Purpose

1
Purpose

• My purpose was to test whether middle school
  students will develop an ice cream headache by
  eating their ice cream at a slow speed, or at a
  fast speed

2
Background information

• Ice cream is the most common cause of "brain
  freeze", and it only occurs in one third of the
  population. Previous researchers have found that
  the pain starts a couple of seconds after the
  swallowing of cold foods or drinks and hurts the
  most after 30 - 60 seconds. For most people, the
  pain goes away 10-20 seconds after its peak for
  very few people, it can last for up to 5 minutes.
  It is unclear whether those people who get
  headaches are more or less likely to get ice
  cream headaches. One researcher claims that ice
  cream headaches can only happen during the summer
  (hot weather)
• Sources
• 1. bmj.com Editorials Ice Cream Headache by
  Joseph Hulihan
  
• 2. Headache by NH Raskin
• 3. Headache by N Bird, A MacGregor, MIP
  Wilklinson Ice Cream headache site, duration,
  and relationship to migraine
  
• 4. Headache by NH Raskin Ice Cream headache and
  orthostatic symptoms in patients with migraine
  
• 5. Handbook of clinical neurology by RO Smith
  Ice Cream headache

3
Hypotheses

• I think that the middle school students tested
  will get ice cream headaches in this time of year
  (winter)
  
• I think that the middle school students who are
  told to eat their ice creams fast are more likely
  to get ice cream headaches
  
• I think that more than 33 of the middle school
  students who are tested will get ice cream
  headaches

4
Materials

• 150 questionnaires (75 red, 75 green)
• 16 L of vanilla ice cream
• 150 styrofoam plates
• 150 plastic spoons
• 1 stopwatch
• 1 video camera

5
Questionnaires

• Before
• Gender ? ? Male ? Female
• Age ? ? 10 ? 11 ? 12 ? 13 ?
  14
  
• How often do you get headaches ? ? every day ?
  every week ? every two weeks ? every month
  ? once every three months ? once every six
  months ? once a year
• Have ever gotten an ice cream headache/brain
  freeze before? ? Yes ? No
  
• After
• Did you get an ice cream headache? ? Yes
  ? No
  
• How long did it last ? ? didnt get one ?
  0-5 sec. ? 5-10 sec. ? 10-30 sec. ? 30
  sec.-2 min. ? over 2 min.

6
Methods

• A total of 145 middle school students were
  tested. They were randomly divided into two
  groups. All the students were asked to complete a
  short questionnaire before and after the
  experiment
• All the students were given 100 mL of vanilla ice
  cream
  
• The fast group was asked to eat their ice cream
  in under 5 seconds, and was warned 2 seconds
  before the time was up to put all their remaining
  ice cream in their mouth.
• The normal group was asked to eat their ice cream
  in over 30 seconds. They were asked to have
  approximately half of the ice cream they were
  originally given left once 30 seconds had passed
  (this depended on the colour dot in the corner of
  the questionnaire form they got a red circle
  would require them to eat their ice cream fast,
  and a green circle would require them to eat it
  at normal speed)
• Statistical analyses descriptive statistics and
  chi-square tests (MS Excel http//members.aol.co
  m/johnp71/javastat.html)

7
Study flow chart
8
Description of groups
9
Ice-cream headache by group (n145)
10
Duration of ice-cream headaches (n29)
11
Results

• Overall 20 (29/145) students got ice cream
  headaches
  
• Students in the fast group were significantly
  more likely to get ice creams headaches than
  students in the normal group 27.4 vs. 12.5
  RR2.19, 95 CI (1.03-4.94), p
• Most headaches (59) lasted less than 10 seconds
• 79.3 of students (overall) reported to have had
  ice cream headaches in the past

12
Conclusions

• More students in the fast group got ice creams
  headaches than people in the normal group
  
• 79.3 of students (overall) reported to have had
  ice cream headaches in the past. This is much
  higher than 33 reported by Hulihan
  
• 29 out of 145 students (20.0) got ice cream
  headaches, and since this experiment was
  conducted during the winter (December to
  January). This contradicts Hulihans conclusion
  that they can only be experienced during the
  summer months (hot weather)

13
Study limitations

• I only tested students who were between 11 and 14
  years old
  
• I could have asked more questions in the
  questionnaires to get more data to use in my
  analysis (ie, pain intensity)
  

14
Thanks to

• Ms.Charters
• Mr.Sallewsky
• Ms.Diacon
• Classes 63, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85 of Dalewood Middle
  School
  
• Janusz Kaczorowski
• Isabelle Cottenceau