Q: Hello doctor, I’d like to ask: could something be wrong with me? I eat a lot of ice cubes and I can’t go a day without eating one, even at night before I go to bed.

A: Could something be wrong with you? Maybe…or maybe not. If you live in a very hot place with frequent power cuts and taking some ice cubes makes you feel cool (literally and figuratively :D), then that makes sense. If you’ve just taken a mouthful of very spicy food or perhaps have a dry mouth and need an instant ‘cool me down’ solution, then ice cubes may not be a bad call. This could develop into a habit or something you do when bored.

However, constantly eating ice cubes (pagophagia) or other non-food items like chalk, hair, glue, sand, clay etc, generally called pica, could be associated with some disease conditions like iron…