Connection between brain freezes and migranes

In this article, they say that most people have likely experienced a brain freeze. Researchers did not really understand what causes it, until now. The previous studies found that migraine sufferers are actually a lot more likely to get a brain freeze. People without migraines do not get it as often. The researchers thought that they might share some kind of common cause. They have decided to

use a brain freeze to study up on migraines. Headaches that are like migraines are difficult to study because they are unpredictable. They are not able to research a whole migraine from start to finish in the lab. They can medication to induce the migraines, but those can also have side effects that interfere with the results. Brain freezes make this lab easy because it is easy to get a migraine and it is quick to end. They brought on brain freezes in the lab by having about thirteen healthy volunteers sip ice water through a straw, to hit right again the top of their mouth. They would raise their hands when they felt a familiar brain freeze come on, and then raised them again once it disappeared. The researchers monitored the blood flow through their brains using an ultrasound like process to the skull. The increased blood flow to the brain through a blood vessel, called an anterior cerebral artery, which is located in the middle of the brain behind the eyes. The pain disappears when the artery constricts reining in response to the increased flow. This blood vessel is a type of self-defense for the brain. The blood cannot be cleared as quickly as it is coming in during the brain freeze. It can raise the pressure inside the skull and induce the pain that way. The blood vessel constricts as the pressure and the temperature in the brain rise.