Can Alcohol Trigger Migraines and Other Headaches?

To that end, there are a couple of steps you’ll want to take immediately if you’ve got a pounding headache after drinking. While headaches are a symptom why does vodka give me a headache of having a migraine, as the UC Davis website points out, migraines are a syndrome with other symptoms besides headaches. 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.

Be Cautious With Pain Medication

Other criteria for a person to have a migraine diagnosis include nausea or vomiting and sensitivity to light or https://ecosoberhouse.com/ noise. This leads to excessive urination and dehydration, which may cause a headache after a small amount of alcohol. In a 2017 study, researchers found that people of East Asian ancestry drink less than members of other groups. Certain genes may influence the tendency to drink and alcohol tolerance to quantities of alcohol. While there is some research on each possible reason why alcohol causes headaches, study authors have not definitively proven the link between the two. Meanwhile, 2020 research showed that 95% of participants experienced alcohol-induced headaches.

What Causes An Alcohol Headache After One Drink?

• But according to Waterhouse and Devi, the amount of milligrams of sulfites in wine — 20 milligrams in a single glass — are unlikely to be enough to overwhelm the body’s sulfite oxidases.
• It also depends on whether or not you’re likely to develop headaches.
• In summary, pre-existing conditions such as alcohol allergy or intolerance and being migraine prone can contribute to alcohol-induced headaches.

When you take a drug such as Tylenol while drinking, there is a potential for severe side effects, including liver damage. Additionally, alcohol consumption decreases the level of B vitamins in the body, which can make headaches worse. Supplementing with Vitamin B12 or B6 before or after drinking may improve symptoms.

Conditions

• Also, if you on medications, it’s essential to consult the doctor because the condition may be related to an allergy with the medication.
• It’s not the same as a hangover headache, which occurs the morning after drinking too much.
• Like food triggers, the likelihood of a particular type of alcohol triggering a headache is probably different from person to person.
• While headaches are generally recognized as a side effect of alcohol in many people, its reputation as a migraine headache trigger may be overestimated.
• Alcohol is broken down in the liver by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase.

If you frequently suffer from alcohol-related headaches, and are struggling to cut Halfway house back, there are also new solutions. Ria Health’s online program can help you cut back or quit without having to put your life on hold. Get access to anti-craving medications, regular coaching meetings, expert medical advice, digital tools, and more—all from an app on your smartphone.

Types of headaches associated with alcohol

If you are sensitive to one or more of the ingredients in beer, you may get an instant headache from consuming it. For example, your genetic makeup may be such that you just can’t tolerate a lot of alcohol, or you may have a naturally-low body weight. That also doesn’t allow for much alcohol in general, beer or otherwise. If you’ve ever had just one beer and got a headache not long after, you’re seeing the principles in the list above in action.

Can I Prevent Headaches When I Drink?

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. Because anxiety can trigger or worsen headaches, these two hangover symptoms are often related.

Alcohol disrupts sleep patterns, leading to fragmented and less restorative sleep. This sleep disruption, combined with the dehydrating effects of alcohol, creates a perfect storm for a headache. Red wine has long been recognized as a potential trigger for headaches in some individuals. This can be attributed to the presence of histamines, which are natural compounds found in red wine. Histamines are known to cause blood vessels to dilate, leading to increased blood flow to the brain and potentially triggering a headache. A cocktail headache is a headache that occurs within the same evening of drinking alcohol.