It can happen even if you drink less than people who don’t get migraine headaches. Assessment of alcohol consumption is challenging, because the results are dependent on the patient’s honesty. Patients sometimes have a tendency not to admit their drinking habits 90. It has been proved that self-reported alcohol consumption by patients can be underestimated; therefore, more reliable methods such as toxicological hair analysis may help to provide stronger evidence 91. Of the studies included in our analysis, 19 were based only on questionnaires while five included interviews with patients.
It’s unclear why alcohol may trigger migraine, but red wine and liquor may be more likely to do so because of the chemical compounds they contain. Rosen was a co-author of a small 2022 study of 487 people who mostly drank alcohol in low amounts. The data did not suggest a significant link between consuming alcohol and a migraine attack within 24 hours. If you aren’t sure that alcohol is to blame for your headaches, try keeping a diary. Each time you drink, write down the type of alcohol you have, the amount, and if and when you had a migraine. Include how you felt the prior 48 hours as well as any stress or anxiety you were under at the time.
PATIENTS
At the National Headache Institute, we investigate to find the underlying causes of migraine and headaches. We have created customized plans than have helped more than 12,000 people live the pain-free lives they deserve. If you know a migraine is likely to come on and plan to drink anyway, triptans can help. Also, follow your doctor’s recommendations regarding alcohol consumption. Dehydration triggers some migraine cases; therefore, drinking plenty of water can help, even after the fact. Drinking water helps replenish your fluids and flush the alcohol out of your system.
(Cocktail Headaches) Unlike withdrawal headaches, hangover pain typically resolves within 24 hours with proper hydration and rest. The content published in Cureus is the result of clinical experience and/or research by independent individuals or organizations. Cureus is not responsible for the scientific accuracy or reliability of data or conclusions published herein.
Demographic data
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. In contrast, a typical hangover headache is characterized by a more generalized, throbbing pain affecting both sides of the head, often accompanied by fatigue, thirst, and less severe neurological symptoms. While nausea can occur with a hangover, it is not as debilitating as the nausea and vomiting experienced during a migraine. Hangover headaches usually begin 5 to 12 hours after alcohol consumption, when blood alcohol levels are falling or have reached zero. Factors such as individual tolerance (which includes your genetic ability to detoxify alcohol), specific ingredients in drinks, and even the amount consumed can all play roles in whether a migraine attack will follow. “Tyranny of the trigger”Vives-Mestres told MSC she was surprised by the results, which directly challenge the widespread belief that alcohol is a common trigger for migraine.
Assessing the percentage of drinking occasions after which hangover symptoms occur partially controls for differences in the frequency of drinking and allows the HSS item scores to be interpreted as hangover susceptibility or proneness. We hypothesized that migraine sufferers are more susceptible to specific aspects of the hangover symptomatology complex, namely those that are similar to the migraine attack. In this cross-sectional study, university students were asked to fill structured questionnaires assessing headache history, alcoholic consumption, and hangover symptoms (using the Hangover Symptom Scale (HSS)).
What’s the difference between a hangover headache and an alcohol-triggered migraine?
However, the study author also cautions that no single factor causes all hangover headaches. However, these individuals were not more vulnerable to other hangover symptoms. Although genetic factors influence the risk of having migraine, environmental triggers can cause episodes or increase their frequency. Although alcohol has long been suspected to be a common migraine trigger, studies have been inconclusive in proving this association. Talk with your doctor about how long after drinking alcohol to wait before you can take any prescription migraine or OTC medications. Alcohol has different effects on your body depending on when you drink it.
- If you’re a chronic migraineur who has decided to have a drink or two, a safe bet is leaving it at that.
- Plan to discuss the FDA’s safety guide for medication use during pregnancy.
- (Reframe App) They’re often described as a constant, pressing pain that worsens with movement and is accompanied by other withdrawal symptoms.
- The role of alcohol in triggering migraine attacks is unclear, and the research is limited.
