"Brain Freeze" in children: Eating ice cream quickly causes headaches

Created: 08/09/2022, 08:00

By: Natalie Hull Drawbar

Yummy ice cream!

Now it can't go fast enough for some people, they lick it hastily and - it's gone.

Why is this stabbing in my head coming now?

Many are familiar with that stinging and aching sensation when consuming very cold ice cream or cold drinks — especially if it happens quickly.

Children in particular describe severe headaches after eating ice cream, which usually last a few seconds.

The phenomenon is known under the name "brain freeze" or in English "brain freeze".

What is it all about, can brain frost become dangerous and is it avoidable?

Canadian scientists worked intensively on "Brain Freeze" as part of a study and made an interesting discovery.

"Brain Freeze" in children: Eating ice cream quickly causes headaches

Anyone who eats a lot of cold ice cream quickly can also get brain chills or brain freezes more easily.

(Iconic image) © Ega Birk/Imago

Headaches in children or adolescents can have various causes.

It is all the more important to first know the circumstances and to take a look at them.

If there is a severe headache while consuming cold drinks or ice cream, the suspicion is obvious: brain freeze.

What initially reads violently and dangerously is basically just a protective function of our brain.

Even animals like cats or dogs can experience brain freezes.

In a study published in the British Medical Journal, Canadian researchers Maya Kaczorowski and Dr.

Janusz Kaczorowski with the causes of brain freeze, the so-called brain freeze.

The study's 145 students were asked to eat six 100-milliliter ice creams in less than five seconds.

The control group ate the same amount of ice cream in at least two to three times the time.

The result is amazing: about 30 percent of the students who took the ice cream in less than six seconds immediately complained of severe, stabbing headaches.

More than half of the subjects showed the brain freeze less than ten seconds before it went away on its own.

Among the students in the control group, who took much longer to eat their ice cream, the brain freeze was only noticeable in 17 percent of the cases, and the brain freeze was also less pronounced in some cases.

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Brain Freeze: Brain defends and protects itself from cold with Brain Freeze

The scientists conclude that the time people eat cold foods is relevant to the development of cerebral frost.

This means that the faster cold ice or cold drinks are fed into the body, the more likely it is that the so-called brain freeze will occur.

The researchers also assume that the pain attack causes the brain to switch to a kind of defense mode.

“The brain is quite sensitive to changes in temperature.

Due to the vasodilation, warm blood flows into the tissue and thus ensures that the brain does not get too cold," the

quoted the head of the study and neurologist Professor Jorge Serrador from Harvard Medical School as saying.

Ultimately, it is an increase in blood pressure that causes the headache.

Brain freeze or brain freeze is not dangerous.

Rather, headaches caused by cold are a natural and harmless protective reflex of our body.

This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication.

In no way does it replace a visit to the doctor.

Unfortunately, our editors are not allowed to answer individual questions about clinical pictures.