Track what you eat and drink, how much sleep you get, and other potential triggers (such as stress). You may find that alcohol triggers your migraine, or you may see that alcohol has no effect on your symptoms. Once you know what effect alcohol has on your body, you can make decisions about whether to drink at all — and, if so, how much to drink and when.
Secondary Headaches
The migraines tend to start within three hours of consuming alcohol. Sometimes, migraines don’t plague patients until the next morning, just as their blood-alcohol content level is back to normal. Many people confuse this with a regular hangover until the intensity of the migraine sets in. While this is not necessarily true for everyone, it’s true for so many people that a trend toward abstinence developed among migraine-sufferers.
When do symptoms arise?
If you use any medications for migraine, including over-the-counter medication, during pregnancy, check with your obstetrician to make sure it is safe. The most common headache trigger is stress, which releases certain chemicals in the brain that cause vascular changes. Anxiety, worry, shock, depression, excitement, and mental fatigue can cause stress-induced headaches. Stress-related headaches, typically in a “hat-band” distribution, can accompany sleep disturbances. Some people with migraine might find that gin is their biggest migraine trigger. While they have found that many people with migraine do report alcohol as a trigger, it seems to happen occasionally.
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
Downing more alcohol (the “hair of the dog” theory) won’t help either. 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.
Access this article
Three studies were evaluated as moderate risk, with 6 “yes” answers 44, 57, 59. Two of the remaining cross-sectional papers achieved seven or eight points and therefore were low bias-risk 26, 27. Table 4 summarizes the assessment of the cross-sectional risk of bias. One of the six case–control studies was assessed as having a high risk of bias 49, two a low risk of bias 50, 62 and three a moderate bias risk 53, 54, 61.
Share this article
These may include experiencing an ‘aura’ as a warning symptom that a migraine is coming on – this might mean experiencing disturbed vision – can alcohol cause migraines such as seeing spots or zig-zag lines. Nausea (a feeling that you might vomit) or vomiting and sensitivity to bright light or sound are also widely reported migraine symptoms. Your trusted professionals are your best resource for getting medical advice when it comes to limiting the negative effects alcohol has on you, your life, and your migraine. The best way to find out what triggers your migraine is to keep a journal.
- These probabilities (red dots) serve as reference for the other three panels.
- In addition to drinking plenty of water, you also need to ensure you are eating a healthy diet.
- Migraine days after the first day of attack (3665 migraine days) were removed from the models, leading to a dataset with 40,165 diary entries.
They may then decide to avoid those which they cannot confirm as a trigger or those for which they cannot develop some coping strategy. This review was performed using a literature search on PubMed from 1988 (date of the first IHS classification) to December 2014. Search terms of “alcohol,” “wine,” “food trigger,” “dietary trigger,” “migraine,” “headache” were used.