Alcohol and Migraine: Relationship, Triggers, Treatment & More

Talk to your doctor if you are concerned about the potential side effects of benzodiazepines. By Maggie O’Neill

Maggie O’Neill is a medical reporter and 2020 Association of Health Care Journalists Fellow. Taking other precautions may keep you comfortable until your headache resolves. These include staying in a dark space if you feel especially sensitive to light and keeping your space quiet if you feel especially sensitive to noise. If they’re just a little more vulnerable, I’ll say maybe that’s a day when you want to be extra mindful of getting enough water, getting good sleep, [and] eating three meals that day.

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. A person may experience migraine after drinking if they are susceptible to it.

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Learn more about the relationship between migraine and mental health in this AMF webinar. Keep a record of any symptoms that occur after consuming alcohol and discuss them with your doctor. Identifying your specific food and drink triggers is a key part of any migraine prevention and treatment plan. 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.

Moderate to heavy drinkers can also benefit from medical supervision in the acute withdrawal stage. Remember you are facing a difficult challenge during alcohol withdrawal, but you are not alone. There are many resources available to help, including peer support groups, counseling, therapy, and inpatient rehabilitation. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms range from mild but annoying to severe and life-threatening. In fact, about 45% of hangover severity is due to inherited variations in the genes that encode these enzymes.

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Alcohol is a diuretic, causing the body to lose vital salts and minerals which help it to function. Anyone who suffers from regular migraines will know how debilitating they can be, and unfortunately, alcohol can be a huge trigger for this condition. Alcohol is responsible for creating a relaxing effect on the blood vessels. In turn, this leads to more blood being able to flow into the brain, which can trigger a migraine. If alcohol only occasionally causes you a headache, then moderation or striking that balance (as opposed to abstinence), may be a more reasonable approach.

“According to our hypothesis, a headache will only occur when quercetin and alcohol are consumed simultaneously. I think that is why it has taken so long to sort this out,” Dr. Waterhouse said. As you work with your doctor on next steps, it will be important to maintain access to reliable resources on migraine. We recommend a look at our patient guides, which include useful information can alcohol cause migraines including how to talk to your doctor about migraine. Receiving a formal migraine diagnosis is the first milestone when working with your doctor to identify a personalized and effective treatment plan. Continuing to talk with your doctor throughout the course of your treatment is important for determining the strategies that prove beneficial and those that may not be as effective.

How Alcohol Triggers Headaches

This will help your doctor isolate the cause of your migraine and your triggers. Unfortunately, this may lead to inflammation throughout the body, which can trigger migraines in some people. For some people that also includes alcohol, maybe just certain kinds. National Library of Medicine, one-third of migraine sufferers point to alcohol as a trigger. Migraine is a symptom of an underlying condition, and one of the elements of a migraine is a headache.

For people who don’t always suffer from RWH—but sometimes do—Pace recommends strictly adhering to certain headache-prevention behaviors before and after drinking red wine. The severity of your headache depends on the type of alcoholic drink you consume. Drinks with congeners will typically result in the most severe headaches. The more congeners a drink has, the more severe your headache will be. “For them, the effects of red wine on their body will likely be similar to other types of alcohol. The quercetin derivative doesn’t have the opportunity to exert any blocking effect on their aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme because the enzyme already doesn’t work,” he explained.

In simple terms, this means that it has an effect on the kidneys which causes the level of fluid that you are taking in to become lower than what your body is putting out. The single main reason that alcohol is the cause of a headache is that it is what is known as a diuretic. Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life. Get our printable guide for your next healthcare provider’s appointment to help you ask the right questions. Try to eat some fruits, herbs, and vegetables that are helpful for alcohol-induced headache recovery.

• The most severe migraine attacks may last up to 3 days and make it impossible to do anything.
• A cocktail headache is a headache that occurs within as little as three hours after drinking alcohol.
• There is some evidence that certain distilled spirits may cause fewer headaches.
• Some people only sip a glass or two of wine before their head starts to throb.
• The American Migraine Foundation is committed to improving the lives of those living with this debilitating disease.