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Mini: Brain Freeze · Why We Do What We Do

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we Do what we do. Welcome
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to Why we Do what we do Mini. I'm your
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  Speaker 1: host Abraham and I'm Shane. We are a psychology podcast.
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  Speaker 1: the top, which are these quick dives into a little
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  Speaker 1: put these out on Mondays. You can check out our
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  Speaker 1: you who don't have as much time on your day,
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  Speaker 1: maybe a mini is where you are more comfortably able
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  Speaker 1: to consume stuff. And you know, we figure Mondays, the
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  Speaker 1: week is starting, you got a lot going on. Let's
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  Speaker 1: keep it easy, keep it breezy, keep it freezy. But
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  Speaker 1: I have not given Shane an opportunity to speak yet.
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  Speaker 1: And there's a reason for this, because we're I have
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  Speaker 1: an opening statement I need to make about today's topic,
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  Speaker 1: and that is this is real. I eat really really fast,
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  Speaker 1: like alarmingly fast, and this has many potential deleterious outcomes.
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  Speaker 1: Choking is one, of course, but the one that I
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  Speaker 1: tend to fear more happens when guzzling is smoothie or
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  Speaker 1: a whole pint of ice cream, and in a speed
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  Speaker 1: of consumption that might make you think that I was
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  Speaker 1: trying to win a speed eating competition. The fear that
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  Speaker 1: I have is of sphinopalatine gangly in neuralgia, which is
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  Speaker 1: more commonly called brain freeze.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, yes, the good old brain freeze. As a Floridian
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  Speaker 2: who spent a lot of time eating ice cream on
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  Speaker 2: those hot summer days, the amount of brain freezes I
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  Speaker 2: have had are a little bit. It's alarming. It's alarming
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  Speaker 2: how many times. And every time I have one, my
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  Speaker 2: wife will go just slow down, and I go, but
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  Speaker 2: I can't.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot can show my behavior. It is fact. This
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  Speaker 1: tends to happen more in the warmer months of the
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  Speaker 1: year for people who that is a unique thing, but
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  Speaker 1: for hotter parts of the world this also might be
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  Speaker 1: a more common occurrence, and people are offsetting the temperature
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  Speaker 1: of their skin with the temperature of the food they
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  Speaker 1: put in their mouth, looking for something cold as opposed
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  Speaker 1: to something hot, and when it's already hot outside. But
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  Speaker 1: people like me don't seem to care. They just consume
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  Speaker 1: hotter cold things whenever they want, impulsively. And so it
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  Speaker 1: might be the dead of winter and I will eat
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  Speaker 1: or drink something very cold because it's a thing that
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  Speaker 1: I like, and I'm like whatever, I'm fine, I do
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  Speaker 1: what I want.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great.
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  Speaker 1: But then no matter what, I have this brain freeze thing.
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  Speaker 1: Not no matter what, but very frequently have this brain
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  Speaker 1: freeze thing. So what we need to do is talk
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  Speaker 1: about it, what it is, why it happens, and what
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  Speaker 1: you can do about it.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so brain freeze. It's a brief but intensely painful
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  Speaker 2: sensation like a headache in the front part of your
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  Speaker 2: brain that occurs when drinking, eating, or even breathing something
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  Speaker 2: intensely cold and doing that rapidly. So it's also sometimes
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  Speaker 2: called a cold headache, a cold stimulus headache a trigemenial
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  Speaker 2: I think it's trigeminal trigeminal trigeminal headache or ice cream headache. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: and many of you will have experienced this unpleasant sensation.
