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by Alatea on October 21st, 2005
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
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