Not Quite A Brain Freeze
May. 17th, 2006 02:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockI've mentioned this before, but I don't get brain freezes. When I eat something really cold, I get a stabbing pain between my shoulder blades. Like a pre-chilled knife in my back.
Tadeusz F. Poplawski, M.D.
Child & Adult Neurology and Durham Regional Hospital
http://www.durhamregional.org/healthlibrary/kids/brainfreeze
I knew it! You know what this means? This means the nerves that are supposed to be sending warnings to my brain are sending them to my spinal cord. Or back muscles, or something. But the main point? I'm wired wrong. I always suspected this (indeed the kids in grade school warned me of as much, the little buggers.)
Every doctor I've ever asked has shrugged me off, probably on account of it happening for years and not having any adverse effect except weirdness. I figure I'm either an alien (nobody but me likes that theory, them folk of little imaginations!), or just wired a bit differently. Either way, people look at you oddly if you go "GAAH!" and arch your back like a seizure when you drink a smoothie.
Scientists have discovered that when something cold touches the roof of your mouth, nerve endings shoot up warnings to other nerves that are in charge of protecting your brain. These other nerves work instantly to get your brain back to a normal temperature of 98.6ºF by stretching the blood vessels in your head, eventually causing the headache after 30 to 60 seconds of eating or drinking.
Tadeusz F. Poplawski, M.D.
Child & Adult Neurology and Durham Regional Hospital
http://www.durhamregional.org/healthlibrary/kids/brainfreeze
I knew it! You know what this means? This means the nerves that are supposed to be sending warnings to my brain are sending them to my spinal cord. Or back muscles, or something. But the main point? I'm wired wrong. I always suspected this (indeed the kids in grade school warned me of as much, the little buggers.)
Every doctor I've ever asked has shrugged me off, probably on account of it happening for years and not having any adverse effect except weirdness. I figure I'm either an alien (nobody but me likes that theory, them folk of little imaginations!), or just wired a bit differently. Either way, people look at you oddly if you go "GAAH!" and arch your back like a seizure when you drink a smoothie.
