Why Menthol Freezes In Your Mouth
When putting an ice-cube in your mouth, everything suddenly feels numb. After holding it still, it’ll turn to pain. Mints are room temperature before you put them in your mouth. Once inside, it suddenly makes your mouth cold and numb. The reason for that is because of menthol. It tricks your brain into thinking that it’s cold. We sense changes in temperatures with our nervous system, TRPM8 is a receptor protein that senses change in temperature. Whenever there is a change in temperature, TRPM8 changes shape. Menthol can actually activate the sense of TRPM8.
Other cooling chemicals in nature like eucalyptol and Icilin act similarly. A taste of peppermint fires up TRPM8 in cold-sensing nerves, which makes your mouth feel cold. Even after the mint has been swallowed, some menthol is still lingering and keeps the nerves activated. A sip of water during this could fire up the nerves again. We also have proteins that can fire up hot temperatures too. TRP-V1 like TRPM8 but with hot temperatures. Capsaicin, is a chemical that is found in hot peppers, activates this protein. This gives us the sensation of heat.
