Brain Freezes and Hiccups: Why Our Bodies Glitch

Almost everyone has felt the sudden, sharp ache in their forehead after slurping a frozen drink too fast on a hot summer day. You might also know the annoying "hic!" sound of a hiccup that suddenly interrupts you during class. While both sensations feel strange and uncomfortable, they are completely normal and harmless body reactions. By learning how our nerves and muscles work together, we can understand why these funny body glitches happen and how to stop them.

What Is a Brain Freeze?

The scientific name for a brain freeze is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. It happens when you eat or drink something very cold, such as ice cream or a frozen slushie, too quickly. Even though we call it a brain freeze, your actual brain does not freeze at all! In fact, the brain itself cannot feel pain because it does not have pain sensors. Instead, the chilly feeling starts at the roof of your mouth, which is called the palate.

When freezing food touches the palate, the blood vessels there quickly constrict, or shrink, to save heat. Right after that, your body tries to warm up the area by making those same blood vessels dilate, or widen, allowing warm blood to rush back in. This quick change from shrinking to widening activates nearby nerves called the trigeminal nerve. Because this big nerve carries signals from all over your face and jaw, your brain gets confused about where the signal started. It mistakenly thinks the pain is in your forehead instead of your mouth. Doctors call this mix-up referred pain.

How to Stop a Brain Freeze

To cure a brain freeze, you need to warm up the roof of your mouth. The easiest and fastest trick is to press your warm tongue firmly against your palate. Your tongue has plenty of warm blood flowing through it, so it acts like a tiny heating pad.

You can also drink a sip of room-temperature water to balance the cold. Another trick is to cup your hands over your mouth and nose and breathe gently, which fills your mouth with warm air. To prevent brain freezes from happening in the first place, simply eat cold treats more slowly.

The Science of Hiccups

While a brain freeze starts in your head, hiccups start in your chest. The main muscle involved is the diaphragm, a large, dome-shaped muscle located right under your lungs. When you breathe in, the diaphragm moves down to pull air into your lungs. When you breathe out, it relaxes and pushes air back out.

Usually, the diaphragm works smoothly without you even thinking about it. However, if the nerves connected to it get irritated, the muscle can have an involuntary spasm, which is a sudden twitch you cannot control. Right after this sudden jerk, your vocal cords snap shut. This sudden closing blocks the air rushing in and creates the classic "hic" noise.

Eating too fast, eating too much, or drinking fizzy sodas full of gas bubbles can stretch your stomach and irritate the diaphragm. Sudden temperature changes or feeling nervous or excited can also trigger hiccups.

How to Cure Hiccups

Most hiccups go away on their own after a few minutes, but a few simple tricks can help reset your breathing rhythm. Holding your breath for about ten seconds increases the amount of carbon dioxide in your lungs, which signals your brain to relax the diaphragm so normal breathing can resume.

Another method is to drink a glass of cold water or swallow a spoonful of sugar. This gives the sensory nerves in your throat a burst of new information, distracting them and stopping the spasm cycle. With a little patience and science, you can easily conquer both brain freezes and hiccups!