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People prone to headaches may be at a higher risk of experiencing alcohol-related headaches. Many different factors can contribute to a hangover as a result of drinking. Drinks containing more alcohol and congeners may worsen the chance of developing a headache. More research will help to determine the effects of specific alcohol content on a person’s headaches.
This data suggests that there may be a misperception that drinks containing alcohol cause migraine attacks. Still, in population-based studies in various countries, including the U.S., Japan and Italy, researchers found that fewer people with migraine consume alcohol than those without migraine. This indicates that people with migraine and other headache diseases may be more likely to give up alcohol because they perceive it as a possible migraine trigger. Beans, peas, and lentils are also suspected migraine triggers, said Dr. Traub, though they’re also less common offenders than, say, alcohol and caffeine. Experts haven’t quite pinned down why legumes seem to bother some migraine sufferers, but other research points to the importance of plant foods in warding off these headaches.
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2021 research also linked lifestyle factors with alcohol drinking and smoking to cluster headaches and their severity. Aged cheeses contain a chemical called tyramine, which can trigger migraines. Cheeses that contain the most amount of thiamine include parmesan, blue cheese, and feta. Artificial sweeteners are sugar-like substances that contain zero calories. While they don’t impact your blood sugar, they can trigger migraines. Avoid processed and sugar-free foods, which typically contain artificial sweeteners.
Why do some people not get hangovers?
The alcohol you drink is broken by your liver enzymes into acetaldehyde, a toxin that your body needs to get rid of quickly. The liver enzymes that break down the alcohol are more effective in some people than others. For people who get hangovers, which means most of us, these enzymes are not as effective.
There are sparse reports that ADs are also triggers of less frequent types of primary headache such as familial hemiplegic migraine, hemicrania continua, and paroxysmal hemicrania. However, in some countries, the occurrence of alcohol as headache trigger is negligible, perhaps determined by alcohol habits. The frequency estimates vary widely based on the study approach and population. In fact, prospective studies report a limited importance of ADs as migraine trigger. 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.
Should people with migraine avoid alcohol?
Hangovers occur when the alcohol levels in your blood drop significantly—frequently the morning after you drink. Hangovers can affect pretty much anyone who has had too much to drink. 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.
Migraine sufferers also show different drinking habits – they consume less alcohol, especially beer and liquors. We asked these experts what a person who struggles with migraine would expect if they stopped drinking, and the answers were varied. Overall, physicians state that stopping drinking certain types of alcohol, like those with tannins, may lead to fewer migraine headaches. Savage-Edwards advises that if alcohol is found to be a trigger, then it’s best to avoid it. Vasodilation may trigger migraine attacks in certain individuals. This is especially true for people prone to headaches or migraine without alcohol.
Two Types of Alcohol-Induced Headache
Whether alcohol acts as a trigger is really a case-by-case basis for people with migraine. For some people, it could be the amount of alcohol consumed that triggers an attack. For example, wine may be a trigger for some but whiskey may not have an influence.
- To determine if beer triggers an attack, allow yourself a modest portion, and wait between 30 minutes and 3 hours to see if you get a headache.
- In fact, one Dutch study found that 25% of people who suffered from migraines had stopped drinking because it was either an actual or potential trigger.
- A Dutch survey of more than 2,000 people found that for those who are triggered by alcohol, the effects are usually quick, with a migraine attack coming on within 3 hours of consuming an alcoholic drink.
- Dr. Crystal said she finds that many of her patients have a sensitivity to alcohol.
Due to similarities, cluster headaches and migraine headaches often get grouped together. Both headache types can include severe headache pain and sensitivity to light. Histamine intolerance, which results from a disequilibrium of accumulated histamine and the capacity for histamine degradation, has been Selecting the Most Suitable Sober House for Addiction Recovery recently reviewed [41]. Many foods are considered to have the capacity to release histamine from tissue mast cells, even if they themselves contain only small amounts of histamine. However, alcohol potently inhibited, in itself, diamine oxidase and may activate the release on histamine from mast cells.