Summer is the season for sorbets, desserts and other thirst-quenching drinks to be enjoyed chilled.
If, for some, eating ice cream in large spoonfuls has no effect, for others, sometimes violent headaches occur.
What are the causes of this inconvenience and how to fix it?
Professor Anne Ducros, neurologist at Montpellier University Hospital and President of the French Society for the Study of Migraines and Headaches (SFEMC), as well as Doctor Dominique Valade, neurologist and former head of the Headache Emergency Center of the Hôpital Lariboisière, in Paris, help us unravel the mystery of the "ice cream headache".
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A blood reaction rather than a neurological one
On the terrace of a café, you sip a little too quickly your glass of soda filled with ice cubes and there, it's the grimace.
"You have the feeling of plunging your bare hands into icy water in the middle of winter," says neurologist Anne Ducrot.
Afterwards, we often touch our forehead, as if it were the brain that was suffering.
Not really.
In reality, the pain is triggered when cold food comes into contact with the blood vessels of the palate.
"These will thus contract and then tighten, before widening again, she explains. This reaction will alert the trigeminal nerve
(nerve whose nerve endings surround the jaw, Editor's note)
which will cause the pain information to the brain and cause migraine."
According to neurologist Dominique Valade, this unpleasant feeling can also start from the throat.
"By eating ice cream, the carotid artery
(an artery in the neck, editor's note)
will suddenly cool down and thus stimulate the cerebral artery to ultimately trigger a headache", specifies the migraine specialist.
Migraineurs, first affected
But why can some people swallow liters of ice cream without batting an eyelid when others suffer at the slightest bite of popsicle?
"It's a random phenomenon that we can't yet explain," regrets Professor Anne Ducrot.
On the other hand, the two professionals agree that if one suffers from recurrent migraines, it is highly possible to react more to this thermal shock.
According to the president of SFEMC, 10 to 20% of the world's population are prone to headaches.
These seizures can be caused by various reasons: internal state changes (rules, emotion, lack or excess of sleep, heavy meal, alcohol intake) or external changes (wind, heat, stormy weather).
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Warm up your palate to avoid the frosty effect
Even when the heat wave assails us, swallowing many ice cream sticks turns out to be a very bad idea if you are sensitive to the cold.
According to Professor Anne Ducros, if you eat too much and at high speed, headaches will increase.
As a precautionary measure, Dr. Dominique Valade advises migraine sufferers not to eat too cold.
To prevent and try to avoid pain as much as possible, the Montpellier University Hospital neurologist recommends "eating the first bites slowly to warm the mouth and not stimulate the palate, or sticking your tongue to your palate before biting into an ice cream".
Good to know, in case of abuse of iced lemonade, there is no point in taking paracetamol or aspirin for relief.
"This phenomenon being purely mechanical and transient, no neurological sequelae are to be feared", reassures the former head of department of the Headache Emergency Center at Lariboisière Hospital.
In practice, waiting between 5 and 15 minutes after the disorder remains the best remedy.
Or how to enjoy your cone in peace.
*Originally published in August 2019, this article has been updated.
