What really is happening when you get a brain freeze from eating something to cold?
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Its rather simplistic. The cold from the shake slushie or icecream is transfered from your tounge and throat to your bloodstream which next stop naturally is to your brain. Since your body temp should be 98.6 this sudden blast of cooler blood causes your blod vessles to restrict all the while your heart keeps pumping it forward. Pain recepticles relay this to your brain and instant presto you got a brain freeze.
To minimize teh chance of this occuring take pauses in eating and drinking so the fresh blood running to your mouth has time to warm it up again.
There is a nerve ending in the roof of your mouth that is sensitive to cold, when you eat enough cold stuff fast enough it reacts. That is why drinking something warmer helps stop it.
I just learned about this in my Anatomy & Physiology class. The cold causes a rapid constriction of your blood vessels, which causes the pain. It goes away quickly because the vessels relax again.
There is a major nerve that runs on the roof of your mouth. When something cold is eaten that nerve sends an impulse to the brain and the brain sends back a pain signal, which in turn is called a brain freeze.
when you eat something cold, it cools down the roof of your mouth which is attatched to the nerves that cause migranes.
what happens is when the roof of your mouth cools down, it triggers the nerves to go into what is sort of like a "mini migrane" , it lasts for 5-7 seconds and is harmless =)
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