Brain Freeze: A Brief Moment of Anguish After an Ice Cold Treat

STRATFORD—As the weather heats up and the temperature soars during the summer months, people will be reaching for more than a cool drink to cool off. Instead, their first choice may be ice cream, a snow cone or the flavored Italian Ice.

Before you gulp down the sweet treat, take pleasure in the moment, eating slowly, not only for the complete enjoyment, but to avoid a Brain Freeze, a common occurrence that can be more irritating than harmful.

While a headache should not be taken lightly, a brain freeze has a more startling than harmful effect. Dr. Loretta Mueller, director of the University Headache Center at The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine said, “The ice cream headache or cold stimulus headache is not an uncommon condition but is more frequent in those who suffer from migraine headaches.”

Mueller described an ice cream headache as a stabbing type of headache that usually occurs in the front of the head lasting a half minute or less, the stimulus being the cold food contacting a nerve-filled area on the roof of the mouth. While an ice cream headache may not be detrimental, Mueller said it has been severe enough in kids and adults for them to decrease their intake or abstain from eating ice cream.

"Over the last dozen years of treating headaches, many of my migraine patients will admit to ice cream headaches, but no one has consulted exclusively for this diagnosis,” said Mueller. “This is in contrast with headache types such as cluster, which are associated with excruciating stabbing pains of longer duration, prompting immediate attention."

Studies have been conducted to determine whether placing a cold substance against the roof of the mouth induces a headache. The most recent occurred in 2003 when The Neurological Institute at the National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine in Taiwan, distributed a self-administered questionnaire to over 8,000 students to investigate ice cream headache in adolescents. The prevalence of ice cream headache was 40.6 percent. It was significantly higher in boys than girls, and increased with grade. It was further noted that students with migraine had higher frequency of ice cream headache compared with the students without migraine headache.

While avoiding a brain freeze when eating ice cream may not be possible, minimizing the number of occurrences is an option. Dr. Mueller suggests eating slowly, savoring the taste, and keeping ice cream or anything cold away from the roof of your mouth. In the meantime, enjoy the summer and the traditional cold treats that accompany the season.

Media interested in interviewing Dr. Mueller contact Terri Guess at 973-972-5000.