An ice-cream headache is an unpleasant experience, thankfully it only lasts about 25 seconds, that’s not to say it hurts any less though. It’s the number one cause of headaches and affects a third of the population, but only in warm weather.
According to neurologists, it’s when something cold touches the roof of your mouth, it causes the blood vessels in your head to dilate. There’s a nerve centre just above the roof of your mouth and when this gets cold, it overreacts and tries to heat the brain, which causes a stabbing or aching pain, which we call ‘brain freeze’.
So it’s best to avoid the roof of your mouth with cold food, like ice cream and ice lollies. Although it is unpleasant and can sometimes trigger a migraine in some, most just experience an unpleasant shooting pain which soon subsides.