What action should one not take if suffering from ‘sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia’?

‘Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia’ is the medical or scientific term for what is commonly called “brain freeze”, which is a type of headache or neuralgia caused by drinking or eating something very cold, too quickly.

This condition is characterized by pain of the nose and orbit (the cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated), which may extend to the rest of face, and then to shoulders and neck.

Eating extremely cold food or beverages too fast, especially in a warm or hot ambient temperature, cools the palate in such a way that the blood vessels constrict and dilate leading to temporary alteration of blood flow in the brain. This relays impulses along the trigeminal nerve (a nerve responsible for sensation in the face and motor functions such as biting and chewing) to the brain where the pain is interpreted as coming from the forehead.

An ice cream headache generally lasts less than 5 minutes, and the simplest self-treatment is to place the warm tongue against the roof of the mouth. The headaches sometimes caused by the quick consumption of extremely cold food, such as ice-cream and slush drinks are also called "ice-cream headaches" or "cold-rushes".