- Alcohol-triggered migraines fall somewhere in between, requiring specific migraine management strategies.
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- Whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) states that there is no safe alcohol dose 19, Panconesi et al. conclude that low consumption is not a contraindication for headache patients 79.
- It can help you identify patterns over time and help your doctor identify if you are experiencing migraine.
- Cingulate cortex activation reflects the emotional response to pain and activation of the visual and auditory association cortices mirrors the development of photophobia and phonophobia, respectively.
- Assessing the percentage of drinking occasions after which hangover symptoms allows the HSS item scores to be interpreted as hangover susceptibility or proneness.
In one of the largest migraine trigger studies of 1027 migraineurs whose migraine was classified by the international headache society (IHS) criteria, the reported migraine triggers in descending order of frequency are listed below. The high-frequency triggers, stress and hormonal influence, mirror those found in the earliest study listed in Table 1 above. However, this study displayed a higher resolution of detail with the inclusion of weather changes, sleep disturbances, odorants, and alcohol (Table 2) 2. Scientists are still trying to understand how or why alcohol acts as a trigger for some people who suffer from migraines. At present, most studies seem to link to headaches after alcohol to congeners, a byproduct of alcohol, most commonly found in darker drinks, such as whiskey, brandy and red wine. Migraine sufferers also show different drinking habits – they consume less alcohol, especially beer alcohol and migraine: relationship, triggers, treatment and more and liquors.
Finally, 22 articles 26, 27, 36, 44–62 were retrieved for further analysis. A detailed description of the steps performed during study selection is presented in Fig. Whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) states that there is no safe alcohol dose 19, Panconesi et al. conclude that low consumption is not a contraindication for headache patients 79.
It may also help eliminate triggers that tend to co-occur with drinking, such as dehydration and sleep deprivation. Keeping a migraine diary can be a helpful tool for identifying personal triggers and understanding migraine patterns. A migraine diary involves recording symptoms, food and drink intake, and other potential triggers such as stress and hormonal changes. By identifying specific triggers, individuals can take preventative measures to minimize the occurrence and impact of migraine attacks. For people dealing with migraines, it is important to know that chocolate, alcohol, aged meats and cheeses, wheat, fried foods, and baked goods can contribute to worsening headaches and related symptoms.
In cases of conflict between authors in terms of the inclusion of a particular paper, the fourth researcher (MWP) decided upon a solution to the problem following discussion. Alternative migraine therapies can work alongside traditional treatments to reduce migraine attack frequency and lessen the impact of symptoms. Migraine is complex, and other neurological conditions may cause migraine-like symptoms. For this reason, it is important to see a doctor about migraine symptoms or chronic headaches, with or without drinking.
Therefore, it was not possible for our meta-analysis to contain all those studies where drinking was described with primary headache. The ways describing alcohol consumption habits were variously presented in almost each study, therefore could develop the observed heterogeneity among migraine analysis. Alcoholic drinks (ADs) have been reported as a migraine trigger in about one-third of the migraine patients in retrospective studies. Many studies show that ADs are a trigger of migraine without aura (MO), migraine with aura (MA), cluster headache (CH), and tension-type headache (TH). While data on MO and CH are well delineated, those in MA and TH are discordant.
The assessments were conducted by three researchers (BB, PN and MS1) separately, then the fourth author (MWP) compared this data and made a final decision. There were a total of 2990 embedded missing days (2990/46,820, 6.4%) resulting in 43,830 days (90 for each individual) eligible for analysis. 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. The embedded missing days, as well as incomplete entries during tracked days, resulted in 7254 day‐cases with missing values (7254/40,165, 18.1%) in one or more of the independent variables, which were further removed from the analysis. A total of 32,911 complete cases including 4679 migraine attacks were analyzed. In order to understand how migraine triggers precipitate migraine headaches, we need to understand the network theory of migraine.
