Head Pain After Drinking? How to Avoid Alcohol Headaches

When enjoying a night out on the town, there are several triggers you may expose yourself to including bright flashing lights, loud music, food and alcohol. A slice of cheesecake or pizza can do far more damage for some people than others. Alcohol may increase blood flow to certain parts of your brain. But whether this causes or relieves headache symptoms depends largely on the type of headache. While headache is generally recognized as a side effect of alcohol in many people, its reputation as a migraine headache trigger may be overestimated. Figure 2 shows data on two individuals selected at random among those who tracked more than 600 days.

• Many migraine sufferers find that keeping a diary helps them identify their own personal triggers and understand their patterns of migraines better.
• Innovative medical devices such as CEFALY Connected offer drug-free migraine relief.
• Different types of alcohol are made through a fermentation process.
• Avoiding drinking is the best way to prevent an alcohol-related headache.

Dehydration

• Even a modest amount of alcohol can cause people with migraine to develop a delayed headache or trigger an attack.
• If they trigger migraines look for an alternative without alcohol.
• “Hydration is probably the biggest protective factor against headache.

Migraines in general have been linked to variations in genes, especially those that regulate blood flow to the brain. Substances such as sulfites, histamine, and tyramines are found in alcohol and may contribute to headaches as well. It has also been proposed that alcohol triggers an inflammatory response that can lead to a headache.

Relieving Headache Pain: Preventing and treating migraines and other headaches

Some may find that small amounts of certain types of alcohol do not trigger migraine. Limit your alcohol consumption to moderate levels, sticking to recommended guidelines. For men, this means no more than two drinks per day, and for women, it’s one drink per day. You should decide whether to drink alcohol with migraine based on your experience and comfort level.

What Are the Symptoms?

Dark liquors and red wines may be particularly harmful due to their sugar, sulfate, tannin, and histamine content. Since the research on alcohol as a migraine trigger is limited, and everyone’s body metabolizes foods and drinks differently, it can be helpful to tune into what yours is telling you. An older 2014 study compared 95 people with can alcohol trigger migraines migraine with 597 people without migraine.

In this study we focused on the role of alcohol as a potential trigger of migraine attacks within 24–48 h after consumption. This delayed effect of alcohol on migraine attack onset may be more difficult to ascertain by an individual compared to an immediate effect. Consumption varies greatly between cultures, regions, and between individuals, a fact which may explain why different studies have found opposing results. A total of 7877 people with migraine registered to use the headache app from October 2014 to March 2018. Among these, 787 were ≥18 years old who tracked ≥90 days with ≥75% adherence. Of these, 651 met the criterion for EM retrospectively, and 493 reported drinking alcohol.

Other effects of drinking alcohol

You might have heard that red wine is most likely to cause problems. But other drinks like sparkling wine, beer, and hard liquor may be just as likely, if not more, to cause problems. It has been suggested that a tendency to experience alcohol-induced headaches could be genetic.

If you want to test to see if alcohol is a trigger, test one of these best alcohols for migraine and headaches on a day when you feel good and other triggers are low. Of course, everyone is different and will have different triggers. Some people may be able to drink red wine or whiskey without any problems, while others may find that even clear liquors are problematic.

About 29 to 36 percent of people who suffer from migraines say alcoholic beverages bring on their headaches. “It probably depends on what kind of alcoholic beverage you’re talking about,” Martin says. One study showed that red wine was far more likely to lead to a migraine than vodka. Remaining hydrated is one way to reduce migraine attacks, but the type of beverage you choose matters. Nonalcoholic beverages with little to no added sugar are the best drinks for migraine. These include water, electrolyte drinks, bone broth, and diluted fruit juices.

Mixed models obtain the differences between each individual effect and the population estimates, thus estimates from Table 4 can be adjusted to provide an individualized model for each user. Figure 1 shows the results of the predicted probabilities (median and 95% CI) of migraine attack for each of the 487 individuals. Although alcohol has long been suspected to be a common migraine trigger, studies have been inconclusive in proving this association. However, more recent research indicates no relationship between tension type headaches and alcohol consumption. A 2015 study suggests that the inactivity of alcohol dehydrogenase 2, an enzyme that helps break down alcohol, might contribute to hangover headaches.

Drinking without fear

If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol-related issues, contact our specialised treatment advisors to get the help you need. This resource provides tips to help older adults with migraine. FSAs are a great way to save on migraine-related expenses, because you don’t pay taxes. Beth Howard is a North Carolina–based health and lifestyle writer.

In some studies, about one-third of people living with migraine reported alcohol as a migraine trigger (at least occasionally). In these retrospective studies, only 10% reported a frequent link. Red wine is the type of alcohol most often reported as a headache trigger. 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. While a hangover headache can happen to anyone (usually the morning after drinking too much alcohol), people who experience migraines are more susceptible. If you have chronic headaches, identifying and avoiding your triggers can substantially improve your quality of life.

“Tyranny of the trigger”Vives-Mestres told MSC she was surprised by the results, which directly challenge the widespread belief that alcohol is a common trigger for migraine. She found it somewhat challenging to explain how alcohol reduced the likelihood of migraine attacks. 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. The role of alcohol in triggering migraine attacks is unclear, and the research is limited. Variable alcohol intake had 10.6% missing values on day‐1 and 11.6% on day‐2; migraine on day‐2 was missing in 7.4%.

Even people who are not prone to headaches will get a headache after a night of heavy alcohol consumption. One or two drinks with food and water over time might be safe for you, but three or more will produce a hangover headache for many people. Mocktails are easier to find these days; you can always lean on them. The quality of the alcohol consumed may be a factor in whether it triggers a headache. Lower-quality wines contain molecules known as phenolic flavonoid radicals, which may interfere with serotonin, a signaling molecule in the brain involved in migraine attacks. Thirty-nine percent of the sample were from the US, and 35% from Great Britain.

Other hard liquors, beer, and sparkling wine have also been identified as culprits by the scientific community. The body converts the ethanol in alcohol that we drink to a chemical that can trigger headaches. Many people may also develop headaches due to the dehydrating effects of alcohol. However, a 2019 study found higher rates of vodka consumption among drinkers with frequent migraine attacks. The response to alcohol varies from person to person, and there is no alcohol that absolutely will not cause a migraine or other headache.

Most studies point to red wine as a common headache culprit, particularly in people with migraine. These individuals commonly cite wine, especially red wine, as a migraine trigger. Several studies suggest that alcohol, especially red wine, may trigger migraine attacks.