Headaches While Drinking Alcohol

Sack it off entirely. Sounds like you've done the hard part already.

Possible intolerance/allergy to alcohol or other things within alcoholic drinks.
My wife is affected by some alcoholic drinks but not others and gets very itchy.
My mum gets headaches stragith away with Merlot. But with other wines/grapes she is fine.

in terms of cause my guess is you've always had an intolerance (not necessarily with alcohol, maybe grape must etc) - but that in your youth your body was better at coping with it and you'd built up some immunity (he says from experience) - in terms of cure - avoid, obvs 🙂

Something like panadol would just stress your liver (or kidneys?) even more wouldn't it?

Champagne often seems to be the one that has least impact on people so assuming it's only festive occasions you want to drink at then it might at least be available / affordable for the odd one-off.

I stopped drinking alcohol for this reason. getting a hangover before getting drunk didn't stack up for me.

the hardest part about not drinking alcohol is other people.

Just stop drinking. That's the answer. I did as it just gave me disaster pants as well as generally feeling pretty crap as I got older

Some people don't seem to understand and take an affront when you don't want an alcoholic drink at occasions, but I think that says more about them. Me and my wife have not drink for maybe 20 years and we still get it from some family, one of which even bought us an expensive bottle of port for Xmas! Sod them, I'd rather not be unwell.

I get this. Some drinks are basically toxic to me (dark beers for example - a couple of mouthfuls is enough), and at certain times (mostly hormone related, but also food/blood sugar) all alcohol is toxic. When I'm not in the everything is toxic zone, some brands of gin are OK, some are not. It's very weird. If I drink the wrong thing, or at the wrong time, it's an almost instant migraine and lasts for a couple of days. I'm afraid the only answer I've found is not drinking.

Have you tried any of the low/non-alcohol beers? MrsIHN and I are moving more and more to them as there's a growing number of them that are really quite good. I've had a couple of nights out drinking only them whilst everyone else has been 'properly' drinking, and don't feel I've missed out on anything other than the hangover.

Low/non-alcohol wines are still fairly gash though unfortunately.

Same here. I start getting a hangover during the 3rd or 4th pint and I know I'm guaranteed a shit nights sleep.

I just don't bother now. I occasionally feel the cravings for a nice cold beer then I always regret having it.

I get the same. My face also flushes, bright red 'panda eyes'. Apparently this is something that is often found in people of some Asian countries, which isn't in my genetics at all!
Best case is it triggers a headache, standard it's that it triggers a migraine. It sucks, I don't know what to suggest I'm afraid.
I also get it with some low and non alcoholic drinks, so I don't think it's the alcohol, I think it's something else, possibly sulphites.

Totally unhelpful, other than to say you have my sympathy!

Ahhh this is all rather grim reading... But thank you all for the input.

I'm not at the stage of wanting to stop drinking completely, I still enjoy the odd night of being an idiot and talking rubbish with friends. I think it might be a case of trying various different drinks and seeing which one has the least effect. So if you see someone cracking open the Advocaat it will probably be me....

All alcohol is toxic.

I have one every now and then, usually swayed by a cocktail tbh 😂 But otherwise, 99.9% of the time I'm zero alcohol - and FAR better for it.

As others have said, there's a growing number of great AF beers. 0% Guinness is particulary good.

I still enjoy the odd night of being an idiot and talking rubbish with friends

I can personally vouch that it is definitely still possible to do this whilst drinking AF beer 🙂

and talking rubbish with friends.

Out of my group of close mates (around 8-10 of us), 3 of us have given up booze.

We went on an all day sesh recently, with us 3 sticking to 0% beers in the pubs we visited. By the end of the day, the 3 of us that were sober were still having a laugh and banter flowing, whilst the drinkers were fading into mumbling and repeating nonsense. They were not funny, we were 😂. Was quite somethign to see with sober eyes!!

Some people don’t seem to understand and take an affront when you don’t want an alcoholic drink at occasions, but I think that says more about them.

I think a fair few people get miffed at the sight of someone going through life without the need for alcohol, as they lack the confidence to be able to do it themselves.

So the suggestion is that there must be something wrong with you for not using alcohol as a crutch, rather than them for not being able to do without alcohol.

As said, drinking isn't compulsory. But if you want to minimise the side effects try something like a vodka and tonic.

Or maybe lager rather than beer

Have you tried antihistamine ? My wife does this as she is developing an allergy to alcohol, when she does have a glass of wine she gets itchy throat and sinus squeeze

Apparently this is quite common but often masked as 'hangover'

Have you switched what you drink?
I'm ok drinking most alcohol (well at least on the night..not the day after!) but I cant drink Budweiser. It's really strange, even one bottle seems to give me a massive headache shortly after drinking.

I think a lot of the resistance towards non drinkers is the fact that the drinker is letting go of control whereas the non drinker is not. So a shared embarrassment at saying or doing daft things is lost. So as long as the non drinker isn't one of those who reminds their mates of what they did the night before they will get used to it.

I find that

a) I feel far worse the next day after a couple of drinks than a skinful (this is not a recommendation!) and

b) what I drink has a massive bearing. Cheap lager puts me on my arse, a decent beer or a nice whisky is fine.

Think I have some sort of alcohol intolerance too. Most of the time is fine but sometime I just feel ill with no energy the whole next day and don't eat or do anything just sleep on and off until the night when i sleep through and get up the following morning.

Can be surprisingly little to do it. Maybe drinking after lots of exercise that week is a mistake, or drinking slightly more than usual ie 3 bottles of ipa instead of two, or a different drink (ie lager instead of ale).

I get the headache/early hangover, too, but usually Friday night when I haven't had a drink since Sunday. By Sunday night I find i'm more tolerant to alcohol. Also, mixing drinks is a killer for me - just two bottles (or pints) of beer and then a glass of wine can give me a lousy hangover in the morning.

Days I drink any booze these days are usually less than England's pitiful number of bank holidays, but when I do, I can get a hangover-esque feeling before finishing a glass of wine consumed either side of a meal! 😮

I love Hoegaarden but wheat beers give me a hangover as I drink it. Also are you medication as the strong statins I take for familial cholesterol has sadly lowered my tolerance to one if favourite hobbies. Pubs and drinking.

How is the answer to this not cocktails?

I’m 52 & I don’t drink much these days, in fact I’ve had 2 pints in the last month, which were last Friday. Within 5 minutes I had a very strange headache in my temples & above my ears. This is following a diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver… I think my drinking days are over.

I’m with those who say give it up; I do love the taste of beers of all sorts & whisky, though I’ve never been a big drinker so I’ve tried a few non-alcohol beers. Pretty much the best/closest to the real thing I’ve found is Guinness 0%, but even that has an odd background taste I don’t like. Also, looking at the labels these non alcohol beers are high in sugar, particularly fructose, so with NAFLD these are potentially worse than alcohol. All boils down to just giving up. My health & longevity are far more important than an occasional pleasant taste.

Think I have some sort of alcohol intolerance too. Most of the time is fine but sometime I just feel ill with no energy the whole next day and don’t eat or do anything just sleep on and off until the night when i sleep through and get up the following morning.

I’m fairly certain we all have an alcohol intolerance, given that it’s a poison (hasn’t stopped me poisoning myself over the years 😩)

Yes, normal. Welcome to getting old. Pretty much given up drinking because of it. Don't miss it at all.

You're obviously not drinking enough and your body is trying to tell you that. It's out of practice and you need to help it rebuild its tolerance.

Get yourself off to the pub, power through and don't come back til you're fixed.