Sometimes, ordering a marg on the rocks isn’t an option. Or, there’s the rare instance that a frozen one is just going to hit the spot — that is, until your body reminds you about brain freeze.
This surprisingly painful phenomenon feels like something is trying to punch its way out of your forehead. The exact physiological reason it does so is still uncertain.
According to the Mayo Clinic website, a popular theory has to do with the contraction of blood vessels in response to the freezing temperature, which may “alter blood flow in your nervous system, causing a brief headache.” (Though some theorize that it’s actually an expansion of the blood vessels that causes the problem; no one knows for sure.) The blood vessels’ contraction aims “to prevent the loss of body heat and then relax again to let blood flow rise.” So there’s “a burst of pain” that goes away in seconds.
But anyone who has experienced brain freeze — or ice cream headache, as some call it — probably wants to know if there’s a way to make it go away even quicker.
The internet has been very generous in offering remedies. The best-known method is to press your tongue to the roof of your mouth as a means of equalizing the temperature. Drinking a warm or room-temperature liquid also helps. Better yet, you can prevent brain freeze by taking smaller sips or letting the frosty goodness melt on your tongue before it gets a chance to touch the roof of your mouth, thereby avoiding 10 seconds of weird, terrible pain that’s right up there with banging your funny bone against your desk.
Or, you can just order that marg on the rocks — it’s the best way, anyway.
This article appears in May 4-11, 2017.