What causes brain freeze?

Something icy touches the roof of the mouth and the blood vessels in the head react to the sudden cold. In one small study, an artery near the front of the brain widened as the pain began.

How do you stop brain freeze fast?

Press your tongue or thumb against the roof of your mouth, or sip something warm or room temperature. It usually goes away within seconds.

Is brain freeze dangerous?

No. Cleveland Clinic describes it as not serious and short-lived. Frequent long headaches are a different matter and worth asking a doctor about.

Food Stories · Episode 3 · Why does...?

What Is Brain Freeze? What Happens and How to Stop It

Brain freeze isn't your brain freezing. What a 2012 blood-flow study saw, the kid-led ice cream study, and two simple ways to make it stop.

Major Orange and Princess Punch in the Food Stories episode "What is brain freeze, really?" — A still from the episode. The video is coming soon to YouTube @wonderadeusa; the full transcript is below.

The short answer

Brain freeze is the sharp forehead pain you get from cold food or drink hitting the roof of your mouth. Doctors call it sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. In a small 2012 study, a large blood vessel near the front of the brain widened when the pain started and narrowed as it faded. Scientists are still working out exactly why it hurts. It usually passes in seconds and is not harmful.

Your brain does not freeze; blood vessels in the head react to sudden cold.
A 2002 study led by a 13-year-old found fast ice cream eaters got brain freeze about twice as often as slow eaters (27% vs 13%).
Pressing your tongue or thumb to the roof of your mouth, or sipping something not cold, can help it pass.

The story (transcript)

Narration from the episode, as it is spoken.

You slurp a giant milkshake way too fast. And then, ouch. A sharp pain, right behind your forehead.

So what is brain freeze? Is your brain actually freezing?

Doctors call it sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. Try saying that with a mouth full of ice cream. Everybody else just says brain freeze.

Here's the myth buster: your brain is not freezing. When something icy touches the roof of your mouth, the blood vessels in your head react to the sudden cold.

In twenty twelve, scientists had thirteen grown-ups sip ice water through a straw pressed against the roof of their mouth, while a machine watched blood flow in their brains.

When the pain hit, a big blood vessel near the front of the brain suddenly widened and blood rushed in. When it narrowed again, the pain faded.

Scientists think it may be your body rushing in warm blood to protect your brain. They're still working out exactly why it hurts.

And one brain freeze study was led by a kid. A thirteen year old in Canada had a hundred forty-five middle schoolers eat ice cream. The fast eaters got brain freeze about twice as often as the slow eaters.

How to stop it: press your tongue or your thumb against the roof of your mouth, or sip something that isn't cold. It usually goes away in seconds, and it isn't harmful.

Brought to you by Wonderade, the juice you wish you had when you were growing up.

Questions people ask

What causes brain freeze?: Something icy touches the roof of the mouth and the blood vessels in the head react to the sudden cold. In one small study, an artery near the front of the brain widened as the pain began.
How do you stop brain freeze fast?: Press your tongue or thumb against the roof of your mouth, or sip something warm or room temperature. It usually goes away within seconds.
Is brain freeze dangerous?: No. Cleveland Clinic describes it as not serious and short-lived. Frequent long headaches are a different matter and worth asking a doctor about.

Sources

Each source is listed with the facts we took from it.

Medical name "sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia"; blood vessels in the head react to extreme cold; lasts a few seconds to two minutes; not serious; stop by drinking a warm or room-temperature liquid or pressing tongue or thumb against the roof of the mouth · Cleveland Clinic, "Brain Freeze": https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21478-brain-freeze
2012 study: 13 healthy adults sipped ice water through a straw against the upper palate; transcranial Doppler measured brain blood flow; the anterior cerebral artery dilated rapidly as pain began and constricted as it faded; possible self-protection of the brain; led by Jorge Serrador (Harvard Medical School / VA New Jersey), presented at Experimental Biology 2012 · ScienceDaily (American Physiological Society release): https://sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120422231742.htm
Kid-led trial: 145 students at Dalewood Middle School, Hamilton, Ontario; 100 ml ice cream in under 5 s vs over 30 s; headache in 27% (20/73) vs 13% (9/72); 59% of headaches lasted under 10 s; funded by "an unrestricted grant from mum and dad" · Kaczorowski M, Kaczorowski J, "Ice cream evoked headaches (ICE-H) study", BMJ 2002;325:1445: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC139031
Maya Kaczorowski was 13 · CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brain-freeze/

How we checked this

What we simplified, hedged or left out, and why.

Mechanism is not settled. The 2012 study was small (13 adults), first presented as a conference abstract, and shows the artery change goes with the pain. Why it hurts (pressure in the skull, a nerve in the palate) is still debated. The narration says "Scientists think it may be" and "They're still working out exactly why it hurts".
"Near the front of the brain" is a kid-friendly stand-in for the anterior cerebral artery.
"About twice as often." 27% vs 13% (relative risk 2.2, wide confidence interval 1.03 to 4.94). The narration says "about twice as often", which matches. "Led by a kid" is fair: Maya Kaczorowski was first author and ran it as a science project; her father, a McMaster University researcher, was co-author.
The name. Cleveland Clinic gives "sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia" as the scientific term; the narration only says doctors call it that, without claiming that ganglion is the cause.