JAKARTA - Thirst and cold drinks make a great match. When the weather is hot, the body needs more hydration. Various types of ice certainly make you tempted to drink it. However, when you drink it, you immediately feel dizzy on the forehead, temples, bridge of the nose, or behind the eyes. This is known as a brain freeze.
Brain freeze, according to Stephanie Vertrees, MD., a headache specialist, neurologist, and clinical assistant professor at Texas A&M College of Medicine, occurs when cold food touches a cluster of nerves behind the palate, called the sphenonpalatine ganglion (SPG).
This cluster of nerves is very sensitive to cold food. When stimulated, these nerves send a stimulus to the brain to experience headaches. The SPG nervous response is not only stimulated by consuming cold food and drinks.
There are several other causes that trigger headaches. When you feel a migraine or one-sided headache, this is also the response of the ganglion nerves. According to Vertrees, some people who experience migraines can be cured by triggering a brain freeze.
However, this effect is not the same for everyone. Based on Vertrees' advice, there are several ways to minimize the chance of feeling lightheaded after drinking ice.
"Put it in front of your mouth, it slows the rate of stimulants," says Vertrees.
However, if you eat ice cream, there is a trick that can make the dizziness stopped, namely by pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth. The heat from the tongue warms the sinuses at the back of the nose and then warms up the ganglion that causes brain freeze.
Brain freeze is not a dangerous disorder, according to Wojtek Mydlarz, an assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Johns Hopkins. One thing that makes the most sense and causes brain freeze is cold liquids on the roof of the mouth that is warm.
When that happens, the blood vessels automatically constrict and this is a reflex to keep the core body temperature stable. According to Nauman Tariq, director of the Johns Hopkins Headache Center, research shows migraine sufferers are more likely to experience brain freeze.
The pain that occurs around the head due to brain freeze will be more intense and sharp when compared to migraines. It feels like throbbing around the forehead. Recommendations from Mydlarz, avoid consuming cold drinks and foods if you often experience brain freeze.
If possible, before swallowing cold food and drinks, hold them in the mouth first. In some cases, the brain freeze will be very brief. However, some people need aspirin or headache medicine to relieve it.
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