Q: Why do I sometimes get a headache when I'm eating ice cream?

A: About 30% of people experience acute pain when eating ice cream or gulping a cold drink too quickly. The blast of cold irritates the nerve endings in the soft palate. Your palate is also known as the roof of your mouth. The pain is then radiated to the other areas of your head by the nervous system. To prevent the ice cream headache in the future, savor ice cream momentarily in the front of your mouth before swallowing. This lessons the shock of cold that triggers the pain.

In more detail, the nerves respond by to the ice cream cold causing the blood vessels in the head to swell up. This quick swelling of the blood vessels is what causes your head to pound and hurt. Some people call this a "brain freeze," even though nothing is really happening in the brain - it's all in the blood vessels of the head.

Ice cream isn't the only food that can make your head hurt. Anything that's very cold, like ice pops, slushy frozen drinks, and even cold soda, water, milk, or juice can make the blood vessels swell.

A headache from ice cream or another cold food usually lasts about a minute or so, although it can feel like much longer. This kind of headache almost never lasts more than 5 minutes, and it goes away on its own. And although you may feel pain, it's not dangerous and doesn't mean that anything is wrong in your body.

And if you start to feel an ice cream headache coming on, you may be able to slow it down by holding your tongue against your palate. This will warm up your palate a little so you can enjoy the rest of your chilly dessert.