Do you ever experience throbbing headaches after a night of drinking? Alcohol-induced headaches are common after having a drink or two. They occur due to various factors such as dehydration, changes in blood flow to the brain, and alcohol’s impact on serotonin levels. Because your body views alcohol as a toxic substance, it’s perfectly normal to experience a headache from drinking alcohol. Alcohol’s effects on your body include dehydration, inflammation, reduced sleep quality, and the buildup of toxic substances—all of which can give you a headache. Sulfites have been a popular scapegoat for all sorts of ailments since it became mandatory in the 1990s to label them on wines in the U.S.

Migraines

• Research still needs to determine which remedy is most effective.
• If alcohol only occasionally causes you a headache, then moderation or striking that balance (as opposed to abstinence), may be a more reasonable approach.
• Drinks that include electrolytes, such as sports drinks, can help replace the electrolytes you lose from the diuretic effects of alcohol.
• Your liver is often an unsung hero, fulfilling over 500 jobs without complaint — follow these five tips to avoid liver disease and keep yours running at maximum efficiency.

Alcohol has different effects on the body depending on when you drink it. These are called immediate and delayed alcohol-induced headaches. You can consider going for foods such as bread that will help raise the blood sugar.

Over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers

If you have been drinking alcohol and experience an immediate alcohol-induced headache, the most important thing you can do is stop consuming alcohol. Ideally, go home, drink plenty of fluids and rest in a dark, quiet room. If you have to stay at an event, at the very least switch your alcoholic drinks for a soft drink. Be very careful about taking pain medication at this point, as you will still have alcohol in your system which could interact with it. With that in mind, here are a few steps you can take that may help limit the risk of headaches while you are consuming alcohol. Why is alcohol consumption, and specifically drinking wine, so likely to result in an alcohol-induced headache?

Additives in different types of alcohol

Alcohol is embedded in our society, and it is difficult to be in a public space without seeing a reference to alcohol or being offered a drink. Alcohol is broken down in the liver by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase. People with a variant in this enzyme have issues with metabolizing alcohol and can develop total body flushing or reddening of the skin. Keep in mind that it is important to minimize the use of Tylenol (acetaminophen) when drinking alcohol (or recovering from a hangover), as the combination can harm the liver. Hangover headaches are common enough, but they can have an impact on daily life.

When To See A Doctor

It’s less common and is often felt as a pulsing sensation on the sides of the head. Many people will find it worsens with further alcohol consumption as well as intense why do you get headaches after drinking movement. It typically starts shortly after drinking alcohol, but it could take several hours to trigger a headache.

Vasodilation may trigger migraine attacks in certain individuals. This is especially true for people prone to headaches or migraine without alcohol. As a physician, my best advice for decreasing https://ecosoberhouse.com/ or avoiding alcohol-related headaches is to take steps to change your relationship with alcohol.

How Do You Get Rid of Delayed Alcohol-Induced Headaches?

Light exercise may be helpful, provided you stay well-hydrated. People prone to migraines tend to have more problems with hangovers. Conversely, there are many medications that interfere with the breakdown of alcohol and acetaldehyde, worsening the consequences of drinking. A thin, Japanese teetotaling woman taking prescription painkillers will clearly have more problems with a few drinks than a 250 pound linebacker who regularly drinks four beers a night. A cocktail headache is a headache that occurs within the same evening of drinking alcohol. Unlike a hangover headache, cocktail headaches can be caused by even small amounts of alcohol.

This information is not designed to replace a physician’s Substance abuse independent judgment about the appropriateness or risks of a procedure for a given patient. Migraine.com does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Use of the site is conditional upon your acceptance of our terms of use. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. If you’ve been drinking heavily for a long time, good nutrition is even more important.

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Learning more about your specific health history and drinking habits can help you better understand your risk of alcohol-induced headaches. At Monument, you can speak with a specialized physician, like myself, to get personalized information and care. Congeners are minor compounds that occur in alcoholic beverages as a natural result of distilling and fermenting. Congeners are primarily found in darker liquors like brandy, whiskey, and wine. There are exceptions to this rule, however, such as tequila—a light-colored liquor that nevertheless carries high levels of congeners. Alcohol can cause many health problems, but one of the most common and less severe is the alcohol-induced headache.