Brain freeze

From Free net encyclopedia

Brain freeze, ice cream headache, freezie, or Frozen Brain Syndrome are terms used to describe a form of cranial pain or headache which people are known to sometimes experience after consuming cold beverages or foods such as ice cream, often as a result of rapid consumption.

1 Mechanism/cause
2 Brain freeze in pop culture
3 References
4 External links

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Mechanism/cause

The reaction is triggered by the cold substance consumed coming into contact with the roof of the mouth. It irritates nerves in the region (sphenopalatine ganglia), causing them to spasm. These nerves cause the blood vessels in the brain to dilate. When vessels in the brain dilate, a common effect is an acute headache (a similar effect occurs when one takes a prescription vasodilator, such as Nitroglycerin or Viagra).

It has been reported that the pain can be relieved by moving the tongue to the roof of the mouth, which will cause greater warmth in the region; it is also believed that the pain can be relieved by slowly sipping room temperature water. Laying the head to the side may also provide relief. The pain may be avoided in the first place simply by eating ice cream (or other cold foods or beverages) more slowly.

A report was submitted to the British Medical Journal on Brain Freeze; it focused on the effect of speed of consumption of ice cream on causing Brain Freeze. It was co-written by a Canadian grade 8 student (about 13 years old).

It has been estimated that 30% of the population experiences brain freeze.<ref>http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2003/brown/brain.htm</ref>

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Brain freeze in pop culture

In the 1992 movie Encino Man, Link (Brendan Fraser) gets a brain freeze after "weasing the juice" (sticking his head under the tap of a slushie machine) at a convenience store.
In the 2003 movie Dumb and Dumberer, Harry and Lloyd order a slushie and both get brainfrozen.
In the 2005 movie Fun with Dick and Jane, Jim Carrey's character experiences a brain freeze when drinking the beverage with the same name.
In the 6th episode in the fifth season of the American comedy series Scrubs the character Chris Turk experiences a brain freeze when drinking a slushee.
On the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert gets a brain freeze eating his Dreamcicle.
on the cartoon series Megas_XLR, the character Kiva suffers a brain freeze from sampling an ice-cold slushie drink, much to the amusement of Coop and Jamie.
In an opening sequence for Malcolm in the Middle, Malcolm and Dewey encourage Reese to eat ice cream faster, at which point Malcolm turns to the camera and says "Reese doesn't ever get brain freeze, it's hardly scientific but it's gotta prove something".
In an episode of Step by Step, Cody meets one of his old-time friends, and the two have fun eating ice cream and getting brain freezes together.
The convenience store 7-11 has used the term in advertising their Slurpee products, and has thus obtained a registered trademark on the term.
Turntablist recording artists Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow released a somewhat-bootleg album entitled Brainfreeze featuring a very loose 7-11 theme. The album artwork has the two posing in 7-11 smocks.
In The Adventures of Pete & Pete episode "Field of Pete", a crazed baseball team manager's evil is said to be powered by the brain freezing effects of the Orange Lazarus slushie drink, which he constantly consumes. Later in the episode, the drink's powers are used for good when an extra frozen batch of Lazarus causes Big Pete's entire team—which was cheating, thanks to the manager enlisting the aid of Little Pete's scathing trash-talk — to experience a nearly unending brainfreeze, evening the odds in the game.
"Brain Freeze" is the name of a song by Frank Klepacki featured in the game soundtrack of Red Alert 2.
In the Earthworm Jim episode "Conqueror Worm" (season 1, episode 5), Jim experiences brain freeze after quickly drinking a frozen yogurt.