The severity of your headache depends on the type of alcoholic drink you consume. Drinks with congeners will typically result in the most severe headaches. The more congeners a drink has, the more severe your headache will be. While some people try to prevent headaches by taking over-the-counter pain medications before drinking, this can be dangerous.

• As a result, a female’s blood alcohol concentration tends to be higher, making it more likely for females to experience headaches and hangovers.
• Acetaminophen makes it harder for your body to process alcohol and can damage your liver.
• People who do not get migraines tend to get a headache when consuming a large amount of alcohol.
• Some individuals may have specific sensitivities or allergies to certain ingredients commonly found in alcoholic beverages.
• While dehydration does not cause anxiety, these conditions are related.

Why Does Alcohol Cause Headaches?

The second part of this is to listen to your body and use your past experiences as a reference. Maybe one drink is fine, but two or more starts to can alcohol cause migraines make you dizzy, lightheaded, and leads to a splitting headache the next day. It’s well known that drinking too much alcohol can cause a variety of symptoms the next day. If alcohol only occasionally causes you a headache, then moderation or striking that balance (as opposed to abstinence), may be a more reasonable approach. Drinking plenty of water before having a drink should also help ward a cocktail headache off.

• This is especially true for people prone to headaches or migraine without alcohol.
• In a survey of college students who drank, 57% reported eating something they were “craving” after consumption.
• You probably take pain medication, rest for a bit and then continue with your day.
• Are you one of those people who always seems to get a splitting headache after a night of drinking?

Causes of a Headache After Consuming Alcohol

• They can also be taken up to three days leading up to an event, the day of, and up to three days after an event where you know there’s a possibility of a hangover.
• Others blame the congeners in alcohol or the dilating effects of alcohol.
• Where possible, watering down liquor is a great idea when it comes to preventing a hangover headache.
• For example, histamine intolerance is a condition where the body has difficulty breaking down histamine, a naturally occurring compound in some alcoholic drinks.
• Certain genes may influence the tendency to drink and alcohol tolerance to quantities of alcohol.
• Make sure to avoid hydrating drinks that are heavy in sugar, as either low blood sugar or high blood sugar can make a hangover headache worse.

Research still needs to determine which remedy is most effective. However, a headache after drinking will usually resolve itself over time. 2021 research also linked lifestyle factors with alcohol drinking and smoking to cluster headaches and their severity. Those diagnosed with a specific type of headache may be more prone to develop a specific type of headache after consuming alcohol. 2020 research shows that females are more likely to experience hangovers, memory problems, and liver disease from consuming alcohol. For healthy adults, moderate drinking means up to one drink a day for women of all ages and two drinks a day for men.

The Truth About “ Cocktail Headaches”

And many people are surprised to find out that it doesn’t take much alcohol to trigger them. Headaches and migraines can be extremely uncomfortable, and even debilitating at times. Learning more about exactly what causes alcohol-induced headaches can provide motivation for building healthier habits and feeling better.