Alcohol and migraine: Drinks to avoid, remedies, and more

19 Jun Alcohol and migraine: Drinks to avoid, remedies, and more

Drinking water before bed after a night of drinking can also help prevent or lessen the severity of hangover symptoms, including headaches, the next day. Tension headaches are the most common type of headache and are often caused by muscle tension and stress. While some studies suggest a link between alcohol consumption and an increase in tension headaches, contradicting research claims that drinking beer could actually reduce pain and improve headache symptoms.

Why Does Alcohol Give Me a Headache After One Drink?

Are you tired of waking up with a throbbing headache or a migraine attack after a night of drinking? Even people who are not prone to headaches can find themselves with hangover headaches, and about one-third of patients with migraine note alcohol as a trigger for their attacks. It can be hard to tell which one you have, especially when you’re trying to puzzle it out with an already achy head. Some headaches (like migraines and tension headaches) have no known cause. Criteria to recognize habits for alcohol consumption was various in almost each study.

What causes tension headaches?

It’s more Alcoholics Anonymous often a matter of individual triggers or other factors that coincide with your alcohol consumption, such as stress. Talk with your doctor about how long after drinking alcohol to wait before you can take any prescription migraine or OTC medications. Without a consistent cause-and-effect situation, though, a number of factors — not just alcohol — could be triggering your migraine headache. Alcohol has different effects on your body depending on when you drink it. These are called immediate and delayed alcohol-induced headaches. While headache is generally recognized as a side effect of alcohol in many people, its reputation as a migraine headache trigger may be overestimated.

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You may find that one day you can drink a lot of alcohol and not experience a headache at all, yet another day just a few glasses will leave you with a pounding head. The main ingredient in alcohol that is responsible for a sore head is ethanol. There are a variety of reasons why this potent chemical can cause a headache such as its ability to dilate the blood vessels. Alcohol is a diuretic, causing the body to lose vital salts and minerals which help it to function.

Processed foods with nitrites, nitrates, yellow food dyes, or monosodium glutamate can be especially problematic. Aged cheeses, alcohol, chocolate, citrus fruits, and coffee are among the most commonly reported food triggers in people with migraines (1). When I consume large amounts of plain water without adequate electrolytes—particularly after physical exertion—it can dilute my blood’s sodium levels too quickly.

• Consuming a meal before drinking alcohol can help slow down the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream, reducing the risk of immediate alcohol-induced headaches.
• Dehydration is also a common side effect of many prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications.
• Red wine is classified as a dominant trigger of cluster headaches and migraine attacks, while champagne, white wine, and other sparkling wines are also linked to migraine headaches.
• The exact mechanisms behind alcohol-induced migraines are not fully understood, but several factors may contribute.
• This compound might inhibit the body’s ability to break down alcohol, leading to the buildup of a substance called acetaldehyde, which could result in headaches.

Drinks That Don’t Taste Like Alcohol (2024 Edition)

But other drinks like sparkling wine, beer, and hard liquor may be just as likely, if not more, to cause problems. Many things can trigger a migraine, from stress at work to changes in the weather to foods like aged cheese. And for about one-third of people who have migraines, alcohol is also a trigger. If you’ve consumed too much alcohol and have to work the next day, what do you do?

In some cases, depriving yourself of the caffeine fix you rely on to get through the day can leave you with a throbbing headache. Anyone who’s had a dreaded caffeine headache before knows they make a difficult day even harder. No one should have to deal with that, so we reviewed the research and spoke with a doctor to find out what causes the pain, and how to get rid of a caffeine headache. Several studies have proven a link between diet and headaches, showing different foods can provoke and prevent headaches in different individuals.

Are there any home remedies for headaches that you should avoid?

If stress is the culprit, your provider also will recommend lifestyle changes and other things you can do to reduce stress and prevent tension headaches. In some cases, healthcare providers may recommend tension headache after drinking prescription medication or physical therapy. It’s such a common phenomenon that research has found one-third of migraine sufferers cite alcohol as a trigger for their migraine headaches. There is also a genetic component involved with who does and doesn’t get migraine headaches after drinking, according to research.

As the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism points out, hangovers usually have several symptoms. If you have other hangover symptoms, like nausea or dizziness, in addition to your headache, then the likely cause of your headache is alcohol. Certain pain medicines can cause a bad reaction if you take them with other medicines. Before you start to take pain medicines, be sure to let your doctor know about all of the drugs you take.