I’ve stopped drinking red wine since my dizziness was diagnosed as VM in July. But with Xmas around the corner I’ve been trialling what to drink around the festive season. Someone introduced me to orange wine which is great as it has the tannins I’ve been missing. Which then made me think - is that what I am not allowed? Is it the quercetin (sp?!) from the skin contact that is the migraine trigger for red wine? Dr S never said why not to have red wine; he just listed the most common migraine triggers.
As a point of note I’ve been having moderate alcohol and coping fine so I don’t need to abstain entirely.
Tannins are indeed cautioned against for everyone who is headache-prone. There may be more to it but that’s my general understanding. I switched from red to white 8-9 years ago after a diagnosis of chronic migraine and am now a happy chablis drinker
I fall into the annoying bucket of finding some food only goes well with red wine, including my favourite - good pizza .
It’s also worth noting that alcohol is a poison and I believe current medical consensus is that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption - which is a b1tch because it tastes so good and there are lots of nutritional benefits to offset that …
I no longer have vestibular or obvious headache symptoms, so I’m back to being able drink alcohol, but because I”m middle aged now, very wary to drink more than 2 glasses in a day and no more than 4 in a week …
Best to avoid ALL alcohol & any foods/drink that are fermented. It’s the tyramines in beer, wine, liquor, yogurt, hard cheeses, pickles, olives, prosciutto, soy sauce, active yeast in fresh bread, MSG, etc. that are clinically known to trigger migraine - headache & vestibular w/out headache. Read “The Dizzy Cook” by Alicia Cook to learn all the migraine safe food and drink you can have - and there are plenty of choices! I haven’t had a drop of alcohol now for 6 months & there’s no way I will go back. Not worth being so sick. I enjoy delicious Mocktails every day & don’t miss how ETOH was making me feel. Good luck & Cheers!
Good to know. I always enjoyed a glass or two of red wine, but now realize from y’all that it’s probably what’s triggering my symptoms. Might snitch some of my wife’s white wine and see what happens. No big deal if I have to give it up entirely. Only moderate drinker anyway.
I stopped drinking alcohol a long time ago because it clearly aggravates my VM symptoms. I occasionally miss it but not enough to risk making my already fragile health worse.
Personally, nothing aggravates my symptoms as bad as red wine. A few gulps of it and I’ll feel terrible for the next few hours at least. Second after that is whisky and other dark liquors.
So I’ve switched to drinking white wine only. Most other alcohols don’t cause me huge issues.
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