By Toni Golen, MD, Editor in Chief, Harvard Women’s Health Watch; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing; Contributor, and Hope Ricciotti, MD, Editor at Large, Harvard Women’s Health Watch
picture of a lady experiencing brain freeze from ingesting ice cream
Q. With summer time subsequently here, I’m enjoying more ice cream — at the least until I’m hit with the dreaded “mind freeze.” What reasons this?
A. Also dubbed an “ice cream headache,” brain freeze is a common disadvantage of relishing this frosty treat. The phenomenon happens while the temperature of the roof of the mouth and back of the throat drops notably from the shot of cold. This units off a series response: newsfortoday.org blood vessels inside the roof of the mouth swiftly slim, which triggers mind arteries to dilate. Although the precise mechanism isn’t clear, it’s probably the unexpected artery wall expansions spark off the trigeminal nerve, which relays sensory statistics from your face and head for your brain.
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