All these pathways in the body are linked to inflammation and oxidative stress, says Pranoti Mandrekar, a liver biologist at University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. The metabolism of alcohol generates free radicals—essentially, unstable oxygen molecules—that damage proteins and DNA. Mandrekar’s research explores how these free radicals alter certain “chaperone” proteins and push the gas pedal on tumor growth. If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing.
PATIENTS
Assessing the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption remains an active area of research that may lead to major changes in official guidelines or warning labels. It’s worth noting that current guidelines advise against drinking alcohol as a way to improve health. And not so long ago there was general consensus that drinking in moderation also came with health advantages, including a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
How to Know if You Have Migraine or Sinus Headache
Migraines and their triggers are very individual – what affects one person may cause no problems for the next. Many migraine sufferers find that keeping a diary helps them identify their own personal triggers and understand their patterns of migraines better. Drinking alcohol is a trigger for migraine in some people – one study found around a third (33%) of people who get migraines are sensitive to alcohol.4 Others react to hunger, or certain foods.
Content Types
Eating before drinking helps slow down the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream. As a result, eating beforehand reduces alcohol’s potential migraine-inducing effects. While many individuals report alcohol as a trigger for their migraine episodes, the exact cause remains uncertain. Some studies suggest that alcohol’s direct effects on the brain, blood vessels and neurotransmitters may play a role. However, identifying a single reason is challenging due to people’s varying reactions to alcohol.
- Brandy, red wine, and rum have the highest levels of congeners, while gin and vodka contain fewer of these chemicals.
- For instance, recall biases are a common limitation of retrospective studies.
- To understand more about the symptoms experienced with migraine attacks, read our articles on vestibular migraine or different types of headaches.
- Savage-Edwards advises that if alcohol is found to be a trigger, then it’s best to avoid it.
- Vodka and gin are both clear liquors that are made through the distilling process discussed above.
- If you notice consistent patterns, then chances are it’s the alcohol that’s causing your migraine headache.
Cluster headache
If your support system is lacking, consider joining a support group. Finding a community of people who understand exactly what you’re going through is like being welcomed home after a long, tiring day. Our Move Against Migraine support group is a place for you to connect with others (via Facebook) who live with migraine to exchange stories and find community and support. The American Migraine Foundation is committed to improving the lives of those living with this debilitating disease.
These individuals commonly cite wine, especially red wine, as a migraine trigger. Migraine causes a specific type of headache that involves neurological symptoms such as light sensitivity and aura. Other types of headaches, including severe headaches, can occur as a result of alcohol consumption. People who find that alcohol (often in any amount) triggers their migraines might limit their alcohol consumption or take note of when their alcohol intake prompts a headache. They should talk to a medical provider about these triggers in order to minimize their headaches.
It would also be helpful to keep something like gammaCore™ non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator (nVNS) in your back pocket. This is a device you can use at home yourself to treat headache pain when it strikes. It works by targeting the vagus nerve, which regulates pain, through the skin on the side of your neck. Alcohol has long been considered a “social lubricant” because drinking may encourage social interaction. Having a drink while getting together with family or friends is often part of many special occasions.
Red wine contains 20 to 200 times the amount of histamine than white wine. Women are more likely to have migraines triggered by red wine than men. Whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) states that there is no safe alcohol dose 19, Panconesi et al. conclude that low consumption is not a contraindication for headache patients 79. However, each patient makes individual decisions based on their own experience. Headache after a certain amount of alcohol is likely to induce behavioral reactions (i.e., alcohol-intake adjustment). Similarly, common beliefs may influence patients habits, e.g., the conviction that “red wine causes migraine”, even if studies present conflicting evidence 80, 81.
After a night on the town, it’s easy to blame a headache on too much alcohol. But if you’re prone to migraine sober house headaches, drinking even a small amount of alcohol can bring on an attack. While people who have these headaches report a connection to alcohol, there’s no real consistency in how alcohol causes these headaches to develop, according to studies that have been done. Instead, researchers suggest that alcohol as a trigger is more of a personal reaction — common in certain types of headaches — than a general effect. But newer research has questioned some of the heart benefits of moderate drinking and has noted key limitations in many analyses.
Key points
Individuals from different ethnic backgrounds may have variable sensitivity to alcohol. This article will use the terms “male,” “female,” or both to refer https://northiowatoday.com/2025/01/27/sober-house-rules-what-you-should-know-before-moving-in/ to sex assigned at birth. Relaxation techniques may help ease stress-related migraine episodes, and they may make migraine episodes feel less severe when they do happen. This will be helpful in guiding conversations with your doctor about your symptoms.
- People prone to headaches may be at a higher risk of experiencing alcohol-related headaches.
- Sometimes, migraines don’t plague patients until the next morning, just as their blood-alcohol content level is back to normal.
- Researchers don’t know exactly what causes alcohol-induced migraine attacks.
- The study also found that it was the ethanol consumption that was responsible for a majority of the hangover symptoms.
- While many individuals report alcohol as a trigger for their migraine episodes, the exact cause remains uncertain.
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.
If you tend to get migraines within three hours or less of drinking, this might work best for you. 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 doctor isolate the cause of your migraine and your triggers. While this is not necessarily true for everyone, it’s true for so many people that a trend toward abstinence developed among migraine-sufferers. In fact, one Dutch study found that 25% of people who suffered from migraines had stopped drinking because it was either an actual or potential trigger.
- After creating and using search terms in databases, the results were searched by three authors (BB, PN and MS1) independently.
- If you suffer from migraines, you will learn to recognise which particular symptoms affect you.
- You should decide whether to drink alcohol with migraine based on your experience and comfort level.
- Dr. Green cautions, however, that stopping drinking may not resolve the entire problem.
- A number of experts have recommended revision of the guidelines toward lower amounts, as more studies have linked even moderate alcohol consumption to health risks.
- Finally, 22 articles 26, 27, 36, 44–62 were retrieved for further analysis.
A moderate risk of bias was assigned when the paper received positive answers between mentioned ranges. The assessments were conducted by three researchers (BB, PN and MS1) separately, then the fourth author (MWP) compared this data and made a final decision. As dehydration can cause headaches, staying hydrated when consuming alcohol is key.
