A ‘brain freeze’ can also be called an ‘ice cream headache’ or ‘frozen brain syndrome’ and is most often caused by eating or drinking something cold very quickly, most particularly: ice cream. Of course most people can easily avoid this chronic problem by either slowing down their consumption of ice cream, or avoiding it al together, but humans seem to feel a great desire to ingest these foods as quickly as possible. The body reacts in protest by giving you a headache.
The actual cause of a ‘brain freeze’ is altogether logical and easy to explain. The roof of your mouth is filled with nerves, the sudden extreme coldness (remember your mouth is usually a balmy 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit) causes irritation to those nerves, which of course causes them to spasm. These nerves also cause the blood vessels in your brain to dilate, or expand, this leads to a headache. The nerve calm down fairly quickly and the blood vessels shrink quickly as well, that’s why a ‘brain freeze’ won’t last very long.
It is estimated that only 30% of the population experience ‘brain freeze’, the other 70% either don’t eat ice cream, or they eat it in a normal manner.
