Alcohol and headaches

Consider joining our Move Against Migraine support group on Facebook so you can connect with others who live with migraine. Start your search with these complementary and integrative therapies. Then, consider exploring more treatment options with our other free resources. Reviewed for accuracy by the American Migraine Foundation’s subject matter experts, headache specialists and medical advisers with deep knowledge and training in headache medicine. Relaxation techniques may help ease stress-related migraine episodes, and they may make migraine episodes feel less severe when they do happen.

Content Types

Detailed information can be found in the Supplementary Material online, Tables S2. Easy-to-digest or bland foods such as toast, cereal, or oatmeal can help provide nutrition and energy without contributing to nausea or heartburn hangover symptoms. To boost these levels and restore energy, try eating foods high in carbohydrates, such as whole grains like oats or bran flakes, and fruits like bananas or apples. You might also consider combining carbs with protein and healthy fats to stabilize blood sugar levels. If migraines keep you from working, socializing, or enjoying life, it’s important to schedule an appointment with a healthcare provider.

These include water, electrolyte drinks, bone broth, and diluted fruit juices. The authors noted that a likely explanation for their findings is that people with migraine may avoid drinking alcohol, while those who don’t experience migraine partake with less hesitation. A 2019 study recognized alcoholic beverages, especially red wine, as a migraine trigger factor for people with migraine. ADs have been reported to trigger the principal types of primary headaches. Certainly, ADs, even in small doses, trigger headache in some MO patients, but what is debated is the degree, which depend, in part, from the population studied, the country where the study was performed and the study approach.

Free Healthbeat Signup

So it’s best to make alcohol the single, isolated factor and journal what triggers each migraine. Whenever one comes on, jot down what you last ate, how much sleep you got, what the current environmental factors are, and anything else that may help you to find out what the cause is. This will help your migraines from alcohol doctor isolate the cause of your migraine and your triggers. Over the years, research has shown that moderate alcohol consumption may provide health benefits over total abstinence.

A migraine each time you have a night out should be a good reason to abstain. After a night on the town, it’s easy to blame a headache on too much alcohol. But if you’re prone to migraine headaches, drinking even a small amount of alcohol can bring on an attack. Migraine episodes can be a periodic inconvenience, or they can be debilitating.

Main Content

• Dehydration causes brain cells to contract temporarily, also resulting in headaches.
• Analysis of the 22 included studies revealed 5 cohort studies 36, 45, 52, 55, 58, 11 cross-sectional 26, 27, 44, 46–48, 51, 56, 57, 59, 60 and six case-controls 49, 50, 53, 54, 61, 62.
• Home remedies can speed up the process, helping you feel better faster.
• If you experience migraine headaches after drinking alcohol, it may be best to avoid alcohol or that certain type of alcohol.

Let’s explore the best and worst types of alcohol for people with migraine. Figure 1A shows the individual probabilities of migraine attack, when no alcohol was consumed on either day‐1 or day‐2. Red dots represent the median individual probability, and vertical lines represent the individual 95% CI. These probabilities (red dots) serve as reference for the other three panels. When there was alcohol intake on day‐2 (regardless of intake on day‐1, Figure 1C,D) the probability of migraine attack was lower compared to when there was no alcohol intake in both day‐1 and day‐2 (red dots).

“This is a self-selected population; it’s not necessarily reflective of the larger migraine population. Often patients who use the N1-Headache app are very motivated and are keen to identify their triggers,” he said. Neither the interaction term nor the presence of migraine on day‐2 were significant and they were removed (one at a time) from the final model (Model 2). No convergence issues were identified in Model 3 (neither in the full nor in the simplified, final model). Table 3 shows the distribution of daily alcoholic beverage consumption.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

There, you will find a wonderful community of people who are ready to listen and lift each other up. You could get a headache within 30 minutes to 3 hours of drinking. Some people only sip a glass or two of wine before their head starts to throb. You might have heard that red wine is most likely to cause problems.

• Therefore, there was insufficient data to analyze the relationship between alcohol and aura, and the data that does exist is inconsistent 65, 86.
• Dark liquors and red wines may be particularly harmful due to their sugar, sulfate, tannin, and histamine content.
• Let’s explore the best and worst types of alcohol for people with migraine.
• People who cannot stop drinking should talk with a doctor about treatment for alcohol use disorder, which is a serious but treatable condition.
• In a study published in 2018, 77.8% of patients reported red wine as a trigger in general, with 8.8% of patients noting it as a consistent trigger.

Remember, your health care providers want to work with you to make your symptoms as manageable as possible. People with migraine who treat their attacks with certain drugs should avoid drinking alcohol because it may interact poorly or dangerously with their medications. When mixed with alcohol, the common migraine medication Topamax (topiramate) can cause dizziness, problems with memory, sleepiness, and even depression.

Rosen was a co-author of a small 2022 study of 487 people who mostly drank alcohol in low amounts. The data did not suggest a significant link between consuming alcohol and a migraine attack within 24 hours. As a physician, my best advice for decreasing or avoiding alcohol-related headaches is to take steps to change your relationship with alcohol. Monument is an online alcohol treatment platform that can help provide support every step of the way.

It may also help eliminate triggers that tend to co-occur with drinking, such as dehydration and sleep deprivation. Although any type of alcohol can trigger a migraine, people who experience regular migraine attacks cite red wine as the most frequent culprit. Study participants reported whether they had consumed alcohol each day, and if so, how many alcoholic beverages they drank. The investigators then defined a migraine attack as one migraine day or a series of consecutive migraine days. People with migraine often report trigger factors – particular substances or circumstances that provoke a migraine attack. Alcohol is often reported as a trigger among individuals with migraine or other kinds of headaches.

Statistically, males drink more alcohol than women and have more alcohol-related behavioral disorders 23. Drinking problems occur in every age, but in the 25–49 age group, alcohol has the highest impact on mortality caused by cancer deaths and also life disability 24, 25. Vodka and gin are both clear liquors that are made through the distilling process discussed above. This process removes congeners, which means that these drinks are less likely to trigger migraine attacks.

On the other hand, the probability of migraine attack when there was no intake on day‐2 was similar regardless of whether there was alcohol intake on day‐1 (Figure 1A,B). Most importantly, monitor how you feel when you drink alcohol and be willing to have open and honest conversations about drinking with your doctor and other important people in your life. This data suggests that there may be a misperception that drinks containing alcohol cause migraine attacks.

Misti Herbal Remedies

All Author Posts