Ice cream evoked headaches (ICE-H) study: randomised trial of accelerated versus cautious ice cream eating regimen

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7378.1445

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Maya Kaczorowski, grade 8 studenta,
Janusz Kaczorowski, associate professor (kaczorow@mcmaster.ca)b

^a Dalewood Middle School, Hamilton, ON, Canada,
^b Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Correspondence to: J Kaczorowski

Cold stimulus headache, also known as ice cream headache, is a common problem and is reported to occur in about a third of a randomly selected population.1 It was further suggested that the ice cream headache could be induced only in hot weather.2 A Medline search from 1966 to August 2002 with the MeSH terms and combination operators “ice cream,” “headache,” and “randomized controlled trial” to identify English language trials in this area produced no results.

In order to fill this important knowledge gap, we compared the effect of two ice cream eating regimens on the incidence of ice cream induced headaches in a prospective randomised manner. The study was carried out during the winter to test whether this phenomenon was restricted to hot weather only.