Exercise 34

Exercise 34

Page 313

Ice-Cream Headaches

Have you ever eaten something really cold like ice cream and suddenly gotten a headache? This is known as an “ice-cream headache.” About 30 percent of the population gets this type of headache.

Here is one theory about why ice-cream headaches occur. The roof of your mouth has a lot of nerves. When something cold touches these nerves, they want to warm up your brain.

They make your blood vessels swell up (get bigger), and this causes a lot of pain. Ice-cream headaches generally go away after about 30-60 seconds.

The best way to avoid these headaches is to keep cold food off the roof of your mouth.