Generally, these episodes resolve within a few hours but can last up to a whole day. Start your search with these complementary can alcohol cause migraines and integrative therapies. Then, consider exploring more treatment options with our other free resources.

After a night on the town, it’s easy to blame a headache on too much alcohol. But if you’re prone to migraine headaches, drinking even a small amount of alcohol can bring on an attack. In a 2007 study, Austrian researchers examined a number of factors related to migraine, specifically considering consumption of alcohol and other nutritional factors the day before the onset of a headache. They found limited importance of nutrition, including alcohol intake, in the triggering of migraine. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as everyone is unique and experiences migraine differently.

Migraine

The level of histamines, tannins, and sulfites in red wine may also cause headaches and migraine. Since migraines can be so unpredictable, there’s an inherent benefit to figuring out what you can control about the condition. Coping with this disorder means understanding your triggers and what you can do to prevent attacks. Talk to your doctor about steps you can take to live well with migraine.

You could get a headache within 30 minutes to 3 hours of drinking. Some people only sip a glass or two of wine before their head starts to throb. 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.

Does Type of Alcohol Matter? Which Alcohol Is Best for Headaches?

People who experienced migraine with alcohol were more likely to have migraine with aura and to experience more migraine days and more frequent attacks. Without a consistent cause-and-effect situation, though, it could be a number of factors — not just alcohol — that are triggering your migraine headache. If you do notice a pattern, especially with particular types of alcohol over others, you may choose to avoid the offending drinks. Avoiding alcohol isn’t the only way to avoid an alcohol-related migraine headache. There are some health benefits to moderate alcohol consumption, but the key is knowing what types of alcohol cause your headaches, in what amounts, and what other factors might be involved.

Many people believe that alcohol (particularly red wine) is a major trigger of migraine-related headaches — but the effect may not be quite as strong as most people think. It’s also worth noting that alcohol-induced anxiety, or ‘hangxiety’, can worsen and even cause headaches in some cases. Because alcohol is a depressant, it suppresses our nervous system. Once the initial effects of alcohol wear off, our nervous system becomes overexcited, leading to anxiety.

Why are some people more prone to migraine attacks than others?

And if you have one too many alcoholic drinks, you may start to slur your speech and have trouble walking in a straight line — and that’s all before dealing with a hangover the next day. If you’ve called out red wine as a common headache trigger, it may be best to eliminate vin rouge from your drink cabinet altogether. Since white wine is made without grape skin, it has lower histamine content than red wine (which contains the whole grape). So, it’s possible that a histamine sensitivity could make you more susceptible to a headache when sipping on the red stuff. Like other alcohols, red wine can dilate blood vessels in your brain, which can provoke a headache.

• This may also give you the effect or perception of having tunnel vision.
• Other neurotransmitters play a role in the pain of migraine, including calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP).
• Coping with this disorder means understanding your triggers and what you can do to prevent attacks.
• It’s not the same as a hangover headache, which occurs the morning after drinking too much.