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Ever sipped a glass of red wine and felt a migraine coming on, or observed more migraines
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at a specific time of your cycle?
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You're not imagining things.
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And science has something to say about it.
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Welcome to the Migraine Heroes podcast.
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A podcast for people living with chronic migraines, years of pain, misunderstanding and no answers.
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I'm Diane Ducard and I've helped more than a thousand people reduce the burden of migraines
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and feel more in control.
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Each episode brings you grounded insights into what your body might be asking for and
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what can truly help.
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Recently, Linda, who went through the Migraine Heroes journey, came to visit me in New Zealand.
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She talked to me about how much had changed, not just for migraines, but how she understands
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herself, how she makes decisions, how she feels in control again.
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And it reminded me how powerful clarity really is.
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The real shift in migraine starts there, with clarity.
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And for many people, migraine feels so confusing, unpredictable.
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And the constant question is, why is this happening to me?
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When that question begins to have an answer, something changes.
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You know what you're working with and you know what to do next.
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That's the kind of work that happens in our 90-minute personal migraine sessions, where
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we slow down and apply everything we explore here directly to you, to your history, your
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patterns, your questions.
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After seeing Linda, I felt deeply grateful and I wanted to create a space for more of
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those conversations.
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So this month, this month of March 2026, I've set aside time to personally hold more of
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these sessions, and I'm offering them at no cost.
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If you'd like to explore your migraines in this way, with me, just book a call in the
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show notes of your podcast, or download the Migraine Heroes app, complete your Getting
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Started steps, and you'll see how to reserve your session.
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This offer is for March 2026 only.
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Now take a deep breath, and let's dive in.
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In this episode, you will learn why red wine is more likely than white to cause migraines
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in sensitive people, and what's really happening in your brain.
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How histamines, tannins, and sulfites each play a role, and which one may matter most
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And how wine impacts your migraines at different and unexpected times of your cycle.
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Stick with me till the end, because by the end, you will look at wine as your triggers
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in a very, very different light.
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This morning, I onboarded a woman who mentioned something that honestly stuffed me in my tracks.
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She told me she'd identified red wine as a migraine trigger, but not always, only at
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a very specific time in her cycle.
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She'd noticed that when she drank wine or alcohol, migraines would reliably show up
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more between day 7 and day 11 of her cycle.
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And that level of pattern recognition, I have to say, is there.
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She was strong, she really impressed me.
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Not surprisingly, she loves data.
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She wasn't guessing, blaming, or generalizing.
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She had observed her body long enough to see timing, context, and cause working together.
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And that's exactly how Migraine Intelligence developed, and that's the type of things we
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aspire to do at Migraine Heroes inside the app that she had been using, and that we improve
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on a weekly basis.
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But before we go into the more advanced hormone cycle specific explanation, let's slow this
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down and start with the basics, because if you don't understand why alcohol can trigger
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migraines in the first place, the more nuanced patterns won't make sense.
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So let's lay the foundation first.
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Let's start with the definition of the problem.
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Red wine is consistently one of the top alcohol-related migraine triggers.
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In fact, in 2008, a study published in Cephalalgia found that over one-third of migraine sufferers
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cited red wine as a personal trigger.
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Yet, not everyone reacts this way to all sorts of alcohol.
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So what makes red wine so different?
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So let's look at the chemistry of the glass.
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Red wine contains a complex mixture of compounds.
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The three usual suspects have been studied most in migraine research.
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The first one are histamines.
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Red wine often have 10 times more histamines than white wines.
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Histamines are a chemical released during an allergic reaction, and they dilate blood vessels,
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a known migraine trigger.
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A 2010 review in Headache Journal found that people with deficient diamine oxidase, so
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the enzyme that breaks down histamine, are more susceptible to headaches from histamine-rich
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foods and drinks like red wine.
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If you want to learn more about histamine, I really encourage you to search for it in
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the Migraine Heroes podcast.
