Alcohol and Migraine: Relationship, Triggers, Treatment & More

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. Research still needs to determine which remedy is most effective.

Prolonged withdrawal, also known as protracted withdrawal syndrome, is acute withdrawal that lasts for up to a year, instead of a short-term two-week withdrawal timeline. You may be experiencing painful headaches for an entire year under prolonged withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms can appear suddenly after the acute withdrawal period has ended. During PAWS, many withdrawal symptoms such as sweating, tremors, sleeping problems, and headaches can come back without warning.

When an Alcohol-Induced Headache Strikes

You can find additional support from people in your position and those who have already experienced pregnancy with migraine in our Move Against Migraine Facebook group. Finding people whom you can lean on for support can help lift some of the burden of managing migraine before, during and after pregnancy. Our Move Against Migraine Facebook group is full of mothers with migraine who can offer encouragement and support throughout your journey. We recommend taking a look at our patient guides, which include useful information like how to talk to your doctor about migraine.

Alcohol-related headaches will usually last hours and the sufferer can take action to decrease the length of time they are present. However, there is no definite time frame why does alcohol cause headaches for those enduring a headache post alcohol. Detox headaches can occur when detoxing (ridding the body) of harmful toxins directly contributed to the use of alcohol.

Alcoholic neuropathy

While red wine has been described as a dominant trigger of migraines and cluster headaches, white wine, champagne, sparkling wines, and beer have also been linked to headaches. Drinking too much can trigger migraines, and possibly other types of headaches—such as cluster headaches and tension headaches—in people who are already susceptible to these issues. Such headaches can occur while you are drinking, or a few hours after—even if you’ve had as little as one drink. While numerous chemicals-related factors can trigger a headache after drinking alcohol, stress can also be a possible cause. For instance, a negative mood after drinking alcohol can contribute to some people having migraine headaches regardless of what they have drunk.

Ark Behavioral Health offers 100% confidential substance abuse assessment and treatment placement tailored to your individual needs. Talk to your doctor if you are concerned about the potential side effects of benzodiazepines. You’ll soon start receiving the latest Mayo Clinic health information you requested in your inbox. Patients usually feel pain centred around one eye or on one side of the head [8]. Clusters are rare and not life-threatening, but the pain they bring on is very intense.

Are headaches common when you stop drinking?

Reducing or eliminating alcohol intake reduces the risk and occurrence of these types of headaches. Alcohol-related neurologic disease refers to a range of conditions caused by alcohol intake that affect the nerves and nervous system. Neurologic disorders can include fetal alcohol syndrome, dementia, and alcoholic neuropathy. Most people are well aware of the presence of headache, malaise, diarrhea, loss of appetite, tiredness, nausea and sensitivity to light, sound and motion the day after binge drinking. No one is exactly sure how ethanol causes its various effects, but once absorbed from the stomach into the bloodstream it can freely cross out of the blood and into nerve cells of the brain.