# Cold drinks and headaches

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-drinks-and-headaches/225314>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 20, 2004, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-drinks-and-headaches/225314 "2004-01-20T13:24:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sergio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Sergio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sergio)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2004, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-drinks-and-headaches/225314/1 "2004-01-20T13:24:20Z")

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Why do our heads ache when we drink rapidly very cold beverages or icecream? :dubious:

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**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-drinks-and-headaches/225314/2 "2004-01-21T02:02:14Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> “So where do these horrible headaches come from??? I have not seen a better answer to the question than this excellent article by Joseph Hulihan, Temple University. Here’s a summary: When something cold touches the roof of your mouth on a hot day, it triggers a cold headache. The cause is a dilation of blood vessels in the head. The dilation may be caused by a nerve center located above the roof of your mouth - when this nerve center gets cold, it seems to over-react and tries to heat your brain. Therefore, the easy way to avoid brain freeze would be to keep cold things away from the roof of your mouth!”

[http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/icheadache.html](http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/icheadache.html)