Medicine and Health related Information

There are various chemical triggers in the diet which causes headache. It is difficult to identify these triggers. Among them alcohol is one of the most common frequently identified dietary triggers. For those who are already suffering from headache problem alcohol can worsen the problem and those who are free from headache problems can also get triggered by alcohol.

Interestingly there is little documentation of alcohol causing headache evidence. Studies suggest that there are various other components of alcoholic beverages which trigger alcohol headache.

Few people are extremely sensitive to alcohol and can get headache soon after consumption of alcohol and the people who suffer from alcohol induced headaches are more at more risk of suffering from migraine headache besides suffering from headaches caused by alcohol.

WHY DOES ALCOHOL CAUSES HEADACHE?

Alcohol headache is caused because of the vasodilatation of the blood vessels which is further aided by the ethanol present in the alcohol. Few of the alcoholic beverages are:

• Vodka
• Gin
• White wine
• Red wine

Among these vodka, gin and white win seems to be fairly tolerated by the migraine sufferers while red wine is thought to be much more potent in terms of migraine stimulation.

There is a chemical called tyramine (vide infra) in the red wine which has been touted as being the main culprit in causing alcoholic headache. This cause of alcohol headaches has not been proved with any degree of certainty, but the observation that red wine is a more potent trigger is commonly accepted as it contains one of the main migraine triggers the tyramine.

People who suffer from alcohol headache take pain killers to kill their headache. This is very dangerous as the alcohol consumed if still present in the body system can get combined with pain killer drugs consumed like acetaminophen then they may suffer from serious problems like liver damage.

Further few people drink coffee to avoid headache but coffee is also a diuretic which may further intensify the alcohol induced headache.

Drink good amount of water if you suffer from headache due to alcohol.

The best thing to cure alcohol headache is to avoid drinking alcohol.

There are few things which can be done to avoid hangover headache but I don’t want to discuss it here as I am strict against drinking alcohol by any means. I would just like to say avoid drinking alcohol and be free from headache. It is the best way to cure alcohol headache.