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I've done quite a few podcasts on this fascinating and super important topic.
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The second one are tannins.
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These are polyphenolic compounds found in grape skins, seeds, and stems.
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They give red wine its structure and its bitter taste, and tannins can stimulate the release
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For people with migraine-prone brains, a sudden shift in serotonin levels can set off a chain
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A study by Dr. Diamond in Current Pain and Headache Report supported this serotonin-tannin
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The third one are sulfites.
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These are used to preserve wine, but while often blamed, the evidence is actually mixed.
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According to the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, sulfite sensitivity does exist,
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but is much rarer than histamine intolerance.
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And sulfites are actually higher in white wine, not red, making them less likely to
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be the real culprit in a specific migraine scenario.
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So what's the bigger brain picture?
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What happens in the brain of someone reacting to red wine?
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Well, in migraineurs, there is increased sensitivity in the trigeminovascular system, the network
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of nerves and blood vessels responsible for migraine pain.
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Another twist, alcohol and red wine can cause dehydration and blood sugar drops, both of
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which are common migraine triggers independently.
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Combine that with histamine and serotonin shifts, and there's a recipe for trouble.
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So that leaves it quite packed.
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Now let's go east for a minute.
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In traditional Chinese medicine, the body is seen as a delicate balance of energies,
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and alcohol, especially red wine, is considered a hot and moving substance.
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It invigorates qi and promotes circulation, but it can also overheat the liver.
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And in the east, the liver and the brain have this very special relationship.
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Among all systems inside the body, this is the most intertwined with the brain.
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And so not surprisingly, toxicity in your liver will create more reporters migraines
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in your brain, just like a hangover anyone can experience when intoxicating their liver.
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Now here's what is fascinating, is that the liver is not just an organ in the east, it's
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And that system is in charge of namely producing hormones, female hormones.
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And so if I intoxicate my liver and overload that system with an unexpected additional
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to-do list, it will overrun other things that need to be done, namely the level of my hormones.
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My liver is also connected to my breast and to my uterus.
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There's a popular French saying that says, vin cancer du sein, it rhymes, and that translates
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into a funny way in English, wine breast cancer, it doesn't rhyme at all.
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And now this is actually backed by science.
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Even around one drink per day is assuaged with a measurable increase in breast cancer
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risk in women, and that is valid for red wine and other alcohol.
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So when you drink red wine, there's multiple facets to your health that will be impacted.
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And for that woman, day 7 to day 11 is when her oestrogen is actually supposed to increase
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And so she feels that if she overloads her liver system, this is where it will compensate,
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which makes absolute sense. Know
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that also for some of you, you might notice that red wine is a trigger, but only
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in certain parts of your cycle.
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In the PMS phase, for example, so pre-menstruation, the couple of days before your menstruation,
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the likelihood of a red wine-induced migraine is much, much stronger.
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So here, I want to encourage you towards awareness.
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You might want to cut red wine altogether, and if you're in perimenopause stage, it might
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be a very wise idea.
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But you might also put it in your Migraine Heroes app and observe if you see some patterns.
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You can also ask the Migraine Heroes chat to look at your data and interpret your patterns
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Awareness is power.
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And what is true for a given person, woman, man, at a given point in their time, at a
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given point in their life, is not necessarily true for another person or that same person
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at a different life stage.
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I hope this helps.
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These are complex notions and notions that are not talked about online.
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So keep your curiosity going.
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On our end, we'll be committed to making the app better and better and more and more intuitive
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to teach you your patterns and give you the knowledge relevant to you.
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I will leave you with one advice.
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For every single one glass of alcohol you have, have three glasses of water and that
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will definitely decrease your amount of alcohol intake and reduce that dehydration paradox.
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And remember, every small step you take moves you closer to freedom.
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You are powerful, you are resilient, and you're no longer alone.
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Keep rising, Migraine Hero.
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www.migrainehero.com
