If you’re prone to the dreaded “red wine headache,” it’s not necessarily because you drank too much the night before. A new study from the University of California, Davis, published in Scientific Reports, may have found the actual reason why red wine seems to trigger migraines in people who don’t otherwise get them from alcohol.
Red wine contains a high concentration of the antioxidant quercetin, which is found in grape skins, and therefore, red wine. When consumed, quercetin impedes how the body metabolizes alcohol, which can start to buildup of the toxin acetaldehyde. This is known to cause facial flushing, nausea, and of course, headaches.
“The study suggests red wine has a much higher concentration of these compounds than other types of alcohol, making it more likely for people to experience headaches after drinking,” explains Dr. Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, FAAFP, a family physician and board chair of the American Academy of Family Physician who was not affiliated with the study.
Fortunately for wine lovers, there are varying amounts of quercetin in different kinds of wines. Wines from especially sunny climates tend to have more quercetin, since it’s formed in response to sunlight. Thus, the researchers’ next step is to examine how individuals respond to red wines with high levels of quercetin versus those with very little.
This could offer a potential treatment for the ailment down the line, though that’s not an end-all-be-all cure. “Alcohol consumption in general also causes dehydration and widens blood vessels, which can result in headaches,” Dr. Iroku-Malize points out. “I always advise patients to practice moderation when drinking alcohol, avoid drinking on an empty stomach, and to make sure they’re drinking plenty of water. This helps people stay hydrated which can reduce the chance of getting a headache or other adverse effects.”
Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, a board-certified internist and author of From Fatigued to Fantastic, agrees, asserting that doctors already had “a pretty good idea of what triggers most red wine headaches: Dehydration, as noted above, as well as sulfite sensitivity.
“The role of sulfites in red wine headache and humans has been previously studied and clearly documented. In a different study, people with a history of red wine headaches were more than 22 times as likely to get a headache if they were blindly given a red wine with higher levels of the sulfites than one with low levels,” he says. His suggestion? Switch to sulfite-free wine, and take a high-potency multivitamin.