Understand what causes brain freeze. When the cold object touches
the roof of your mouth, the blood vessels contract in response in an
effort to prevent loss of body heat. As the coldness recedes, the blood
vessels relax again, quickly increasing blood flow to the brain. This sudden release is what causes the intense headache sensation.
Prevent cold food from touching the roof of your mouth. Obviously,
you're not going to give up cold foods just so that you can avoid brain
freeze. Rather, let the bite or sip warm on your tongue before you let the substance touch the roof of your mouth.
Relieve brain freeze pain by quickly warming the roof of your mouth
(also referred to as the soft palate and hard palate; the hard palate
being the part with bone, and the soft without) after it's already been
cooled. If you do this soon enough, you may be able to ease the surge
of bloodflow to your brain:
Touch your tongue
to your soft palate. If you can roll your tongue in a ball, press the
bottom of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. The underside of your
tongue may be warmer than the top side which was probably cooled by the
Slurpee you just chugged. (Some people find that firmly pressing your
tongue against the roof of the mouth alleviates brain freeze, so try
applying extra pressure!)
Drink a warm substance. Slowly sipping room temperature water also does the trick for some people.
Make a mask with your hands to cover your mouth and nose. Breathe quickly, raising the temperature inside your mouth.
Press a warm thumb against your palate.
Wait it out. The brain freeze will usually pass on its own within
30-60 seconds. Sometimes the shock of the brain freeze makes it seem
worse than it really is, but if you expect it and know that it'll come
and go, it doesn't have to be a traumatizing experience.
