Bring on the red wine!!!! Lunch... OMG

There's hope for you RWH sufferers yet :-)

In a new controlled study, Kaufman and Dwight Starr, M.D., Mt. Zion Hospital and Medical Center, examined, through blind evaluation, various inhibitors of prostaglandin synthetase (IPS) drugs, aspirin, Acetaminophen, and Ibuprophen, to test if the RWH could be prevented by the prophylactic use of these specific medications.

During the first stage, twelve subjects (nine females and three males) with a history of RWH were challenged with red wine, and all experienced RWH. The subjects returned one week later, stage two, and were given inhibitors of prostaglandin synthetase or placebo one hour prior to wine ingestion. The two who received the placebo were not protected. Kaufman and Starr reported that ten of the subjects who were premedicated failed to develop the RWH; two given Acetaminophen developed a "second phase'' RWH 6-10 hours after wine ingestion.

Kaufman and Starr conclude that RWH may be due to a metabolic defect and corrected by prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors. Mechanisms of correction remain unclear. Source: H. Kaufman and D. Starr, Prevention of the Red Wine Headache (RWH); A Blind Controlled Study. In New Advances in Headache Research, 2nd edition, ed. F. Clifford Rose. Smith- Gordon, 1991.

New Information on Headaches, Flushing, and Bloating

If you suffer from headaches and/or flushed skin when drinking wine, try drinking a cup of black tea before you drink the wine. If you will be drinking over the course of an evening, have another cup or two of black tea during the evening. Quercetin, a bioflavonoid found in black tea, significantly inhibits the headache/flush response (which is an inflammatory effect from histamines), according to Tareq Khan, M.D., a pain expert with St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas. If the problem you suffer from is bloating dye to alcohol's dehydrating and water retention effects, try munching on magnesium-rich snacks like dark chocolate and unsalted nuts, according to Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D.

-- Peter Lucas Brisbane Australia

At this spectacle even the most gentle must feel savage, and the most savage must weep.

Turkish Officer 400 Plateau 24May1915