Red Wine

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Red Wine

High Severity Migraine Trigger
Contains: Tannins (Related Triggers)   Tyramine (Related Triggers)   Sulfites (Related Triggers)  
See: Red Wine vs. Sulfite Allergy

Whether it's the tannins, tyramine, or sulfites, migraineurs should probably avoid red wine altogether. The following resources provide some discussion into tannins, sulfites, and other potential base triggers in red wine.

Sulfites are one of the many chemical triggers in wine, and they're not specific to reds. The tendency for red wine to be more headache-provoking than white is because of the higher concentration of phenols, tyramine (and related amines), alcohols other than ethyl, and perhaps other so-called congeners in red vs. white wines.

According to one study: Patients with migraine who believed that red wine but not alcohol in general had a headache-provoking effect on them were challenged either with red wine or with a vodka and diluent mixture of equivalent alcohol content, both consumed cold out of dark bottles to disguise colour and flavour. The red wine, which had a negligible tyramine content, provoked a typical migraine attack in 9 of 11 such patients, whereas none of the 8 challenged with vodka had an attack. Neither red wine nor vodka provoked such episodes in other migrainous subjects or controls. These findings show that red wine contains a migraine-provoking agent that is neither alcohol nor tyramine. See Bernhard Baron Memorial Research Laboratories for full details.