Research on Brain Freeze 
According to research conducted by Dwayne Goodwin at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, ice-cream headaches may give us clues as to what causes migraine headaches and other types of headaches. He concluded that brain freeze is the result of cold food or drink cooling against the back of the pallet for too long.
That may not seem like that should matter, but the interior carotid artery and the anterior cerebral artery both pass close to the surface of the skin in that spot. That means anything that’s cold that stays pressed against that location for too long have more of an effect than in other places.
Brain Freeze and Cerebral Blood Flow
To make matters worse, the blood that passes through those two arteries go directly to the brain, which means those cold food or drink items acts as cooling agents to cerebral blood flow. That means that blood acts as a coolant causing the brain to cool.
As it cools the brain, it begins to constrict the vascular tissue. Among other tissue, the meninges, which is the tissue between the brain and the skull, will contract. That tissue is a protective layer, so its contraction lessens any protection to that area.
Since sensory neurons exist on this tissue, it is the shrinking of the meninges that manifests itself as “Brain Freeze.” This causes a person to feel the pain of these headaches closer to the surface of their head, since there are no sensory neurons in the brain.
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Why Your Brain Freezes
In a statement by Godwin, he explains “one thing the brain doesn’t like is for things to change, and brain freeze is a mechanism to prevent you from doing that.” That “brain freeze” is your brain overreacting to extreme temperature changes, in order to protect itself.
Though, while this type of headache which is usually induced by the sufferer and goes away within moments is minor, knowing more about them gives us clues as to the cause of many other types of headaches. That is that many symptoms of other types of headaches, migraines in particular, such as vision problems, throbbing pain, and more, may be due to similar reasons.
Now, while getting rid of “Brain Freeze” is usually just as simple as pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth to warm it up, getting rid of a migraine headaches isn’t that easy. Though, in the same way you will also want to get to the source of that pain in your head.
You’ll want to seek out the care of an upper cervical chiropractor, so they can examine your upper neck vertebrae for any misalignments that may be the underlying cause. A misalignment of those two vertebrae of only ¼ of a millimeter can place pressure on your brainstem, hinder your brain’s ability to communicate with your body, lead to nerve damage, and lead to all sorts of problems.
To find an upper cervical specialist in your area go to www.upCspine.com or if you are in the Hendersonville North Carolina area simply click the button below.
