No one is safe from this feeling
To begin with, go ahead that the videos of yore seem to us a bit cruel -poor crawlies who don't understand anything!-, but they perfectly exemplify the feeling of "frozen brain" : super wide eyes, stillness, chill and, above all, a pain intense in the forehead that makes you wish very strongly that you had not asked for that happy strawberry popsicle
However, you ask, and you ask for it year after year ever since you were a cute little baby who barely knew how to say "polo", and it always results in the same unpleasant feeling to which you find no explanation. Well, you are not alone! Scientists are also not entirely clear what causes it - although they do have some idea. We have talked to the doctor Pablo Irimia, Member of the ** Spanish Society of Neurology **, who explains the following.
"It's an entity very rare . Headache after consuming cold food or drink, or inhaling cold air, is usually localized on the forehead and appears almost immediately after exposure to the stimulus. It can affect one side of the palate. It is not known why it occurs, but it is more common in people with migraines. It has been proposed that the hyperexcitability of the trigeminal nerve , which deals with providing sensitivity to the face; dilation of the arteries after vasoconstriction initial cold could also be the cause," he explains.
In addition, he puts us on alert about another very similar sensation: the one that makes us utter a silent scream when we dove into the sea and it's much cooler than we expected . "There is a headache induced by cold stimuli on the outside of the head either ingested or inhaled. This type of pain has two main subforms: external application headache of a cold stimulus and swallowing headache or inhalation of cold substances", argues the doctor.
Poles, rich and treacherous
"The first occurs when exposing the head to low temperatures or plunge into cold water, for instance. It is usually located on the forehead and starts within a few seconds of exposure. The pain is usually brief (less than 30 minutes), intense, like a pang, and subsides within 30 minutes of being out of the cold. It is not known with certainty why it occurs, but it seems that it is also associated with hyperexcitability of the trigeminal nerve ", says the expert.
Ok, we already know what it is, but how to avoid it? Irimia speaks again: "The treatment consists of reduce exposure to cold and minimize the time of friction with the palate when food is ingested, "he says. Thus, the remedy leaves us without many options more than gobble ice cream throwing it directly at you through the bell, touching, at most, the tongue. Will we have in this new modality of eating poloflash the next viral video ?