Hi everyone!

I'm a third year medical studen with my medical student minute.

Here is an interesting fact I've learned as a medical student the brain does not feel pain.

Surprising, right?

If you're one of the millions of people who experience headaches on the regular, you might wonder where that pain comes from, if not from your brain.

I mean, what else is there up in your head?

Well, actually a lot.

Headaches can come from any of the many layers in and around the skull, like the thin lining aroun your brain called the meninges, the arteries and veins in your head, your sinuses, or any of the muscles and nerves around your face and brain.

Freeze that pain deep in your hea when you eat ice cream too fast.

Also not your brain.

That's from a cluster of nerves up behind the roof of your mouth called this phenol palatine ganglion.

Say that five times fast and your brain will hurt.

So why is all of this important?

If the brain can't feel pain, we can't use pain to tell us how badly the brain's been hur when we experience head trauma.

Instead, doctors and firs responders look for other signs like changes in vision or passing out.

So if you hit your head and something feels off, take it seriously, eve if the pain isn't all that bad.

This has been a medical student minute.

I'm Meg Lovett from Upstat Medical University and WC Annie.

And remember, eat your ice cream slowly.