BehindTheMedspeak: How To Cure 'Brain Freeze'

You know it well, it's what happens when you ingest a Slurpee too fast: a sudden killer headache which seems to explode from the roof of your mouth into the empty space behind your forehead.

Speak for yourself, joe.

Sorry.

Anyway.

Where was I?

Strained peas, yeah.

No?

Oh.

Take two.

In the latest issue (June, 2008) of Wired magazine Ada Brunstein offers the best take yet on how to stop this big chill in its tracks.

Who knew Wired was a medical journal?

Not moi, until now.

Here's the item.

How To Cure Brain Freeze

Slurpees, margaritas, ice cream — they can hurt so good. No one really knows why, but scientists think that stabbed-in-the-forehead feeling (sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia) occurs when the temperature of your palate doesn't have time to normalize between spoonfuls of flavored ice. The capillaries in the roof of your mouth dilate rapidly, filling with warmth-inducing blood, and that sudden expansion could trigger nerves at the back of your palate (the sphenopalatine ganglion) to fire off urgent messages to your brain: "OMG, the head is freezing!" In response, blood vessels in your forehead swell in a pattern that resembles a migraine — although brain freeze lasts less than a minute. To cure a cranium chill, says Mark W. Green, M.D., director of headache medicine at Columbia University, press your tongue hard against the palate to thaw it quickly, or breathe into your hands to heat your mouth. You might also want to go a bit easier on that daiquiri.