, but there's no harm in trying
*To avoid using the above steps, try not to swallow cold food at once. Enjoy the food and breathe between bites. Or, try to eat foods with warmer temperatures.
- When eating ice cream with a spoon, exhale into your mouthful of ice cream before eating it. Your warm breath will slightly raise the temperature of the ice cream.
- Brain freeze is more common when it's hot outside. This will cause a large difference between the temperature inside the mouth and outside. Even so, headaches due to brain freeze can occur at any time.
- Don't eat ice cream in one bite!
Warning
- Don't touch your palatine uvula (which looks like a "punching bag" hanging down the back of your throat). This will trigger the reflex to want to vomit.
- If you are prone to migraines, avoid consuming and drinking something that is too cold, because sometimes a brain freeze can trigger migraines in some people.
