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

This is known as the postdrome stage and can make you feel very fatigued and ‘hungover’. Drinking while you feel like this may make you feel worse and prolong your attack, so it’s best not to drink until you feel completely back to normal. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as everyone is unique and experiences migraine differently. Many people find that only certain drinks trigger their attacks, so they only need to avoid specific beverages.

How to Treat Alcohol-Induced Headaches and Migraines

Moreover, some of the studies included in our review do not present results in an accurate way or do so without assigning patients to specific headaches. Therefore, it was not possible for our meta-analysis to contain all those studies where drinking was described with primary headache. The ways describing alcohol addiction articles alcohol consumption habits were variously presented in almost each study, therefore could develop the observed heterogeneity among migraine analysis. Also, the majority of the studies had high or moderate risk of bias. The role of dietary triggers has been well reviewed previously [1, 2].

Data extraction

Please see your healthcare provider if you are concerned about your alcohol use. There have been several proposed explanations for how alcohol eco sober house review causes headaches. Consider joining our Move Against Migraine support group on Facebook so you can connect with others who live with migraine.

Does alcohol trigger a headache?

For instance, the combination of alcohol and stress or alcohol and low blood sugar. Several studies have investigated alcohol as a potential migraine trigger. One study found that more than 35 percent of participants with migraine reported alcohol as a trigger. And more than 77 percent cited red wine specifically as a migraine trigger.

1. It’s interesting to note that cocktail headaches are much rarer than hangover headaches, and they can be triggered by variable amounts of alcohol.
2. 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.
3. If your support system is lacking, consider joining a support group.
4. Many people with migraine find that certain factors trigger their symptoms.
5. Migraine episodes can be a periodic inconvenience, or they can be debilitating.
6. However, these individuals were not more vulnerable to other hangover symptoms.

If alcohol is a confirmed trigger for your migraine, then avoiding alcohol is the best solution. If you’re unsure whether alcohol is triggering your migraine, keep a detailed migraine journal that includes any foods and alcohol consumed throughout the week. This will be a valuable resource for you and your doctor to start identifying more specific migraine triggers. Another thing that remains unclear is whether the type of alcohol you drink determines whether or not you will get a migraine headache. Some studies found that red wine is a main trigger in migraine with aura and cluster type migraine, but they also note that all alcohol could have the same effect. Knowing your migraine triggers is important because avoiding those triggers can reduce your total number of migraine attacks.

Avoiding migraine triggers is one of the only sure-fire ways to avoid migraine symptoms. Some alcohols, like red wine, tend to trigger migraine headaches more often than others. Migraine attacks can be disabling, but there are ways to manage the disease and to empower yourself to get the care and the support that you need. Eradicate the words “I’m fine” from your vocabulary and be honest with your healthcare professional, your employer, your loved ones, about how you’re feeling as well as the kind of support that you need. Make yourself a top priority when you’re having a migraine attack and reduce the likelihood of attacks through lifestyle adjustments.

In addition to this, people are sometimes more likely to drink more when they are feeling stressed and a little reckless. No differences exist between male and females [17, 22,27–29] in alcohol susceptibility. 2021 research also linked lifestyle factors with alcohol drinking and smoking to cluster headaches and their severity. Due to the inclusion of many study designs, the risk of bias was evaluated using tools adjusted to the type of study.

To avoid a reaction, avoid alcohol or the particular substance that causes your reaction. Rarely, severe pain after drinking alcohol is a sign of a more serious disorder, such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma. “Hydration is probably the biggest protective factor against headache. A well-hydrated person is the least likely to experience headaches or to have the least intensity of headache,” Moore says. You can also consider drinking a hydration supplement like Cove’s Oasis to boost that effect. Tannins are naturally occurring compounds (called polyphenols) found in grapes, certain fruit juices, and beer.

Hi, I’m Dr. Amaal Starling, a neurologist at Mayo Clinic specializing in headache disorders. Who gets it, the symptoms, the diagnosis, and most importantly, the treatment. Whether you’re looking for answers for yourself or someone you love, we are here to give you the cocaine crack best information available. It affects each person differently with a wide range of disease severity. Some have infrequent attacks, but others may have frequent disabling attacks. Expecting someone to push through or just take your mind off of it is never good advice.

Simply avoid alcohol, limit how much you drink or avoid certain types of alcoholic beverages. Dr. Green cautions, however, that stopping drinking may not resolve the entire problem. That’s likely because there are other underlying migraine triggers, such as certain foods, caffeine, fluctuating hormones, and stress.

Additionally, only a few of the studies divided participants into migraine with and without aura. Therefore, there was insufficient data to analyze the relationship between alcohol and aura, and the data that does exist is inconsistent [65, 86]. As mentioned in the discussion above, alcohol consumption assessment is strongly based on patients’ honesty. If there is misleading data in questionnaires or during medical interviews, their overall subsequent analysis is also distorted. The relatively low number of cluster-headache studies also does not allow an assessment of any correlation with alcohol drinking.