Ice cream headaches: What causes brain freeze and is it dangerous?

A piercing pain in the temples and forehead often occurs when we greedily eat a large piece of ice cream or gulp down a heavily frozen cocktail too quickly. This is known as brain freeze or simply freezing brain. What causes this unusual sensation? And is it dangerous?

Ice cream lovers are familiar with this unpleasant, piercing feeling —sometimes even momentarily paralyzing with pain. Although it passes quickly, it can cause concern. So, what is this feeling of freezing brain?

We usually think that the feeling of freezing brain starts inside the skull – the piercing pain is usually felt around the forehead and temples. The pain most often occurs after eating a larger piece of ice cream or drinking a heavily frozen cocktail in a large quantity at once (but not only; the pain can also occur in winter, for example, when inhaling cold air).

Brain freeze, also known as sphenopalatine ganglion neuralgia, has a scientific name – in reality, this phenomenon does not mean that our brain is freezing. Still, it is related to what happens in the mouth. As we can read on my.clevelandclinic.org, the website of the Cleveland Clinic academic medical center:

"When your body senses sudden, extreme cold in the mouth or throat, it tries to react and warm up. Blood vessels throughout the head expand to let extra blood into the area for warmth. That quick change in blood vessel size causes sudden pain."

However, specialists emphasize that the exact mechanism is unclear. As Dr. Toni Golden from Harvard Medical School adds, the sudden expansion of artery walls likely activates the trigeminal nerve, which conveys sensory information from the face and head to the brain.

The feeling of a freezing brain can be painful but is not severe and quickly subsides on its own. You can prevent these characteristic headaches by avoiding quickly eating very cold foods or consuming frozen drinks.

During an attack, not only the head but often the neck and the entire front part of the face hurts. The pain appears after about 10 seconds and lasts around 20 seconds—up to half a minute. To quickly alleviate the pain, press your thumb or tongue to the palate to warm it up or slowly sip a liquid at room temperature.