Heart-burns and Brain-freeze
- Nicolas Kusuma
- Jan 3
- 2 min read
These are not uncommon occurrences, when you chow down on a hot meal or eat too much ice cream in a single bite. I mean, these feelings are pretty self-explanatory, brain-freeze being the feeling of your brain quite — literally — freezing. Heartburn on the other hand makes your chest feel like it’s literally burning. But have you ever stopped to wonder, if your brain isn’t actually freezing, and your chest isn’t actually burning? So how do these two phenomena actually occur?
Let’s start with heartburns. Heartburns are scientifically known as gastroesophageal reflux disease or more commonly known to the general populace as GERD. GERD occurs when the valve between your oesophagus and stomach fails to contain the gastric acid from your stomach. The acid travels up your oesophagus, creating that burning feeling we know as ‘heartburn’. Generally, this feeling occurs in your chest area, since that is where your oesophagus is located. On occasion, this burning sensation can travel all the way up your throat.
What are some factors that affect heartburn? Larger meals in a single sitting will increase the chances for heartburn to occur. Larger meals tend to make you belch more frequently and with more intensity. Air released while belching gives rise to an opportunity for acid to escape along with the air, since the valve will be opened (Jaret, 2009). People who smoke and are overweight have also been shown to have an increase in occurrence of heartburn. Every increase in 5 on the BMI (body mass index) increases the chance of GERD occurring by 1.2% on average (Jaret, 2009).
Brain-freeze on the other hand, also known as ice-cream headaches or sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, are caused by specific foods as well as conditions. These conditions, as everyone knows, are caused by the pressing of cold food to the roof of your mouth. Essentially, the feeling of your brain freezing is actually a sudden increase in blood flow to a specific part of the brain, stimulating the sphenopalatine ganglion nerves/trigeminal nerves (Nordqvist, 2017). These nerves control motor function of the face and head, thus stimulating these nerves creates the painful sensation of brain freeze. But then a question arises, why does blood flow increase if temperature decreases? Shouldn’t it be the opposite?
First, we have to go a bit into the topic of homeostasis. Homeostasis is the maintenance of a constant internal environment in our body. That means that when any cold food or object hits the roof of our mouth, the blood vessels underneath will first undergo vasoconstriction, a name given to the constriction of capillaries. The body will react in a process called negative feedback. This means that the blood vessels will undergo vasodilation, thus increasing the blood flow to the brain.
Generally, eating or drinking large amounts of cold foods or drinks will increase your chances of brain freeze, thus it is better to eat slowly and in smaller portions. Another thing to note is that the condition itself isn’t serious despite causing extreme discomfort(Nordqvist, 2017).
Reference
Jaret, P. (2009, January 22). Heartburn prevention tips for spicy food lovers. WebMD.
Nordqvist, J. (2017, March 30). Why does ice cream cause brain freeze?
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