A "brain freeze" is caused by swellings of the blood vessels in the head...

"Brain freeze" is the pain sometimes inflicted by devouring something cold like ice cream or a cold beverage, often very quickly. The reaction is (obviously) triggered by the cold ice cream or beverage; coming into contact with the roof of the mouth. It triggers nerves that give the brain the impression of a very cold environment. To heat up the brain again, blood vessels start to swell, which causes the headache-like pain for approximately 30 seconds. The temperature change in the roof of the mouth has to be rather drastic; this is why brain freeze often occurs on warm days. The pain can be relieved by putting the tongue to the roof of the mouth, which logically will heat it up. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_freeze

Brain Freeze “While ice cream headaches are usually benign and brief, migraines are occasionally triggered by the cold stimulus. Ice cream headache has been studied as an example of referred pain. Experimenting on himself, Smith characterised the features of the headache. Applying crushed ice to the palate, he found that ipsilateral temporal and orbital pain developed 20-30 seconds later. Bilateral pain occurred when the stimulus was applied in the midline. The headache could be elicited only in hot weather; attempts to reproduce the pain during the winter were unsuccessful, even with use of a cold stimulus of the same temperature. Bird et al found a similar relation with respect to site of application of the cold substance and ipsilateral occurrence of the resultant pain. Some of their subjects also experienced an associated toothache. Raskin has suggested that ice cream headache may represent a model of migraine, in that both encompass disordered thresholds to sensory stimuli. It would be of interest to determine whether antimigraine drugs that modulate serotonergic pathways have any effect on ice cream headache. No treatment is usually required, and sufferers rarely seek medical attention. Since the posterior aspect of the palate is most likely to produce the referred pain of ice cream headache, avoiding contact of the cold food with this area can effectively eliminate the symptoms. Most people arrive at such preventive measures without the advice of doctors. Ice cream abstinence is not indicated. “ http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/314/7091/1364

I get brain freezes easily when I drink something very cold or eat ice cream. What I do when I get one is: I take repeated deep breaths in an out about ten or so and this relieves the pain right away. My thinking was that the warm air from the lungs reversed the situation. Try this and let me know if it works for you. iloveorange@earthlink.net

it is the blood in your neck getting cold and going to the brain. the only time i get brain freeze is when i swollow alot of ice cream and it goes down slow. nothing to do with the roof of my mouth at all. i could get brain freeze without anything touching the roof. but if you put your hands on your neck and warm the blood going to the brain it goes away.

Too many sugery slush puppies!!

In my case I regret to say 'Brain freeze " happens any time I try to think too hard. Different kind of freeze I know but my brain freezes just the same

When something cold touches the roof of your mouth on a hot day, it triggers a cold headache. The cause is a dilation of blood vessels in the head. The dilation may be caused by a nerve center located above the roof of your mouth -- when this nerve center gets cold, it seems to over-react and tries to heat your brain. Therefore, the easy way to avoid "brain freeze" is to keep cold things away from the roof of your mouth!

Too long on AB !

i don't know, but i got it twice this afternoon, and i hate it!

It has do do with the stomach. When you eat something cold the nerves in your stomach are affected and your brain and you get an instant headache. You have something warm and it goes away just as quickly.

OMG that is an awesome question! I wish I knew the answer. I'll be watching to see if someone does!

The reaction can be sometimes triggered within a few seconds after a very cold substance consumed comes into contact with the roof of the mouth. The body's response to cold environments is to vasoconstrict the peripheral vasculature (to reduce the diameter of blood vessels). This vasoconstriction is in place to reduce blood flow to the area, and thus minimize heat loss to keep warmth in the body. After vasoconstriction, they return to normal status and artery size results in massive dilation (vasodilation) of the arteries that supply the palate (descending palatine arteries). The nerves in the region of the palate (greater and lesser palatine nerves) sense this as pain and transmit the sensation of this pain back to the trigeminal ganglia. This results in pain that is referred to the forehead and below the orbit, other regions from which the trigeminal nerve receives sensation (This phenomenon is partially similar to the referred pain that is present in the left arm when someone is having a myocardial infarction). A similar effect occurs when one takes a prescription vasodilator, such as Nitroglycerin or Viagra. It is a stabbing or aching type of pain that usually recedes within 10–20 seconds after its onset, but sometimes 30–60 seconds, and can persist for up to five minutes in rare cases. The pain is usually located in the midfrontal area, but can be unilateral in the temporal, frontal, or retro-orbital regions :)

Richard Simmons. ... Nah, really, lol. When the cold matter enters your mouth (or the back of your mouth), your body responds to the sudden drop in temperature by constricting your blood vessels to increase blood flow and minimize heat loss. The blood vessels then stop being constricted and this release is interpreted by the brain as pain, giving you the unique sensation. Hope this helps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_freeze

