Summer is a time with air conditioning and ice cream, and with it, health problems arise. Some patients suffering from a headache often comes to the clinic, inquiring its inducement, the cold drink habit is often the cause. There is a common name for this type of headache: "ice cream headache". Ice cream headache is also known as brain freeze, cold stimulation headache, its scientific name is pterygopalatine ganglion pain. This headache usually occurs on hot days and is usually caused by a quick ingestion of frozen food or drinks such as ice cream.
The sudden pain caused by ice cream headache is usually located in the forehead, temple, etc., and usually occurs within 30 to 60 seconds after hastily eating cold drinks. The stabbing pain occurs within 10 to 20 seconds, which is manifested as an instant stabbing pain or unbearable pain. The pain soon peaks, and then gradually alleviates, and in rare cases can last for 25 minutes. People with a clinical history of migraines are more likely to have this condition.
Many people wonder how eating ice cream can affect the head. Modern medicine thinks that ice cream and other cold drinks will produce strong stimulation to oral mucosa, so that the mouth top or throat back small blood vessels and head facial muscles appear reflex spasm, causing cerebral blood supply insufficiency, when the spasm degree reaches the maximum, there will be passive blood vessel expansion, and produce radioactive headache. When the trigeminal nerve, which collects sensation in the skin of the head and face, sends pain signals to the brain, the brain may confuse them and mistake them for coming from the head rather than the face. Another idea is that ice cream headaches are actually a protective mechanism. Cold food causes constriction of blood vessels in the palate. This change in blood vessel wall pressure receptors are uploaded to the brain, which reflexive increases blood flow to the brain to ensure blood supply to the brain, causing headache.
To prevent the occurrence of this headache, it is best to eat less cold drink ice cream at ordinary times, eat slowly, do not eat too much, or stay in the mouth too long, in case of sudden cold stimulation caused by blood vessels and muscle contraction or sustained. In particular, avoid eating a lot of cold drinks on an empty stomach or when the body is weak to prevent excessive stimulation of the gastrointestinal tract and cold evil straight in the cause of headache. Special attention should be paid to patients with vascular headache, migraine and other headache history, as well as body deficiency and insufficiency of qi and blood. Because this part of the population has poor cerebrovascular adaptability or regulation ability, the body temperature drops rapidly after eating cold drinks, and the cerebrovascular is prone to headache after being stimulated by this.
If you have an ice cream headache, you can soothe it by warming your palate. The method is to roll up your tongue, press on the roof of your mouth or cover your mouth and nose with your hand and breathe quickly. Traditional Chinese medicine is intended for this kind of disease, such as acupuncture, ear points, moxibustion, massage and so on. For patients with body deficiency and deficiency of qi and blood, Chinese medicine can be used to improve symptoms under the guidance of doctors.
