Q. I read your “brain freeze” article just days before waking up with a migraine. Whenever I get a migraine I wake up with it, so I have no warning and begin vomiting within 5 or 10 minutes. Usually I can’t keep any medicine down long enough for it to take effect.
My husband ran and got me some ice cream. Intentionally creating brain freeze is not as easy as it sounds! I had to hold it in my mouth to the roof and back of the throat. That worked after about 5 minutes.
I took ibuprofen instead of my migraine meds (because they make me feel awful). This migraine stopped and I was able to go to work on time, without any headache. I never vomited. Thanks for the tip.
A. You are not the only one to report relief from migraines by inducing brain freeze. Having a cold substance in the mouth (ice cream, ice water, etc.) makes blood vessels above the roof of the mouth dilate rapidly and then constrict. This could explain why it helps some migraine sufferers.
One of our favorite stories about brain freeze working against a migraine came from a physician. Not only that, he worked for a major drug company that had developed sumatriptan, the first breakthrough drug against migraines. Here is a link to his amazing story.
