Migraine

I'm sure many of you experience this but I've noticed over the years that consuming alcohol, mainly beer and wine, will trigger my migraines. Red wine and many types of beer will produce almost an immediate migraine for me.

I think this has been a trigger for me for a long time but I just ignored it or chose to blame it on "hangovers." I can remember in college whenever I drank I would almost certainly the next day wake up with a "hangover." Now I'm starting to think that many times those weren't hangovers and were actually migraines.

Hi psk,

I really don't drink at all anymore. I used to have one drink when out with friends or on special occasions, but I've even stopped that! I noticed, too, that even one glass of wine would trigger a migraine for me.

Alcoholism is all over my family! So I think it's actually a good thing that alcohol makes me so ill. I certainly won't become an alcoholic with these migraines!!!

jenny

Alcohol is a huge trigger for me!

I'm with you - looking back I wonder if those "hangover headaches" were really migraines! Would explain why nothing made me feel better!

I figured a lot of people probably had alcohol as a trigger. There are times that I have consumed wine or beer and I will start to have a migraine before the drink is finished.

I used to be able to drink alcohol and not trigger but the older I got the more alcohol became a trigger. It's not a guarantee that I'll get a migraine but it happens more times than not lately. I will say that I drank while cheering on my team during the Super Bowl and didn't get a migraine the next day. That was the last time I had a beer!!

I'm exactly the same way. I was a huge binge drinker in college, but as I started nearing the end of law school I found I was paying too high a price the next day for drinking. It was an instant migraine.

I will have a drink once every year or two now, but for the most part I completely abstain. I miss it once in a while, but I don't miss the regrets of feeling as though I'd brought a horrible migraine on myself the next day.

I just wish I could have red wine sangria once in a while. Sigh. That's one of my favorite things.

Diana

I was also a big binge drinker in college to my mid 20's. At that time my migraines were not that frequent, but as I posted, I was not making any connection to my alcohol consumption as being a trigger.

I will on occasion have a drink but it's not very often. If I do most of the time it's usually just rum and coke or some white wine. It's just been one of those things I gave up as part of trying to control my migraines. I'm pretty sure my liver is also thanking me for doing that!

quote:

Originally posted by SHM Diana:
I'm exactly the same way. I was a huge binge drinker in college, but as I started nearing the end of law school I found I was paying too high a price the next day for drinking. It was an instant migraine.

I will have a drink once every year or two now, but for the most part I completely abstain. I miss it once in a while, but I don't miss the regrets of feeling as though I'd brought a horrible migraine on myself the next day.

I just wish I could have red wine sangria once in a while. Sigh. That's one of my favorite things.

Diana

Beer, even non-alcoholic, and red wine are triggers for me. So are the dark liquors, like bourbon and scotch. I miss both of them. But white wine is OK. So far, so are martinis and gimlets.

I'm with you, Diana, I miss sangria. I've got a great recipe for it.

I didn't have many hangovers in college. We couldn't drink in the sorority house, and I wasn't a student bar kind of person. But parties in the music department were a big temptation! The horrible hangovers that I did have could have been migraine, but I usually don't get nauseated and almost never throw up. But I think they were probably hangovers. When you drink enough to see double, you deserve a hangover, no matter whether it's migraine or not!

Gretchen

I don't trigger off of alcohol, but I learned the hard way to stay away from it on days I've had a migraine, because it will re-flare any existing migraine activity.

I almost never drink, but on occasion will have a wine cooler or something when we're sitting around the campfire on our camping trips. Once, I thought my migraine was good and thumped, having just the vaguest of little dying whimpers so often. I thought I was safe, so had the cooler.

Right.

Beastie got a second wind, and I ended up not such a happy camper that night. It came screaming back up to a raging roar. I learned, and stay completely clear of any alcoholic drink unless I haven't had any iota of migraine activity in the last 24 hours at least.

In trying to determine my triggers, I completely abstained from alcohol for about 6 months. I've never been a big drinker, and only once did I get a bit of a hangover after a night out and lots of red wine (day I graduated from college).

I recently went on vacation in an area with lots of wineries. It seems like alcohol may be a stackable trigger for me, and white or rose wine bother me much less than red. If I have a half-glass I'm usually ok.

I haven't tried any other types of alcohol recently, but I suspect if I limit my consumption, and avoid other triggers, I would be ok.