Tis the season to be jolly, but is all that making merry giving you headaches? How many times have you had a single glass of red wine at dinner — or even half a glass — and had a headache before you could even summon an Uber to take you home? Red wine has earned a reputation for causing headaches, even when you haven’t had a second or third round.
As Food & Wine reports, researchers have spent years trying to find the connection between reds and headaches, but now a group of scientists from the University of California, Davis, think they’re coming closer to figuring it out.
According to their study, which was just published in the journal Scientific Reports, 37% of alcohol drinkers have reported that imbibing beer, wine, or spirits can cause “occasional” headaches. In drinkers who have experienced a “primary headache” — a headache that begins within three hours of drinking and isn’t as delayed as the dreaded hangover headache — over one quarter (28%) identified red wine as a cause. Red wine was also implicated as a headache trigger more often than spirits (14%), white wine (10%), sparkling wine (10%), or beer (10%). The study also says that “in most cases,” just one to two glasses of red wine were enough to conjure a headache.
In previous studies, researchers have surmised that the cause could be preservatives called sulfites, the tannins found in the wine, or histamines. This time, the researchers focused on a plant flavanol called quercetin that is present in red wine. Quercetin, also an antioxidant, is found in various fruits and vegetables, including citrus fruits, dark berries, and grapes. However, since eating a handful of grapes or cherries doesn’t typically lead to headaches the way that a glass of red wine does, the study authors believe that the problem could be the combination of quercetin and alcohol.
“When [quercetin] gets in your bloodstream, your body converts it to a different form called quercetin glucuronide,” Andrew Waterhouse, wine chemist and professor emeritus with the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, said in a statement. “In that form, it blocks the metabolism of alcohol.” Because it interferes with an enzyme that helps break down alcohol, quercetin glucuronide can also cause a buildup of a chemical called acetaldehyde, which can cause facial flushing, nausea, and — you guessed it — headaches.
“We postulate that when susceptible people consume wine with even modest amounts of quercetin, they develop headaches, particularly if they have a preexisting migraine or another primary headache condition,” Morris Levin, the director of the Headache Center at the University of California, San Francisco, and one of the study’s co-authors said. “We think we are finally on the right track toward explaining this millennia-old mystery.”
To further test this hypothesis, the researchers will conduct a “small human clinical trial” that will compare whether quercetin-rich red wines cause headaches more frequently than reds that are lighter in that particular flavanol. Until then, maybe we should stick to Chardonnay?
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