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  Speaker 2: If you haven't, good for you, it sucks. Don't seek
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  Speaker 2: it out right, I mean you can if you want to,
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  Speaker 2: but like, it's not fun. This tends to happen more
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  Speaker 2: during the summertime, when people are more likely to be
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  Speaker 2: consuming those cold food stuffs, as I mentioned, and I
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  Speaker 2: also found that people who experience migraines, they're more susceptible
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  Speaker 2: to this. People who have migraines are more likely to
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  Speaker 2: report also experiencing brain and freeze when they consume these
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  Speaker 2: cold things or these cold headaches, if you will sure now,
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  Speaker 2: unlike migraines or even regular headaches, so brain freeze tends
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  Speaker 2: to come and go very quickly, usually in a matter
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  Speaker 2: of seconds, and it's not associated with any of the
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  Speaker 2: other problems that can occur during a migraine, such as
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  Speaker 2: nausea or disorientation. It's just usually like a very rapid
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  Speaker 2: onset acute pain and then a rapid offset as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it comes on and it goes fairly quickly,
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  Speaker 1: usually not lasting very long. I already mentioned that I
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  Speaker 1: have experienced this many many times, Listeners, I am curious
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  Speaker 1: to hear from you. If you have experienced you should
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  Speaker 1: you should write in and tell us about it. And Jen,
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  Speaker 1: you said you have had this happen, right.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I've had this happened a lot. But listeners, if
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  Speaker 2: you're gonna write, I would love to hear your remedies,
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  Speaker 2: like please, also like not just tell us like what
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  Speaker 2: and that you've had it, but like tell us how
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  Speaker 2: you have resolved it besides waiting. I'm super curious because
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  Speaker 2: I always love how people have some like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: homegrown remedy for fixing this.
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  Speaker 1: Sure, and we will talk about the ways that you
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  Speaker 1: can deal with this, because there is science to be had.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes I have. I've had this many times. Mostly
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  Speaker 2: it's when I'm eating ice cream. It's not I don't
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  Speaker 2: usually have it from like drinking drinks, so I don't
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  Speaker 2: usually chug very cold drinks. I usually catch myself. It's
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  Speaker 2: usually ice cream that gets.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, you know, And it's funny. I was going to
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  Speaker 1: ask what kind of thing for you set it off?
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  Speaker 1: Because I think for me it is cold drinks, I think,
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  Speaker 1: like it definitely happens with ice cream. But I if
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  Speaker 1: I ever get something like a frappuccino or a smoothie
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  Speaker 1: or something like, I am pretty likely to experience a
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  Speaker 1: brain freezer cold headache. Yeah, I guess milkshakes thing. Oh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: milkshakes will do it to me too.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's usually. Yeah, I would say, I would
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  Speaker 2: say milkshakes and ice cream, And that's usually what gets
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  Speaker 2: me because I don't I don't chug my coffee very rapidly,
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  Speaker 2: Like I kind of sip on it for like about
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  Speaker 2: an hour, so, but everything else I try to consume
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  Speaker 2: pretty rapidly.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna say, like coffee, I'm kind of
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  Speaker 1: slow with, which is part of the reason it's a
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  Speaker 1: really great beverage for me. But but most other drinks
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  Speaker 1: I consume and again just alarming speed, you right, and
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  Speaker 1: be like that guy's got a problem.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just got to fix that whatever.
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  Speaker 1: That is not necessarily proud of it, but I'm also
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  Speaker 1: not proud of having to run ads. All right, let's
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  Speaker 1: get into uh, why we even get these cold headaches?
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  Speaker 1: What's going on here?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Research has found that when something intensely cold touches
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  Speaker 2: the roof of your mouth or throat, your body reacts,
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  Speaker 2: as does to any extreme cold. Vaso constriction in the
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  Speaker 2: sinus is followed rapidly by vasodilation. So first, basically, what
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  Speaker 2: that that's all fancy way of saying. Our blood vessels
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  Speaker 2: narrow from the cold, and then blood vessels expand to
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  Speaker 2: allow more blood to flow to the cold area and
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  Speaker 2: an attempt to warm the area. So researcher doctor Sarador
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  Speaker 2: used a transcranial Doppler test to measure neurological activity and
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  Speaker 2: found that the onset of brain freeze immediately follows a
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  Speaker 2: rapid expansion of the brain cerebral artery in response to
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  Speaker 2: the cold. The sudden change in the size of the
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  Speaker 2: blood vessels causes a sort of swelling pressure that is
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  Speaker 2: very uncomfortable.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and like that's it, that's why we get cold hedge.
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  Speaker 1: So it's kind of fun. I was reading this and
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  Speaker 1: it seemed like they didn't put these words in his mouth,
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  Speaker 1: but I imagine him doing this experiment and it was like,
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  Speaker 1: immediately there's a really clear outcome and he's like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: oh that's what it is. Okay, Yeah, I guess I'll
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  Speaker 1: write that down and publish it. Like, what would happen
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  Speaker 1: there is that that artery swells because it's trying to
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  Speaker 1: allow more blood to warm up the cold area. And
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  Speaker 1: that swelling is just very painful. It just hurts, right,
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  Speaker 1: And that's it. That's why we get cold headaches.
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  Speaker 2: That's literally it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the thing. Now, when this happens to you,
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  Speaker 1: there are a few things you can do. Medication doesn't
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  Speaker 1: really make sense. First of all, the effects of a
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  Speaker 1: cold headache will dissipate more quickly, like so fast, it'll
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  Speaker 1: be more quick than any medicine could even really affect it.
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  Speaker 1: So like you could take a medicine and you will
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  Speaker 1: feel better afterward, but you would have felt better afterward anyway,
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  Speaker 1: So like it probably wasn't the medicine that had an impact.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: If it does persist somehow, definitely seek medical attention, but
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  Speaker 1: very unlikely that it will. And it's painful enough that
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  Speaker 1: most of the time you'll be stopped in your tracks.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, it'll also be clear that it's the cold
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  Speaker 1: that's causing it, right, But you.
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  Speaker 2: Can stop consuming the cold thing you're consuming for a
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  Speaker 2: period of time until it'subsides. You can eat or drink
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  Speaker 2: something warm. You'd even press your thumb or your tongue
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  Speaker 2: to the roof of your mouth. I usually press my
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  Speaker 2: tongue to the roof of my mouth as soon as
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  Speaker 2: I can. Yeah, that usually helps pretty quickly. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 2: we do that to transfer heat from your thumb or
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  Speaker 2: your tongue to your mouth, to the top of your
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  Speaker 2: the roof of your mouth. Or you can even cover
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  Speaker 2: your mouth and nose and breathe quickly to increase warm
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  Speaker 2: air into your mouth. It'll take a second, but it
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  Speaker 2: will speed up the recovery time. So there's lots of
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  Speaker 2: those things you can kind of do. I haven't heard
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  Speaker 2: the breathing one, I've a I've always heard the press
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  Speaker 2: the tongue, pressure tongue to the roof of your mouth
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  Speaker 2: to warm up your your mouth.
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  Speaker 1: I had heard thumb mostly, and that is the strategy
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  Speaker 1: I have used. I've also tried my tongue, but the
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  Speaker 1: problem often is that my tongue was also often pretty cold. Sure,
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  Speaker 1: sure thumb is less hygienic, for sure. I like this
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  Speaker 1: idea of just like having something warm to drink nearby,
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  Speaker 1: so it's like you can just help like quickly warm
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  Speaker 1: it up. And I mean it will take a moment
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  Speaker 1: for the the dilation to constrict again, but warming it
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  Speaker 1: will speed that process up. It'll like it'll naturally do
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  Speaker 1: that on its own because the blood will warm the
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  Speaker 1: area that has gone cold. Yeah, but for a moment,
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  Speaker 1: like you've just got this painful pressure in your head
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  Speaker 1: that super sucks.
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  Speaker 2: I think I really love this idea though, of like
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  Speaker 2: trying to find remedies for when this thing happens instead
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  Speaker 2: of just eating slower, Like like everybody's probably listened this
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  Speaker 2: going like guys, just slow down. That's all you gotta do,
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  Speaker 2: and like you don't have to do all this other
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  Speaker 2: extra stuff. But it's like, but why would you, Why
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  Speaker 2: would you deprive yourself of such joy.
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  Speaker 1: Other things you can do include hatching a dragon egg,
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  Speaker 1: you can chase a will of the wisp. You can
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  Speaker 1: pray to your astrological sign.
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  Speaker 2: You could learn fire breathing.
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  Speaker 1: Fire breathing might actually work. That would probably do it.
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  Speaker 1: But anyway, those things they won't actually speed up your
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  Speaker 1: recovery time, but if it makes you feel good, then
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  Speaker 1: you'll feel like you've sped up your recovery time just
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  Speaker 1: because it was it was going to be fast anyway. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: And as we said, you can prevent brain freeze by
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  Speaker 1: simply avoiding consuming cold things, at least very cold things.
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  Speaker 1: You can if you are going to consume cold things,
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  Speaker 1: you can do it at a slower pace, which feels
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  Speaker 1: like a non starter for me. Yeah, but it is
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  Speaker 1: a thing that would help. And if the thing that
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  Speaker 1: you're that has given you the cold headache is the
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  Speaker 1: very very cold weather you're breathing, then what you can
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  Speaker 1: do is you can wear like a face mask or
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  Speaker 1: a scarf or really anything that just can help prevent
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  Speaker 1: you from inhaling that really cold air.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And I mean, and on that note, that's really it.
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  Speaker 2: That's cold headache. That's what a brain freeze is. It's
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  Speaker 2: that simple. I love the idea of a science behind this,
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  Speaker 2: of just going like here's one experiment. Oh, we figured
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  Speaker 2: it out right away, and we can replicate this every
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  Speaker 2: single time pretty consistently. We know they suck. They won't
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  Speaker 2: kill you as far as we know. You know, we
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  Speaker 2: can't say definitively that there's never a chance where it
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  Speaker 2: can't kill you, because science is is you know, there's
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  Speaker 2: never absolutes in some situations, or there's there's very rarely absolutes.
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  Speaker 2: I should say, it probably won't kill you. It probably
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  Speaker 2: won't kill you, though. Just eat a little bit more slowly,
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  Speaker 2: or avoids super cold things, or just press your thumb
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  Speaker 2: to your the roof of your mouth that you'll be good.
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  Speaker 1: Have something warm to consume nearby, or something like maybe
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  Speaker 1: what you do is if you're eating ice crim anyway,
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  Speaker 1: have some like fresh, really hot, like right out of
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  Speaker 1: the oven cookies that are probably nicely And that's a.
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  Speaker 2: Beautiful idea, glad I could help. That is brilliant.
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  Speaker 1: Nice. All right, that's what we have to say about
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  Speaker 1: spina pelatine ganglia neuralgia. If you would like to tell
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  Speaker 1: us your experiences with brain freeze or what you tend
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  Speaker 1: to get brain freeze from, or maybe we confused you
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  Speaker 1: greatly by talking about this because you've never had it,
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  Speaker 1: because you eat at a reasonable pace. Oh that's fair game.
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  Speaker 1: that there. But I'm not going to do it on
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  Speaker 1: these short ones because we're trying to keep them short.
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  Speaker 1: But is there anything else that you would like to
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  Speaker 1: add or anything that I forgot before we close this
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  Speaker 1: one out today not today? Thank you so much for
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  Speaker 1: my team, Shane for recording with me today. Emma Wilson
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  Speaker 1: is a social media coordinator, justin for his excellent audio
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  Speaker 1: engineering work. Thank you all for listening. This is Abraham
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: and this is Shane. Why We Do what we Do
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  Speaker 1: Mini is out.
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  Speaker 2: Bye.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening and we hope you have an awesome
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: day on