Does Alcohol Trigger Migraines?

Read Transcript

Red wine does appear to be a trigger for migraine. Patients vary in their response to other alcohol and I do feel that at least red wine is the trigger for migraine. Since you brought this up though it kind of points us in the direction of food triggers for migraine and the unfortunate thing about that is that this idea of food triggers for migraine, but in the most part is based in urban legend and not in science.

And you'll see all over reliable appearing websites no chocolate, no citrus, no dairy, no cheese and it's really unfortunate because there's no science to support that. In fact they did a very interesting study and they found that chocolate does not cause migraine. They did a blinders study compared to [INAUDIBLE] and there was no difference.

So part of the reason that this myths have persisted is again because they keep on being repeated. And also it appears that the body craves serotonin boosting food, at the onset of a migraine, as a natural way to try to prevent it. And so it does you know there's a craving for sweets, for chocolates at the onset of a migraine, but that doesn't mean that the chocolate is causing the migraine.

So the part about this that really concerns me is and when patients cut out healthy food from their diet such as oranges. I have a patient whose never had an orange since the age of 20, because she was told that it can cause migraine, and I'm pretty sure that's not the case.