Cocktail Headaches: What They Are and How to Prevent Them

In the USA, 51% of adults consumed alcohol in the last year; additionally, 11% of those over 50  years old and 6% over 65 age reported the symptoms of alcohol abuse or dependence [21]. In Europe, 60% of adults over 60 years does alcohol cause migraines of age are current drinkers, and 20% of these had higher levels of consumption than the general population [22]. Statistically, males drink more alcohol than women and have more alcohol-related behavioral disorders [23].

Conflicting research about alcohol-related headaches

• If you’d like to learn more about migraine, watch or other related videos or visit mayoclinic.org.
• Additionally, patients and physicians should consider the latest medical knowledge to avoid perpetuating the myths about alcohol consumption and primary headaches.
• It can also be accompanied by nausea and vomiting, as well as sensitivity to light and sound.
• If you feel an attack coming on when you’ve had alcohol, stop drinking straight away.

Opting for top-shelf brands, sticking to one type of alcohol, alternating with water and food, and knowing your limits are all strategies that can help minimize the chances of developing a headache. Additionally, keeping a diary to track your triggers and being mindful of other factors like stress can also be helpful. In many cases, researchers say it’s more a matter of individual triggers or other factors that coincide with your alcohol consumption, like stress. Genes that play a role in opioid, serotonin, and dopamine systems also influence alcohol sensitivity.

Additives in different types of alcohol

This article will explore the relationship between alcohol and headache and consider why some people develop an alcohol headache after one drink. It can’t prevent a migraine, but it can help stop one after it starts. Triptans work best when you take them at the early signs of a migraine. There’s no proof that drinking raw eggs or downing hot sauce will get rid of your morning-after migraine faster. Downing more alcohol (the “hair of the dog” theory) won’t help either.

Can Alcohol Trigger Migraine Headaches?

The sudden onset of migraine means a dark room, bed, and a cool towel for most of us. While these seem to come out of nowhere, many will find that there are usually some signs that a migraine attack is on its way. These signs can reveal a pattern in your symptoms, and even provide you with preventative tools for managing migraine. Everyone has different triggers, but there are a few common culprits that affect a large number of people living with migraine. When you can identify your triggers, you are one step closer to effectively managing your migraine and avoiding future attacks. Nausea and/or vomiting is just one of many symptoms a person living with migraine might experience.

Before consuming a cocktail, ask yourself if it is worth developing a headache over and ruining your celebration or holiday. 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. A sports drink with electrolytes is also helpful for this purpose. Note that to qualify as a cocktail (or delayed alcohol-induced) headache, the pain must start within three hours of drinking. A headache that sets in the next day is a symptom of a hangover.

If your support system is lacking, consider joining a support group. Finding a community of people who understand exactly what you’re going through is like being welcomed home after a long, tiring day. Our Move Against Migraine support group is a place for you to connect with others (via Facebook) who live with migraine to exchange stories and find community and support. We recommend exploring complementary treatments such as biofeedback, green light therapy and aerobic exercise.

• It blocks the action of the angiotensin-converting enzyme, which is responsible for producing angiotensin II, a substance that narrows blood vessels and increases blood pressure.
• Migraine attacks can be disabling, but there are ways to manage the disease and to empower yourself to get the care and the support that you need.
• 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].
• Individuals from different ethnic backgrounds may have variable sensitivity to alcohol.

Alcohol-free red wine polyphenol extract increases endothelial NO release [64]. However in vivo studies show that only the ingestion of red wine with alcohol, but not of dealcoholized red wine, provokes arterial dilatation and thus the effect of wine is due to ethanol [65]. Also oral intake of pure alcohol (at a dose corresponding to a two drink equivalent) produces significant vasodilatation in man [66].

• Be watchful of your surroundings and avoid excessive alcohol consumption to help manage the risk.
• Overall, I feel more research and funding for migraine and headache disorders must be done.
• A person should try keeping a migraine diary for a few weeks to observe trends in their headache patterns.
• The response to alcohol varies from person to person, and there is no alcohol that absolutely will not cause a migraine or other headache.
• Analysis of the 22 included studies revealed 5 cohort studies [36, 45, 52, 55, 58], 11 cross-sectional [26, 27, 44, 46–48, 51, 56, 57, 59, 60] and six case-controls [49, 50, 53, 54, 61, 62].

We recommend a look at our patient guides, which include useful information including how to talk to your doctor about migraine. It’s important to work with your obstetrician and your headache doctor when you have migraine to establish a safe treatment plan. If you’re not already working with a headache doctor, use our Find a Doctor tool to find someone in your area. Plan to discuss the FDA’s safety guide for medication use during pregnancy.

• It is crucial to take medications at the recommended times to ensure maximum effectiveness.
• We recommend taking a look at our patient guides, which include useful information like how to talk to your doctor about migraine.
• If drinking alcohol appears to be a potent headache trigger for you, then, by all means, abstain from it.
• Then, 142 conference abstracts, 100 reviews, four book chapters and 42 unretrieved studies were not taken into further consideration.

The Truth About “ Cocktail Headaches”