There are certain foods that trigger great memories. When you eat turkey, it often makes you think of Thanksgiving. There may be some sort of traditional or cultural dish that makes you think of home for the holidays. When you eat a hot dog, it may cause you to think of the ball park or a great baseball game. If you drink a glass of lemonade, it may take you back to a lazy summer day. Another great summer memory is often elicited by eating your favorite ice cream cone.
Nothing reminds you of fun summer days like an ice cream cone or a dish of your favorite flavor. This is what celebrates the season for many people. It also happens to be a favorite sweet treat for many people and so they enjoy it year round. Though it’s high in calories, it’s often so delicious that it’s hard for people to resist. If you’ve eaten ice cream at any point in time, then chances are that you know not to eat it too fast though or else you will suffer.
What is the Ice Cream Headache?
You dig into your favorite ice cream and you do so with great speed because it’s delicious and you want to eat it up. No sooner do you get it to your mouth that you feel that familiar pain that you have faced before. That terrible stabbing pain in your headache slows you down and makes you feel simply awful. So why does this happen? How does the ice cream headache happen anyhow?
Ice cream headaches happen because when something cold touches the roof of your mouth, it triggers that cold headache. This in turn causes a dilation of blood vessels in the head. The dilation may be caused by a nerve center that is located above the roof of your mouth. When this nerve center gets cold, it tends to overreact, and it tries to almost “heat” your brain. So you see the science, but it doesn’t help that awful pain that you suffer each time.
How Do You Avoid It?
Quite simply put, the very best way to avoid the ice cream headache is to slow down with your eating. Easier said than done when you have a bowl of Rocky Road or a cone of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough staring back at you. Though you may be tempted to jump right in, know that it will almost always cause that quick and painful headache. The good news is that the headache usually goes away as quickly as it came on, so the pain that you suffer is short lived. It does happen with other cold substances such as snow cones for example, so know that it’s not just isolated to ice cream cones for the majority of the pain.
Are They Harmful?
Though in that moment you may feel as if your head is about to explode, the reality is that you are going to be just fine. You know that quick and fleeting pain because you have probably felt it before. Everybody from kids to senior citizens is susceptible to ice cream headaches, and therefore they make up a very common reaction to a very frustrating problem. They won’t hurt you and they are just the body’s way of reacting to a nerve being stimulated by a cold substance. So enjoy your ice cream, but dig in a bit slower than usual and you may just be able to avoid the all too common ice cream headache.
More articles: