Dear Martha,

Why do we get "brain freeze" when drinking something cold? I heard it had to do with the nerves in the stomach that send a message to the brain. Am I on track?

--Dom

Well, Dom, that's not exactly it. Allow me to put you back on the path of righteous knowledge.

Brain freeze, also known as ice cream headache, is experienced by about 30 percent of the general population. What happens, for those of you who haven't suffered, is that your head starts to stab for about 20 seconds after you've wolfed down something good and cold. Ice cream is a common culprit, but Slurpees, really cold soda, and other frosty things can do it to you, too.

According to the British Medical Journal, the pain is usually in the "midfrontal" area, but it can also get you on either side or on the back of your head. In rare cases, it can smart for a whole five minutes, but it's usually over within seconds.

The author of the report is Joseph Hulihan, an assistant professor at the appropriately named Temple University. Hulihan describes an experiment in which a subject placed crushed ice on the roof of his mouth to see if he could give himself brain freeze. Hulihan reports that he did, but only during periods of warm weather. Hmm.

But why, if the ice cream is in your mouth and digestive tract, does your head hurt? It's what is called referred pain, or pain that is felt someplace other than where it is caused. Heart attacks, for example, sometimes cause pain in the left arm. But you know your heart isn't in your arm (although it can sometimes feel as if it's in your mouth or your stomach).

With brain freeze, the cold substance causes pain when it crosses your palate (the roof of your mouth), and this pain is "referred" to your head.

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