Take our short alcohol quiz to learn where you fall on the drinking spectrum and if you might benefit from quitting or cutting back on alcohol. In other words, the only real way out of a hangover is through. If you don’t already have a supportive network, you can make new connections by joining social media communities dedicated https://ecosoberhouse.com/ to alcohol-free living. Individuals should be prepared to be uncomfortable during this period and have medical help available if needed. This is the period in which delirium tremens is most likely to occur, which requires immediate medical attention. Delirium tremens is a medical emergency that can result in death.
Additionally, it would be useful to check whether migraine patients enjoy the advantages or disadvantages of less drinking. Finally, 22 articles [26, 27, 36, 44–62] were retrieved for further analysis. The exact mechanism behind this observation may indicate that migraine leads to alcohol-avoidance, rather than alcohol having any protective role against migraine. However, further studies related to primary headaches and alcohol consumption with low risk of bias are required. Additionally, patients and physicians should consider the latest medical data, in order to avoid the myths about alcohol consumption and primary headaches.
Tips for Reducing Alcohol Consumption
No differences exist between migraine and tension headache in the frequency of alcohol as a trigger [17, 18, 20, 24–26, 29] (Table 1). Other studies show that only migraineurs had episodes of tension-type headache precipitated by alcohol [19,27]. If you aren’t sure that alcohol is to blame for your headaches, https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alcohol-and-headaches-why-does-alcohol-cause-migraines/ try keeping a diary. Each time you drink, write down the type of alcohol you have, the amount, and if and when you had a migraine. Include how you felt the prior 48 hours as well as any stress or anxiety you were under at the time. A migraine each time you have a night out should be good reason to abstain.
A person should try keeping a migraine diary for a few weeks to observe trends in their headache patterns. If you have chronic headaches, identifying and avoiding your triggers can substantially improve your quality of life. To determine if drinking is one of yours, it’s helpful to learn the signs of alcohol-induced headaches.
Alcohol-Related Neurologic Disease
Every person has their own reasons for drinking or wanting to reduce their alcohol consumption. Depending on how much you have been drinking, your body may experience physical and psychological changes as you reduce your intake, known as withdrawal. 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. This dilutes the effect of alcohol in your system and reduces the chance of an alcohol-induced headache or triggering a migraine attack. Some people drink water in between glasses of wine, for example.
Drinking harms concentration, learning, and performance at school and at home. Opting for top-shelf brands, sticking to one type of alcohol, alternating with water and food, and knowing your limits are all strategies that can help minimize the chances of developing a headache. Additionally, keeping a diary to track your triggers and being mindful of other factors like stress can also be helpful.
Migraine with aura
For example, on average, females tend to weigh less than males. Individuals with lower body weights cannot process as much alcohol as individuals at higher weights.
- However, alcohol potently inhibited, in itself, diamine oxidase and may activate the release on histamine from mast cells.
- These findings suggest that red wine contains a migraine-provoking agent that is neither alcohol (because vodka is pure alcohol) nor tyramine (for the negligible content in wine).
- Their global prevalence is estimated at 52% of the population [3].
- A slice of cheesecake or pizza can do far more damage for some people than others.
- Individuals who experience severe headaches after drinking alcohol may also avoid alcohol altogether.
- The migraines tend to start within three hours of consuming alcohol.
Treatment options vary, from acute treatment to relieve symptoms to preventive treatment to reduce the number of attacks you experience. There are also behavioral treatment options and lifestyle changes that can help. Migraine episodes can be a periodic inconvenience, or they can be debilitating. The most severe migraine attacks may last up to 3 days and make it impossible to do anything. A 2015 study suggests that the inactivity of alcohol dehydrogenase 2, an enzyme that helps break down alcohol, might contribute to hangover headaches. However, the study author also cautions that no single factor causes all hangover headaches.
Headache and Alcohol
Other studies useful for the correlation of the results with the pathogenesis of the primary headaches where also selected. These findings suggest that red wine contains a migraine-provoking agent that is neither alcohol (because vodka is pure alcohol) nor tyramine (for the negligible content in wine). Recently another study group reported a high percentage of patients referring red wine as the most frequent trigger between alcoholic drinks [24] but subsequently it did not report any of them as a trigger [30]. Since alcohol can trigger migraine and tension headache attack, only a low percentage of headache patients should drink alcoholic beverages. Few and often only descriptive studies exist on this topic, with marked differences in the percentage of consumers perhaps depending on the country habits [19, 24, 26, 31–33] (Table 2).