The science behind the dreaded red wine headache
People have complained about it wine headache since ancient Greece.
Although all types of alcohol can cause headaches, especially in people prone to migraines, Red wine appears to be particularly harmful. But scientists are still not sure why it is a catalyst.
“This puzzle has been around for literally thousands of years,” says Dr. Morris Levin, director of the Headache Center at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center. “There are many ingredients in wine that can potentially cause headaches, not least alcohol itself.”
A preliminary study published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports proposes a new theory: An antioxidant found in grape skins affects the way your body processes alcohol, leading to the buildup of a toxic byproduct that causes headaches.
Here’s what science says about red wine headaches and how to prevent them before you start sipping.
The research into red wine
A wine headache, which happens in the first three hours having a drink is not the same as a hangover, which happens later.
One idea is that allergies are the cause of that painful, throbbing feeling. Some people are sensitive to histamine, which is found in many fermented foods, including red wine. But studies to test the histamine hypothesis found no difference in people’s responses to pinot noirs with low and high histamine levels, or when people were given an antihistamine before drinking a glass of Sangiovese.
An allergy to sulfites, a type of preservative found in wine, is another possible cause, although there are no studies that actually prove that sulfites in red wine can cause headaches. And other foods, such as dried fruit and soy sauce, are higher in sulfites and don’t have the same reputation.
The current leading theory among scientists points to this a group of chemicals known as polyphenols, including the tannins and antioxidants present in red wines. Researchers have struggled to determine which specific compounds might be the culprit, or exactly how they cause headaches. Additionally, other foods – such as tea, chocolate, onions and berries – also contain high levels of these chemicals, but do not have a strong link to headaches.
The new study suggests that red wine headaches may be caused by a combination of alcohol and a certain polyphenol, an antioxidant called quercetin.
To arrive at their hypothesis, the researchers looked at another known cause of alcohol-induced headaches: a genetic variant common in people of East Asian descent that leads to headaches, flushing and nausea when they drink alcohol. The variant interferes with the way the body processes alcohol, leading to a buildup of a harmful substance called acetaldehyde.
“In small amounts, we can handle acetaldehyde without feeling nauseous,” says Lara Ray, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who specializes in alcohol use disorders and was not involved in the study. But when alcohol is not metabolized properly, “the body shows this aversive response.”
The researchers looked for a compound in red wine that could hinder this process in the same way. In laboratory tests, they found this was the case with quercetin, an antioxidant produced by grapes when exposed to sunlight. “We call this grape sunscreen,” says Andrew Waterhouse, professor emeritus of enology (wine chemistry) at the University of California, Davis, and author of the study.
The idea that quercetin causes wine headaches is still just a theory, but “it’s a compelling argument,” said Dr. Ray.
However, Vasilis Vasiliou, chairman of the department of environmental health sciences at Yale University and a specialist in alcohol metabolism, cautioned that what happens in a petri dish does not always translate to what happens in the human body. He added that other research has suggested that quercetin may actually help protect against damage caused by alcohol.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers will have to compare people’s responses to wines with high and low quercetin content.
Prepare before pouring
If you suffer from red wine headaches, you can try taking an over-the-counter pain reliever before drinking a glass; one small study suggested that this prevented them. But be careful using paracetamol or ibuprofen if you drink more than a glass or two; taking it with alcohol may increase the risk of liver damage and gastrointestinal bleeding.
The simplest solution might be to switch wines. Both green and red grapes contain quercetin, but in white and rose wines the skins are removed immediately after the fruit is crushed. The skins are left on while red and orange wines ferment, releasing more quercetin into the wine. There is some research on which red wines have lower quercetin content, but there are no definitive answers yet.
For Dr. Levin, a co-author of the new study, has made the endeavor somewhat personal: He recently developed the unpleasant reaction to red wine and is now looking for grape varieties that he hopes won’t affect him. “I think I know which wines are the most acceptable, but I’m not quite sure yet,” he said. “So it’s another experiment.”