I found this on wisegeek.com.... One minute you're enjoying your favorite frozen beverage or ice cream cone, and the next minute you're experiencing an excruciating headache which seems to originate from the middle of your skull. This is the dreaded phenomenon known as "brain freeze," or ice cream headache. Some experts suggest that up to 1/3 of the population is susceptible to brain freeze, especially when eating a frozen treat too quickly on a warm day. The pain of brain freeze is similar to that of a migraine headache, but thankfully most attacks last 30 seconds or less. So what actually causes brain freeze? Researchers suggest it is a combination of your body's overreaction to cold stimuli, freezing of a cluster of nerves above the palate and a sudden influx of warm blood to the brain. Eating all of that ice cream or slushy drink too quickly didn't help matters, either. In fact, it was the initial contact between the cold food and the roof of your mouth which set all of this brain freeze activity in motion. When you took an extra large bite of ice cream, some of it reached the roof of your mouth, also known as the hard palate. Behind this hard palate lies a cluster of nerves which act as a protective thermostat of sorts for your brain. The main nerve is called the sphenopalatine nerve, and it's extremely sensitive to abrupt changes in temperature. Once the ice cream or other frozen food causes the sphenopalatine nerve to cool down, it sends out a warning to the other nerves in the cluster. Essentially, your brain has now been told to expect a major freeze, so it had better prepare itself. Your brain doesn't actually freeze during a "brain freeze" episode, but the sphenopalatine nerve cluster didn't know that at the time. The blood vessels surrounding the brain suddenly shrink as a reaction to the cold stimuli, or more precisely overreact. The result for you is a pounding headache which seems to radiate from the sinus area or behind your eyes. The pain is not necessarily triggered by the dilation of the blood vessels, but by the influx of warm blood which forces the vessels open again. While all of these blood vessels are busy shrinking and reopening with warm blood, the nerves are also contributing to the pain of brain freeze. The pain receptors near the sphenopalatine nerve cluster sense the freezing of the palate, but the pain itself is referred to another area deeper in the skull. This is why you feel brain freeze deep inside your head and not in the roof of your mouth. One of the quickest ways to reduce the duration of brain freeze is to place your tongue on the roof of your mouth to warm the palate. Once the palate becomes warm again, the nerve clusters are no longer stimulated and they will call off the brain freeze warning. Drinking sips of warm water will also minimize the effects of brain freeze, as will eating frozen foods slowly and avoiding contact with the roof of your mouth.

K.This is weird,3 times now,when I get a brain freeze that always results in blacking out.Yesterday it happened again..now Im sporting a b;lack eye from my face hitting the curb.Should I go into urgent care and tell them ,I was sitting on a curb,had a brain freeze,blacked out and hit face first into the curb,how embarassing.Guess Ill go..I have a heart prob.meds,and blood thinners,would this have any to do with it?? STOP LAUGHIN AND HELP ME!!

When something cold touches the roof of your mouth, it triggers a cold headache. The cause is a dilation of blood vessels in the head. The dilation may be caused by a nerve center located above the roof of your mouth -- when this nerve center gets cold, it seems to over-react and tries to heat your brain causing the dreaded "brain freeze".. Therefore, the easy way to avoid "brain freeze" is to keep cold things away from the roof of your mouth! http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/314/7091/1364 http://www.myslurpeecup.com/brainfreeze.html http://www.thebrainfreeze.com/

When something cold touches the roof of your mouth, it triggers a cold headache. The cause is a dilation of blood vessels in the head. The dilation may be caused by a nerve center located above the roof of your mouth -- when this nerve center gets cold, it seems to over-react and tries to heat your brain causing the dreaded "brain freeze".. Therefore, the easy way to avoid "brain freeze" is to keep cold things away from the roof of your mouth! http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/314/7091/1364 http://www.myslurpeecup.com/brainfreeze.html http://www.thebrainfreeze.com/

I don't know the answer but I get severe migraines, but have never had brain freeze. I've tried putting cold things (ice cream, freezies, etc.) on the roof of my mouth and it never works. Even when I was a kid. Freaky!

An editorial was published in the British Medical Journal[1] on ice cream headache; it referenced several articles on the effect of rapid consumption of cold foods or beverages. It has been studied as an example of referred pain, an unpleasant sensation localised to an area separate from the site of the painful stimulation. The effect occurs when something very cold, such as ice cream, touches the top palate in the mouth. The blood vessels constrict due to the cold. This makes the nerves send a signal to the brain to open blood vessels. But this rapid opening of the blood vessels makes fluid back up in the tissues that won't drain for thirty seconds to a minute. This causes a slight swelling in the forehead that causes pain.

Slushies

ninja's

Math and any languages other than English and Spanish.

slush puppies

I've never had it before, I really don't get what it's all about.

I don't have a brain, so I don't have to worry about brain freeze...

Cranial refrigeration.

I don't think I ever had one, but I honestly don't exactly what it means.

Drinking or eating something that is cold and it rushes to the head and gives a pain known as brain freeze.

My frozen margaritas. I don't use ice. I freeze strawberries and blend the tequila and margarita mix with that. The frozen strawberries emit cold longer than the ice, because the damned things don't melt. But what a SWEET ride...

Dairy Queen Blizzards

Slurpin down a slushie

Drinking a grape slush from the Sonic! Very good though,the slush I mean.

Those screaming blue slusshies are a brain cell killer if I have ever encountered one.

I know someone who has false teeth and anything cold doesn't touch the roof of her mouth ever but she still gets brain freeze.

too much ice cream too fast

ice creamm!

Math! +5

Nerves, Tiredness Or it could just be I have a ditz moment.

7-11 sluprees!

Very cold drinks:)

Slupee from 7-Eleven.

slush puppy or ice of any sort!

Eating ice cream too fast!

It is caused by quickly eating or drinking very cold substances. It is the result of the rapid cooling and rewarming of the blood vessels on the roof of the mouth. It only happens when it is hot outside, you cannot get it on cold days.

This is my research assignment to my N104 subject... It is commonly experienced when applying to the roof of the mouth (palate) or when swallowing it.Typically the headache appears in about 10 seconds and lasts about 20 seconds although some people experience much longer lapses of pain, with the pain seeming to relate to the same side of the head as the cold substance was applied to the palate, or to both sides of the head in the case of swallowing. The most effective way to prevent it is to consume the cold food or liquid at a slower rate. Keeping it in one's mouth long enough for the palate to become used to the temperature is also an effective preventative.