Alcohol Headache After One Drink Causes and Treatment
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. Without a consistent cause-and-effect situation, though, it could be a number of factors — not just alcohol — that are triggering your migraine headache.
Risk factors
- Alcohol can dehydrate you and drain your body of electrolytes.
- In fact, around 30 percent of people who experience recurrent migraines report alcohol as a trigger.
- No matter what you call it—a headache journal, migraine diary, headache tracker—keeping track of your symptoms can be a versatile tool to help better manage your health.
- A 2016 study showed that alcohol consistently induced migraine in 10% of people.
- Additionally, alcohol affects blood circulation in the brain, causing an increase or decrease in blood flow that can result in throbbing headaches.
After using the above key terms, 1,892 articles were identified in the three databases. 511 papers were found in PubMed, 773 in Embase and 608 in Web of Science. Then, 142 conference abstracts, 100 reviews, four book chapters and 42 unretrieved studies were not taken into further consideration. Finally, 22 articles [26, 27, 36, 44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62] were retrieved for further analysis. A detailed description of the steps performed during study selection is presented in Fig.
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An alcohol-induced headache may fall into many categories and whilst they are painful and unpleasant, there are things that can be done to relieve the symptoms. However, if you experience serious reactions or severe pains, it’s crucial that you see a doctor. Also, if you on medications, it’s essential to consult the doctor because the condition may be related to an allergy with the medication. There is only one sure way if treating an alcohol-related headache.
Relieving Headache Pain: Preventing and treating migraines and other headaches
These chemicals usually have a connection with headaches as they interact with the brain chemicals leading to headaches and even migraines. 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].
- Preventing dehydration means your hangover symptoms will be much less severe, if you have any at all.
- Our long-standing history in the field underscores our commitment to providing compassionate and effective treatment options that cater to the unique needs of each individual.
- These are substances that the alcohol manufacturing process produces.
In this article, we will discuss alcohol headaches after one drink and how to effectively treat the condition. These give many types of alcoholic beverages alcohol causes migraines their taste and smell. Congeners are found in larger amounts in dark liquors, such as brandy and bourbon, than in clear liquors, such as vodka and gin.
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For example, a tension headache may cause pain in the neck or shoulders. Several studies suggest that alcohol, especially red wine, may trigger migraine attacks. Be sure to talk with your healthcare provider about your “cocktail headache” plan. About two-thirds of people who drink alcohol develop these headaches.
- Drinking more alcohol will likely just prolong your symptoms.
- As more and more ethanol molecules enter the membranes of the nerve cells, sedating effects develop.
- A cocktail headache develops the same evening, and even a tiny amount of alcohol can trigger it.
- After a night on the town, it’s easy to blame a headache on too much alcohol.
- A primary headache is caused by overactivity of or problems with pain-sensitive structures in your head.
