Why does red wine cause headaches? Our research points to a compound present in the skin of grapes

Medical reports of red wine headaches Go back to Roman timeshowever the experience might be as old as winemaking – about 10,000 years. As a chemist specialized in winemakingwe desired to try to seek out out the explanation for these headaches.

Many components of red wine are blamed for causing this misery – Sulfites, biogenic amines And Tannin are the preferred. Our research suggests the most definitely offender is one chances are you’ll not have considered.

The most typical suspects

Sulfites have been a well-liked scapegoat for all forms of ills since wine labeling became mandatory within the United States within the Nineteen Nineties. However, there isn't much evidence directly linking sulfites to headaches other foods contain comparable amounts to wine without the identical effects. White wines also contain this same amount of sulfites as red wines.

Your body, such as you, produces about 700 milligrams of sulfites daily metabolize the protein in your food and excrete it as sulfate. To do that, it has compounds called sulfite oxidases, which create sulfate from sulfite—the 20 milligrams in a glass of wine probably won't overwhelm your sulfite oxidases.

Some people point to biogenic amines for red wine headaches. These are nitrogen-containing substances present in many fermented or spoiled foods and may cause headaches Amount in wine is much too low to be an issue.

Tannin is guessas white wines contain only small amounts while red wines contain significant amounts. Tannin is a kind of phenolic compound – it’s present in all plants and typically plays a task in stopping disease, warding off predators, or promoting seed dispersal by animals.

But there are numerous others Phenolic compounds within the skin and seeds of grapes So, other than tannins, that are introduced into red wines during winemaking and aren’t present in white wines, any of those may very well be a possible offender.

Tannin can also be present in many other common products, reminiscent of tea and chocolate, which generally don’t cause headaches. And Phenols are good antioxidants – They are unlikely to trigger the inflammation that may cause headaches.

A red wine flush

Some people get red, flushed skin after they drink alcohol, and the redness is like that accompanied by headaches. These headaches are attributable to a slow metabolic process when the body breaks down alcohol.

Alcohol metabolism occurs in two steps. First, ethanol is converted into acetaldehyde. The enzyme ALDH then converts the acetaldehyde into acetate, a standard and harmless substance. This second step is slower in individuals with red skin because their ALDH is just not very efficient. They accumulate acetaldehyde, which a somewhat toxic compound Also associated with hangover.

So if something unique in red wine could inhibit ALDH and decelerate this second step of metabolism, would that result in higher acetaldehyde levels and headaches? To answer this query, we looked through the list of phenols present in red wine.

We discovered an article showing that quercetin is inhibitor of ALDH. Quercetin is a phenolic compound present in the skins of grapes it’s way more common in red wines than in white wines since the skins of red grapes are left longer in the course of the fermentation process than skins of white grapes.

Enzymes put to the test

Testing ALDH was the following step. We performed an inhibition test in test tubes. In the test, we measured how quickly the enzyme ALDH breaks down acetaldehyde. We then added the suspected inhibitors – quercetin, in addition to another phenols we desired to test – to see in the event that they slowed the method.

These tests confirmed that quercetin is inhibitor. Some other phenols had different effects, but quercetin glucuronide was the winner. When your body absorbs quercetin from food or wine, most of that is the case converted into glucuronide absorbed by the liver to quickly eliminate it from the body.

Our enzyme tests suggest that quercetin glucuronide interferes together with your body's metabolism of alcohol. This disruption causes more acetaldehyde to flow into, resulting in inflammation and headaches. This discovery points to what’s referred to as a secondary or synergistic effect.

These secondary effects are way more difficult to discover because two aspects have to be at play for the result to occur. In this case, other foods containing quercetin aren’t related to headaches, so chances are you’ll not initially consider quercetin because the explanation for the red wine problem.

The next step is likely to be to provide human subjects two red wines, high and low in quercetin, and ask whether either wine causes a headache. If the high quercetin wine causes much more headaches, we all know we're on the appropriate track.

So if quercetin causes headaches, are there red wines without quercetin? Unfortunately, the info available on specific wines is much too limited to offer helpful advice. However, grapes exposed to the sun produce more quercetin, way more so inexpensive red wines are constructed from grapes that see less sunlight.

If you're willing to take a risk, search for an affordable, lighter red wine.