Seeing how temperatures are already soaring into the 90s here in Krystal Country, we know many of you are turning to icy beverages to help you cool down (us included).

And while we’ve warned you about what can happen while slurping down a Krystal Freeze or MilkQuake too quickly, we thought we’d share this story about brain freeze, which provides some recent research as well as a scientific look at the painful condition.

Remember - please drink your MilkQuakes and Krystal Freezes responsibly.

Photo by Flickr user Alison Chains’

Jason Jennette, Krystal Hall of Fame inductee #22, blogs about his love for all things small and square over at The Adventures of Krystal Kid. Jennette was one of the first to chronicle his passion for Krystal with his tales of eating at the restaurant every Thursday, which he has done for nearly 20 years.

He recently moved from Macon, Ga., to Wilmington, N.C., and has to travel a good distance to get to his nearest Krystal, however this doesn’t stop him from enjoying his Krystal Thursdays. Nope, he simply stockpiles his favorite square burgers and reheats them on, well, Thursdays obviously. That’s dedication folks.

But we digress. We recently stopped by his blog to check out his latest Krystal (and sometimes non-Krystal) musings when we stumbled across a post about his “Brain Freeze Straw Study”. After one of his friends reported back that he didn’t suffer from sphenopalatineganglioneuralgia after trying the new Krystal Freeze (maybe he used our brain freeze relief tips?), Jennette decided to conduct a straw study, comparing various fast food restaurant straws to one another in order to determine whether a straw’s length and/or width can hinder or induce brain freeze.

After conducting the straw comparison and drawing upon his own brain freeze experiences, Jennette develops this conclusion: “Krystal should introduce a “Brain Freeze SuperStraw” that is twice the diameter of their current straw, thus allowing maximum frozen throughput and literally slamming the frozen beverage into the brain housing of their customers.”

Ouch we say, but for those weirdos of you who actually enjoy suffering from brain freeze, Jennette’s study suggests using the largest and widest straw possible to quickly suck down your favorite Krystal Freeze flavor. For the rest of you hoping to prevent brain freeze, perhaps try sipping out of a coffee stirrer or, even better, just check out our tips for brain freeze relief.

Take a look at Jennette’s complete study here.

*Many thanks to Jason Jennette for conducting this research, thus helping further advance Krystal’s sphenopalatineganglioneuralgia relief efforts. Photo courtesy of Jennette.

As we promised yesterday, we’re bringing you the second half of Don Welch’s visit to the Krystal Test Kitchen. Welch, the host of News Channel 9’s This N That program, meets up with Brad Wahl, the vice president of marketing for Krystal, to taste some of company’s most popular, brain freeze-inducing beverages.

Welch and Wahl (again, we’re laughing) first try out the most popular Krystal Freeze flavors. There’s also footage of the Krystal Freeze making process, in case you’re wondering how those icy concoctions are created.

Finally, Wahl reveals the new flavor additions to Krystal’s popular lineup of real ice cream MilkQuakes. We’re not going to tell you what those new flavors are, you’ll have to watch the video. However, we can say that we’ve tried them, and they’re beyond delicious.

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Brain Freeze Relief Tips Video

Last week we told you about Krystal’s new icy cold slush beverage called Krystal Freeze, which is made with premium Monin syrups that use 100% pure cane sugar flavoring instead of high fructose corn syrup. We also briefly warned you about the inevitable brain freeze you may get when enjoying one of these cold, refreshing treats. Well, now that the premium slush drinks are officially available in all corporate owned Krystal restaurants and most franchise locations, we wanted to take some time to elaborate on the temporarily painful condition.

Yes, we want to arm with you information and tips for relieving brain freeze, giving you the confidence to gulp and slurp your favorite Krystal Freeze flavor without worrying about its debilitating effects should it strike.

Medically referred to as sphenopalatineganglioneuralgia but more commonly called brain freeze, the condition affects one-third of the population and occurs when a cold object touches the roof of your mouth causing the blood vessels to contract. As the roof of your mouth warms up again, the blood vessels relax and blood flow quickly increases to the brain - thus causing brain freeze.

Should you experience brain freeze, below are some tips and tricks you can use to help alleviate the symptoms:

Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth. This will help warm the area back up, constricting the blood vessels.

Drink a glass of warm water at the first sign of brain freeze. Other warm food items will also work. The key is to warm the mouth back up so the blood vessels constrict.

Create a mask with your hands and place over your mouth and nose while breathing rapidly.

Lay your head to the side. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this may help alleviate the pain.

Holding warm hands (either yours or somebody else’s) over your ears.

Rub the back of your neck vigorously.

Hold your breath.

In addition to providing these brain freeze relief tips, we’ve created brainfreezerelief.com, a site where you can learn more about the condition and even meet up with other sufferers and trade brain freeze relief home remedies.

We’ve also created the instructional video below that we hope you’ll check it out and share with your friends.

Sphenopalatineganglioneuralgia - You can’t say it. But you can do something about it.