Alcohol Use and Your Health Alcohol Use

Therefore, there was insufficient data to analyze the relationship between alcohol and aura, and the data that does exist is inconsistent 65, 86. As mentioned in the discussion above, alcohol consumption assessment is strongly based on patients’ honesty. If there is misleading data in questionnaires or during medical interviews, their overall subsequent analysis is also distorted. The relatively low number of cluster-headache studies also does not allow an assessment of any correlation with alcohol drinking. Moreover, some of the studies included in our review do not present results in an accurate way or do so without assigning patients to specific headaches.

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• This belief has sparked interest in understanding whether there is any scientific basis to support the notion that salt intake might help with headaches.
• For instance, alcohol byproducts called congeners have been linked to headaches.
• Be sure to see your doctor if your wine headache is sudden, severe, or is accompanied by other symptoms you haven’t had before.

Tension headaches feel like you have a tight band, like a headband, around your head. They feel different than a migraine and, in some cases, may feel different than a hangover headache. They’re also triggered by many things, including certain kinds of foods, exertion, cigarettes, and alcohol. While headaches are a symptom of having a migraine, as the UC Davis website points out, migraines are a syndrome with other symptoms besides headaches. As the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism points out, hangovers drug addiction usually have several symptoms.

How can you prevent getting a migraine headache from alcohol?

Then, when the blood vessels open up, the rush of incoming blood flow leads to the actual headache. Alcohol has different effects on the body depending on when you drink it. These are called immediate and delayed alcohol-induced headaches. People who consume greater quantities of alcohol report more alcohol-related headaches, according to several studies. Then again, in some groups, alcohol appears to have protective effects against headaches.

Cluster headache

This compound might inhibit the body’s ability to break down alcohol, leading to the buildup of a substance called acetaldehyde, which could result in headaches. However, more recent research indicates no relationship between tension type headaches and alcohol consumption. If you develop a cocktail headache, stop drinking alcohol and go someplace where you can rest comfortably. Drink lots of water to rehydrate your body and help flush the alcohol from your system.

• When alcohol is a trigger for one’s usual primary headaches, the pain usually occurs within three hours of alcohol consumption.
• Eventually, the chemical makeup of your body becomes unbalanced, causing a hangover headache or sore throat.
• Migraines in general have been linked to variations in genes, especially those that regulate blood flow to the brain.
• There’s an increasing number of products on the market that claim to prevent a hangover — most are a drink, elixir or supplement that you take before or after 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. Also, the majority of the studies had high or moderate risk of bias. Alcoholic drinks (ADs) have been reported as a migraine trigger in about one-third of the migraine patients in retrospective studies. Some studies found that ADs trigger also other primary headaches. 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).

However, according to this idea, populations with higher migraine prevalence should have lower alcohol consumption. For example, due to religious requirements, people in Iran consume considerably less alcohol than Europeans 22, 84; nevertheless, migraine prevalence in Iran is 15.1% 85 while in Europe it is 35% 86. In Europe, alcohol consumption is higher than in Asian countries, but in Europe alcohol as a trigger is reported more frequently than it is in Asia 87. Therefore, this hypothesis seems a less likely explanation for our results. Due to the inclusion of many study designs, the risk of bias was evaluated using tools adjusted to the type of study. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal tools were used for cross-sectional, cohort and case control studies 63.

Hangovers can affect pretty much anyone who has had too much to drink. Drinking even a small amount of alcohol can trigger headache symptoms in certain individuals. These symptoms may begin within minutes or hours of drinking and does drinking cause headaches vary widely in severity. As dehydration can cause headaches, staying hydrated when consuming alcohol is key. Aim to drink plenty of water before, after, and during alcohol consumption. When I asked dietitian Maeng her opinion on DHM, she said not to buy into the claims yet.

The kidneys increase urination substantially, leading to dehydration. Blood vessels in the skin dilate, causing flushing and increased cardiac output. The liver starts working overtime to detoxify the blood of ethanol and acetaldehyde, and cannot keep blood sugar adequately regulated. If alcohol is a headache trigger for you, think before you drink. In other words, the best treatment for a cocktail headache is actually preventing one in the first place. Before consuming a cocktail, ask yourself if it is worth developing a headache over and ruining your celebration or holiday.