Wine and headaches

You might be an individual, whom has a low tolerance to sulfates. You might try a sulfate free, or an organic wine. Our Daily Reds (California about $7.50) There are several California and French Organic wines that are inexpensive. Find one without the sulfates, that you enjoy. The headaches will disappear

Not necessarily so...histamines are a much more common cause of headaches and head discomfort than sulfates which primarily cause problems in asthmatics, and these problems are normally respiratory rather than the headache/stuffiness syndrome caused by histamines. The test is equally simple though, take a Benadryl a half-hour before drinking wine. If it is an histaminic problem you will have no headache. If it is you can experiment with different styles (red, white, aged, cheap unaged) and try to find something that works. Worst case you take either Benadryl or Claritin or the like to block the histamines and enjoy drinking wines on occasion.

pavane

Salut/Hi David Hough,

le/on Wed, 30 Mar 2005 18:32:27 -0500, tu disais/you said:-

Not being a doctor, I've not pronounced in this! (Smirk).

Sulfites (or in English, sulphites)

Organic wines? Sulphuring is permitted afaik. You can get wines with no added sulphites, but even they have small quantities, which are created during the fermentation process.

In the words of the TV commercial by the man in the white lab. coat, "I'm not a doctor but if I were.........."

To extend Ian's parenthetic comment, "in English, sulphites"; he is obviously aware that IUAPC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) has decided that the scientific literature is to use the spelling "sulfur" for element 16. Since this was originally the US spelling, I gather there are inevitably some stubborn holdouts among speakers of British English (g).

Thanks for the input. After posting, I did some research on wine and headaches. Apparently the Red Wine Headache (RWH) is fairly common although poorly understood. Suspected causes include tannins, histamines, sulfites, and prostaglandins. Many articles were similar to this:

Last night, I took 2 asprin and one antihistimine (Chlor-tron) an hour before enjoying 2 glasses of red wine. I woke today feeling better than usual with the 'fog head' about 80% reduced

Worst case you take either Benadryl or Claritin or the

I sat at a wine tasting next to a doctor many years ago. He explained that the red wine headache was caused by a histamine reaction to tyramine. Apparently white wines contain either none or much less tyramine than reds.

See? Where shall I send the bill? ;^)

Tom S

Salut/Hi James Silverton,

le/on Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:21:05 -0500, tu disais/you said:-

I won't even go that far. All I'd be tempted to say was that the symptoms made me think of an allergy. In fact, it's so ludicrously easy to test SO2 allergy I'm surprised no one has suggested it. (smirking smugly again).

Absolutely. I'm damned if I'm going to dumb down MY language to suit a bunch of American dominated academics. Now you know why I left the world of chemistry to become an alchemist.

So I'll continue to talk of alumINIum instead of the bevolting alOOminum too. And Chile powder is a compound, while chilli powder is made by grinding the dried fruit of the capsicum annuum. And we make ratatatataouille from aubergines, and sprinkle guacamole with chopped coriander.

"Pshaw", "humph" and other expressions of embarrassed discomfiture.

That was exactly what I expected Ian (g)! I must admit that I've never really seen any great virtue in uniformity for its own sake but fighting the technical editors was usually a battle I lost :-(

Glad to hear it, you are on the right track now. And thanks for the referenced article.

pavane

Sulfates? yeah, well, sulfuric acid in your plonk will sure give you a headache. But the sulfites might do it as well.

Rob

Salut/Hi James Silverton,

le/on Thu, 31 Mar 2005 14:14:47 -0500, tu disais/you said:-

Oh, but James, I _always_ try to "humph" when it's expected of me. When I was younger, it was spelt without the final h but now I'm having to behave myself.

I'd argue for variety for its own sake. But that's the mentality typical of an eccentric Brit.

As for fighting technical editors. That's a luxury which has to be reserved for retirement, or for when you become a cat. Remember your RAH. "Never try to outstubborn a cat".

Hello dere, I vas out for a copple veeks and mine cousin almost had mine tubes pulled but I'm up for the schlep. Now about dese headaches--dey had a Latin toim for it around Paul (aka Solly) and Peter's time--"Luchim in Kup". Usually dat waz after a toga party ver der was a lot of foimented grain and hummis and giolies. Vat we did vas rub der heads mit eucalpytis leaves in a Schvitz(ake sauna) and gave em vat you now call an enema dat and a little wicky wacky from a lady camel in heat and dat headache vas history. Of course who knew what goims da camels had and dis waz before sulfa and your pennycillan so da cure may have been woiser den da headache, aldo mine nephew Weird Haerutus eloped to Crete vit his camel.........................

J. Murray Fefferman, worlds oldest salesman and vegatable as told to

I find I do better with wine with less tannin with getting headaches.

Hello,

Please forgive me if I repeat anything that has been said before. I am pretty sure we have this discussion once every few months.

My personal experience is that you get the red wine headache the morning after. I can quite often get white wine headaches within a short time of drinking white, which would probably support the histamine theory for whites. The "heavy" nature of red, with all those extra little heavy bits floating around would tend to support the tannin argument.

Like when you drink a really light crisp beer as apposed to Schloffenhoffer which is so think you cannot see through it. That is headache central. The same with spirits. Usually the lighter it is the less likely you are to get a headache.

I have histamine allergies so that would explain the white.

It has been said before however that quality whites do not give you a headache.

All this has been garnered from years of drinking experience. :)

Mat.

Hey Chip, now that all the "Big" wine experts who think they are Doctors have weighed in, I'll give you my theory.

I never got a red wine headache. I only drink alcohol occasionally, maybe once a month. I can't see drinking wine everyday