Cold-stimulus headache: Difference between revisions

Brain freeze, ice cream headache, freezie, or Frozen Brain Syndrome are terms used to describe a form of cranial pain or headache which people are known to sometimes experience after consuming cold beverages or foods such as ice cream, often as a result of rapid consumption.

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. This results in massive dialation 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 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 phenomena 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 after 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 region.

It has been reported that the pain can be relieved by moving the tongue to the roof of the mouth^[1], which will cause greater warmth in the region; it is also believed that the pain can be relieved by slowly sipping room temperature water. Laying the head to the side may also provide relief. A report was submitted to the British Medical Journal on brain freeze; it focused on the effect of speed of consumption of ice cream on causing brain freeze. Commonly referred to as "ice cream headaches," it has been studied as an example of referred pain,^[2] an unpleasant sensation localised to an area separate from the site of the painful stimulation

It has been estimated that 30% of the population experiences brain freeze.^[3] Some studies suggest that brainfreeze is more common in people who experience migraines. Raskin and Knittle found this to be the case, with brainfreeze occurring in 93% of migraine sufferers and in only 31% of controls. However, other studies found that it is more common in people without migraines. These inconsistencies may be due to differences in subject selection–the subjects of the first study were drawn from a hospital population, whereas the controls in the second were student volunteers making the tests inconclusive.

• In the 2002 film The Hot Chick, Rob Schneider experiences a brain freeze when he drinks Slurpee right out of the machine. He counteracts it with hot cheese sauce from the nacho machine.
• In the episode "I'm Goin' to Praiseland" of the animated television series The Simpsons, Dr. Hibbert treats the victims of nasty ice-cream brain freeze by administering hot fudge in a first-aid tent. "I've never seen a brain freeze this bad. Give me 50cc's of hot fudge, stat! Hold still, you're going to feel a slight chocolately sensation." he says to his patients.
• In the 1992 movie Encino Man, Link (Brendan Fraser) gets a brain freeze after "weasing the juice" (sticking his head under the tap of a slushie machine) at a convenience store.
• In the 2003 movie Dumb and Dumberer, Harry and Lloyd order a slushie and both suffer from brain freeze.
• In the 2005 movie Fun With Dick and Jane, Jim Carrey's character experiences a brain freeze when drinking the beverage with the same name.
• In an episode of the American comedy series Scrubs, the character Chris Turk experiences a brain freeze when drinking a slushee.
• On The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert gets a brain freeze eating a Dreamsicle during his "I have a Dreamsicle" speech.
• On the cartoon series Megas XLR, the character Kiva suffers a brain freeze from sampling an ice-cold slushie drink, much to the amusement of Coop and Jamie.
• In an opening sequence for Malcolm in the Middle, Malcolm and Dewey encourage Reese to eat ice cream faster, at which point Malcolm turns to the camera and says "It's hardly scientific, but the fact that Reese doesn't get brain freeze has to prove something".
• In an episode of Step by Step, Cody meets one of his old-time friends, and the two have fun eating ice cream and getting brain freezes together.
• The convenience store 7-11 has used the term in advertising their Slurpee products, and has thus obtained a registered trademark on the term.
• Turntablist recording artists Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow released a somewhat-bootleg album entitled Brainfreeze featuring a very loose 7-11 theme. The album artwork has the two posing in 7-11 smocks.
• In The Adventures of Pete & Pete episode "Field of Pete," a crazed baseball team manager's evil is said to be powered by the brain freezing effects of the Orange Lazarus slushie drink, which he constantly consumes. Later in the episode, the drink's powers are used for good when an extra frozen batch of Lazarus causes Big Pete's entire team — which was cheating, thanks to the manager enlisting the aid of Little Pete's scathing trash-talk — to experience a nearly unending brainfreeze, evening the odds in the game.
• "Brain Freeze" is the name of a song by Frank Klepacki featured in the game soundtrack of Red Alert 2.
• In the Earthworm Jim animated television series' episode "Conqueror Worm," Jim experiences brain freeze after quickly drinking a frozen yogurt.
• In the video game Animal Crossing: Wild World, a character with the "jock" personality, will ask "Hey, do you like cold drink brain freeze?". A "yes" response will make the character assert his belief that it makes you more intelligent.
• In the 1891 novel A Mortal Antipathy by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (the action takes place in the mid 19th century), a character who eats at an ice cream social is suddenly taken with what appears to be a convulsive fit. It is later revealed that he had never before eaten ice cream and put a large and very cold piece of it into his mouth.
• In the episode Be A-Fred, Be Very A-Fred of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Billy and Fred Fredburger experience brain freeze when they quickly consume frozen yogurt.
• A 1990's MTV Network's commercial portrays a young woman drinking what looks like an orange milkshake. She gets brainfreeze and the camera shows her mouth in slow motion as she complains from the pain. It is easy to recognize what she says is "Fuck".
• A special challenge on the webshow, http://thebrainfreeze.org from Tulsa Oklahoma, notable for their TBF Challenges where contestants are challenged to down a slurpee as fast as possible, usually resulting in a brain freeze, and the fastest time wins a prize.

• "Ice cream evoked headaches (ICE-H) study: randomised trial of accelerated versus cautious ice cream eating regimen"