Foranyone who has experienced the dull ache in their head after slurping an ice cream cone on a warm summer's day, the terms brain freeze or cold headache are probably not unfamiliar. However, did you know that an ice cream headache had a technical name as well?
An ice cream headache can also be referred to as Spheno Palatine Gangleoneuralgia. This type of headache is unique in that it occurs only after eating or drinking a food or beverage. These foods and beverages are not limited to ice cream; in fact, they can include many other cold or frozen foods, such as margaritas or slurpees. When these items are consumer quickly, the chance of acquiring an ice cream headache increases.
The Science Behind an Ice Cream Headache
When a cold food or beverage touches the roof of your mouth. This causes a group of nerves located on the roof of your mouth, known as pterygopalatine ganglion, to begin to spasm. These nerves send instructions to the blood vessels in the brain to dilate. Because headaches are caused by dilated blood vessels in the brain, this causes you to experience an ice cream headache.
Hank: It ain’t gonna be a bit different than it was in Redding, P. A. And we’re going over just as big.
Queenie: Oh, Hank. Do you think so?
Hank: Why it’s cream in the can, baby!
—James Gleason (1886–1959)
The resulting ice cream headache typically ends within ten to twenty seconds; however, some ice cream headaches last fifteen to sixty seconds, and in rare cases an ice cream headache could last up to five minutes! The pain caused by this headache has been classified as "referred pain." Referred pain occurs when the site of the pain is different from the region where the pain was simulated.
Relieve the Pain
There are several methods that can be used to reduce the pain that comes from an ice cream headache. Some people say that the pain can be stopped by moving the tongue to the roof of your mouth in order to bring warmth to the area. Others say that, when sipped slowly, water at room temperature will do the trick. Laying your head to one side, and breathing rapidly while covering your mouth are also two suggested ways to overcome the pain caused by an ice cream headache.
How Common is an Ice Cream Headache?
It is ... useful to distinguish between the pornographic, condemned in every society, and the bawdy, the ribald, the shared vulgarities and jokes, which are the safety valves of most social systems. Pornography is a most doubtful safety valve. In extreme cases it may feed the perverted imagination of the doomed man who starts by pulling a little girl’s braid and ends by cutting off a little girl’s head, as each increasing stimulus loses its effectiveness and must be replaced by a more extreme one. This is particularly true of the pornography primarily designed to be brooded over in secret. But is quite otherwise with the music hall jokes, the folk ribaldry at a wedding, the innocent smut of the smoking rooms, where men who are perennially faithful to their wives exchange stories which release explosive laughter. Pornography does not lead to laughter, it leads to deadly serious pursuit of sexual satisfaction divorced from personality and from every other meaning. The uproarious laugh of the group who recognize a common dilemma—the laughter of a group of women at the story of the intractable unborn who refused to budge and merely shivered under the effects of the quart of ice cream hopefully eaten by its poor mother, the laughter of a group of men at the story of the bride who asked to be “frightened” a fourth time—is the laughter of human beings who are making the best of the imperfect social arrangements within which their life here on earth is conducted.
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
It is thought that approximately thirty percent of the population experiences an ice cream headache. Many studies have determined that ice cream headaches are more common in people who experience migraines; for example, the data from one study states that ice cream headaches occur in ninety-one percent of those who experience migraine headaches, while they only occur in thirty-one percent of those who do not.
Ann Marier has written articles on general health issues providing helpful tips and advice. Read all about her latest articles on types of headache and how to stop headaches by identifying the causes.