Why does your throat hurt when you drink ice water while chewing gum?

[Guest kitkatwildkat]

Hey I was curious as to why your throat hurt when you drink ice water while chewing gum? I am looking into doing an experiment on this and would love some information as I cant seem to find any on the internet. Thank you soooo much!

[Glider]

The flavouring substances in gum e.g. mint etc., cause localised vasodilation (the veins and capillaries in your throat dilate). The tonsils at the back of your throat in particular are highly vascular. When you drink icewater, this causes sudden and severe vasocostriction (a vasopressor response to cold immersion), which results in pain. You find the same effect if you drink something very cold after drinking something hot, and the same principle applies in 'ice-cream headaches'. It's the relative degree of change in vasopressor state that results in pain.

 

If you want to find out more, try Googling the net for 'cold pressor response' or 'cold pressor test'.

 

Hope this helps.

[Guest kitkatwildkat]

thank you so much for your help! it is more than greatly appreciated

[Glider]

You're welcome.

[YT2095]

Glider:

 

using that same principal, I was told after I`d sustained a rather nasty impact injury to my hand, to imediately run it under cold water, then hot then cold etc.. for as long as I could take it.

were they correct? and what does it actualy do? other than go sort of numb after a while

[Glider]

The injury would have resulted in haematoma and local inflammatory response. If you hold you hand under cold water, it causes the veins to constrict and reduces the amount of interstitial bleeding and inflamation (which itself is due to the localized release of histamine and prostoglandins which cause the capillaries to dilate and become 'leaky' allowing white cells and so-on to reach the damaged tissue).

 

If you hold your hand under hot water, it would cause vasodilation, increase bleeding and inflammation, so I don't know why you were told to alternate between hot and cold. The usual immediate treatment for such injuries is cold water as it reduces bleeding and inflammation. It's just damage limitation really, it won't stop the bruising, it'll just reduce it.

[YT2095]

Cheerz

 

well it did sound odd to me at the time also, but I did it anyway, and other than an eventual numbing effect there`s seemed to be no real advantage. I`ll stick to just cold water from now on then, thanks again