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Wine headaches


crossy67
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I was wondering if anyone else suffers rogue headaches after drinking wine. 

I get real stinking headaches like a migraine after drinking as little as one glass.  Strange thing is it only seems to be certain wines.  When I was over last month I bought three 5liter plastic barrels, I drunk the 1st two with only a bit of a hangover if I abused their copious quantity, fare enough.  Then I opened the last barrel, every time I take a drink I get a banging head ache.  The 1st and last barrels were both Vin De Payes Del Aude but the labels were different.  It's a nightmare, I love red wine but it's like Russian roulette.

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In times past, cheap wine was 'enhanced' with the addition of ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) to bring up the 'apparent' alcohol content and thus charge more for it.

Drinking such muck could give you one helluva headache!

I don't know if this illegal and dangerous practise still goes on, one would like to thik it's been stamped out but you never know.

I also don't know if this addition was/is made to red wine but it could explain the headaches.

You'll just have to splash out a little more for your plonk or get it on draft direct from a vineyard you like.

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To be honest I had a bit of an argument with a friend of mine many years ago about red barrels of cheap wine. I had never seen them,no wonder as in fact, they were to one side in my local supermarkets.

I wouldn't dream of cooking with wine from a red plastic barrell, it sort of says it all about the 'wine' inside and the respect it is shown. So headaches, gut rot or any other health problems wouldn't surprise me.

My friend used to buy and drink it on holiday without any problem at all, it would make me ill.

If I ever buy a cheaper red wine, I always buy bottled cote du rhone. The only wine I have found to be reliable, even in the cheaper versions.
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Our everyday wine is very local bag in box, at about 10/12 euros for 5 litres; rose in warm weather, red in cold. At the moment it's both; rose at lunchtime, red in the chillier evenings with supper. I never have a problem with any of the local brews, nor with champagne. Come to think of it, not with whisky or cognac either!  [:)]

As an aside, we brought a bottle of white Kent wine back for a neighbour, who was watering a plant for us over the summer. We met in the market this morning, and he said it was delicious, had a very good taste and was dry as he likes it. They were very surprised to know there were any English wines!

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I have a friend who peels the labels off his wine bottles in hot water and saves the ones he is OK with so he can remember which one to get again .... I get mine from the local cave after trying it first they then put my choice into the wine boxes i take and get refilled .they have a tool to remove the plastic taps to fill them up again .
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Another article here..

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/8009/352585.html

There is a bit in this article that made me laugh where they suggest trying a red wine and if after 15 minutes you do not have a headache stick to that wine all night.

It then says don't drink more than two glasses - that's going to be either a short night or a long dry one.

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[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

In times past, cheap wine was 'enhanced' with the addition of ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) to bring up the 'apparent' alcohol content and thus charge more for it.

[/quote]

 

Ethylene Glycol makes acid wines taste sweeter - nothing to do with alcohol content - real or apparent.

 

One likely candidate for the head aches is Phenyl Alanines - found (quite naturally) in robust reds and strong cheeses like Canadian Cheddar

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Thanks for the links, the histamine sound promising, all wine has sulphates in so that would not explain why some wines cause such a bad reaction whilst others are fine.  Reading the bit about the histamine really rings a bell with me, not all the time but quite often if I drink a glass of wine I will wake in the night burning up, this is said to be another side effect.  So it looks like I need to buy some Claratyn and some asprin just in case I am allergic to Prostaglandins too. 

I can't believe some of the things my body doesn't like any more, getting older is depressing.

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We were told (by a largish wine exporter) that headaches are caused by sulphur dioxide preservatives (sulfites).  If you have a problem with headaches we were advised to choose 'en vrac' wines.  (En vrac wines are drunk young and are not going to be kept in storage/ transported to retailers etc so don't need high levels of preservatives.)

http://www.wineintro.com/glossary/s/sulfites.html

Mrs R51

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Interesting developments.

Last night I took an antihistamine then about an hour later started drinking.  I drank over a bottles worth of wine (in the name of scientific research of course) from a barrel brought back last trip, this barrel has given me some shocking headaches within an hour of drinking just a small glass.  Well, this morning I feel a bit groggy but almost no headache, wait to see what develops.  My hangovers have usually started to kick in by now. 

Only one small problem with this "controlled" experiment, I had a bit of a headache yesterday (before drinking, getting progressively worse throughout the day) so I took one of my migraine prevention tablets.  These can ease headaches too but have not been very good against the stinkers I have had from this wine.  Looks very promising but I think I need to perform other tests without other medication, just to be sure of course.

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I had chocolate last night and chou-fleure au fromage (cauliflower cheese, dead pleased with learning a bit more French) for dinner so they seem to be good.  The real test will be when I don't take the migraine tablets.

Any one tried adding a clove of garlic to butter used in their cheese sauce when making cauliflower cheese, it's gorgeous, we always make enough for two nights cos there is only us so we have it again with bubble & squeak from the leftover veg tonight.  Can't wait, I am feeling strangely hungry now.

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