Ice cream’s links to brain freeze

You may have been familiar with brain freeze, or the excruciating headache after eating ice cream or something frozen. Now, scientists have explained that it's caused by a rapid increase in blood flow through a major blood vessel in the brain.

The findings could lead to develop new treatments for migraine sufferers who often get brain freeze, LiveScience reported.

In experiments carried out by researchers at the National University of Ireland in Galway andHarvard Medical School, a team of 13 healthy volunteers deliberately induced the brain freeze so the effects could be studied.

Researchers monitored blood flow through their brains. They found that blood flow to the brain through a blood vessel called the anterior cerebral artery, which is located in the middle of the brain behind the eyes, increased.

This increase in flow and resulting increase in size in this artery brought on the pain associated with brain freeze.