Alcohol Can Trigger Headaches and Migraines

So, she recommends reducing alcohol intake or stopping drinking altogether if a patient does, indeed, find a connection between drinking and migraine. No differences exist between male and females [17, 22,27–29] in alcohol susceptibility. Drinking too much beer can cause you to urinate more than usual, making you dehydrated and triggering headaches. So to avoid this, drink plenty of water to refill your body with clean liquid and to neutralize the alcohol you have taken. About two-thirds of people who drink alcohol develop these headaches. People who suffer from migraine are more prone to these reactions — even after drinking less alcohol than people who don’t get migraine headaches.

Why does wine give me a headache but not other alcohol?

Tannins are plant chemicals that impart flavor to red wines and contain antioxidants. But they also spur the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which at high levels can cause headaches in some people.

No differences were does alcohol cause migraines in another population study , and in a small study where, however, some bias is present, that is different periods of evaluation, controls with medical illnesses, etc . Moreover, there were significant trends of decreasing prevalence of migraine and non-migraine headache with the increasing number of alcohol units consumed . Trying different beers can help you find the beer that doesn’t trigger your headaches. You might find this odd, but some beers are made with different ingredients, and some chemicals that trigger these can be absent. But if you’re experiencing an extreme hangover, you might need painkillers like Ibuprofen and Aspirin to mend the pain. Because there tend to be side effects if alcohol and medicine are both present in your system. A headache caused by a beer can last for a few hours, depending on its severity.

In this Article

Making sure to drink plenty of water during and after alcohol consumption can decrease the chance of headaches. Genes that play a role in opioid, serotonin, and dopamine systems also influence alcohol sensitivity.

beer

Regardless of your background or drinking habits, enough of any type of beer will leave you with a hangover headache afterward. Certain ingredients and other components can lead to headaches and worse in the following hours. The type of beer you drink and the quality of the brew can significantly impact whether you experience a headache afterward. Poor-quality beer often contains higher levels of components such as congeners and fusel alcohols that are known to cause pain and inflammation. Some people experience a headache within three hours of consuming alcohol. Pain is usually on both sides of the head and has a pulsating quality to it.

Can Alcohol Trigger Migraine Headaches?

If ADs are capable of triggering practically all primary headaches, they should act at a common pathogenetic level. The mechanisms of alcohol-provoking headache were discussed in relationship to the principal pathogenetic theories of primary headaches. This study investigates the importance of alcohol as a migraine trigger factor, the prevalence of alcohol consumers and the mechanism of headache provocation.