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What do you guys mean by Alcohol intolerance please?

Folk

Senior Member
Messages
217
I've always tried to undertand that. Is a worst hangover the other day, or you just get drunk faster, or your symptoms get worse as soon as you drink? How and when is it?

I've always drank a lot for this 8 years with an "unknown disease" (looks like firbomyalgia, yeah perhaps CFS, so it goes) Normally everything was ok, I even got less hangover than most people I guess, I just needed 10 times more water when waking up.

But sometimes after drinking I got red, realy red (not just blushing) all over my face and chest, like some sort of severe allergy and my heart beats skyrocketed. That just happen from time to time, especially if I drank something like 3-4 days straights a have drinking... And I suspect getting some sun in the same day affected too.

But other than that, I usually could go drinking for something like 2 times a week, for years withou problems and even something like 90% of my pain used to go away...
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
One night of moderate drinking can make me sick for a month. Its a lot like PEM only different. A hangover is gone in a flash.

When I tracked symptoms some years back I got a biphasic response. For a little over a week I had more aches and pains, flu like symptoms and so on. Then for some weeks after that I became what we call twired ... tired but wired.

This consistent with an initial burst of arachidonate metabolism (triggered by alcohol, a known cause) followed by systemic omega 6 deficiency. The only way to prove that though would be in large well designed study, and that is not a priority on this issue.
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
Same here - get drunk very quickly, then pains in my legs that feels lik severe squeezing, then feel sick and nasty, then awful hangover from only very small amounts of alcohol - feels like a poison and I wonder why I would want to add more poison into a body that already feels toxic. I can feel even the amount of alcohol in 5ml of herbal tincture diluted in water.
 

Sidereal

Senior Member
Messages
4,856
These days I don't drink at all. Last few times I tried to have a glass of wine I got drunk after a few sips, developed severe pain and weakness in limbs and felt poisoned for a long time afterwards.

Dehydrogenase enzymes are busted in this illness IMO.
 

ukxmrv

Senior Member
Messages
4,413
Location
London
I've always tried to undertand that. Is a worst hangover the other day, or you just get drunk faster, or your symptoms get worse as soon as you drink? How and when is it?

I've always drank a lot for this 8 years with an "unknown disease" (looks like firbomyalgia, yeah perhaps CFS, so it goes) Normally everything was ok, I even got less hangover than most people I guess, I just needed 10 times more water when waking up.

But sometimes after drinking I got red, realy red (not just blushing) all over my face and chest, like some sort of severe allergy and my heart beats skyrocketed. That just happen from time to time, especially if I drank something like 3-4 days straights a have drinking... And I suspect getting some sun in the same day affected too.

But other than that, I usually could go drinking for something like 2 times a week, for years withou problems and even something like 90% of my pain used to go away...

Could you have the Alcohol Flush reaction?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction

Another idea would be a POTS type reaction. I've always assumed that my own intolerance of alcohol was partly due to something like the effects of alcohol on blood vessels (I do have POTS)

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/postural-tachycardia-syndrome-pots-leaflet

When I did drink (pre-ME) I noticed that my hangovers went on a lot longer than my friends. Also what I drank made a difference. Wine with sulphates being a problem for me.
 

Jammy88

Senior Member
Messages
163
Location
Italy
Could you have the Alcohol Flush reaction?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction

Another idea would be a POTS type reaction. I've always assumed that my own intolerance of alcohol was partly due to something like the effects of alcohol on blood vessels (I do have POTS)

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/postural-tachycardia-syndrome-pots-leaflet

When I did drink (pre-ME) I noticed that my hangovers went on a lot longer than my friends. Also what I drank made a difference. Wine with sulphates being a problem for me.


I can see myself in everything you mentioned concerning alcohol. (my CFS-like disease trigger is viral, like yours)

I simply decided not to drink anymore. I hope one day I will again be able to enjoy a couple of drinks with my friends, even tho this is not a major problem - but again, this disease makes you feel so lonely and different. :-/ I don't need to get drunk and don't like to, but I like wine and sometimes I miss it.
 

PennyIA

Senior Member
Messages
728
Location
Iowa
I haven't noticed the getting drunk faster - I just haven't drank enough for so long, it might just be a matter of built up tolerance plus slow intake at this point. Before this illness I found that the hangovers were getting brutal - so I just cut back a lot and drank about half what it would take to get drunk as it was.

BUT... now I find that I get ill within about 30 minutes of drinking. Between dizziness and nausea as well as gastric issues. Now, I can't tolerate it well enough to get to the point of getting a hangover. Plus feeling ill for weeks after a single drink made it impossible to enjoy it when you know it'll only punish you afterwards.
 

Iquitos

Senior Member
Messages
513
Location
Colorado
I used to be alcohol intolerant -- felt tipsy or drunk on about half the former amount. Since I've been using medical cannabis, I don't have that experience, at least not with anything negative about it. It still affects me as if it were double the proof but no hangover, no flushing, no bad effects.

I have at least a cup of red wine just about every evening and I often put my tincture of medical cannabis in the wine. I can't drink on an empty stomach so I usually have it with a meal or after eating. As far as I know, sulfites in red wine were discontinued some time ago. If I remember right, it was something about some chemical compound they used to sterilize the storage containers.
 

CantThink

Senior Member
Messages
800
Location
England, UK
Yes, I gravitated to whisky before I gave up entirely. I react far less to strong spirits than, for example, red wine. Which means that not all the response is likely due to alcohol. Alcoholic drinks have lots of other things in them.

Same here - I can manage most spirits, although I can never drink more than one drink a day. I can't drink wine (but I can tolerate it in cooking). I also can't drink any spirit or liqueur based on brandy. I think brandy is made from some form of wine/grapes, and that's my issue.

I noticed I am allergic to Jagermeister. The two or three times I tried it, I came up in hives all down my legs. I looked it up online and it has masses (56!) of secret herbs, roots, blossoms and fruits in it. So I must be reacting to one or more of them.

I typically rarely drink - perhaps a few times a year, if that. I just feel ill from it and don't enjoy it... I don't miss it.
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
One of the first things I noticed when I was tipping over into a disabled level of illness was that beer tasted bad, like it was spoiled. I even had others taste the same beer and it was fine for them. Now, however, I can tolerate small amounts of alcohol--that is when I am not taking a drug that prohibits it.

Sushi
 

snowathlete

Senior Member
Messages
5,374
Location
UK
When first sick I could drink ok, just made me feel generally a bit worse.
Then a fewchristmases ago I drunk a glass of red wine and ten minutes later felt awfully unwell. It was a quick and severe worsening of symptoms. Unmistakably MECFS symptoms. I crashed, had to go home and go to bed. Felt a lot better the next day but took about a week I guess to return to my normal.
Realised it was a perm thing when I tried another alcoholic drink at some point after that and since haven't drunk at all.

I wonder if a study looking at what happens following alchohol might spot something odd going on.
 
Messages
15,786
A couple sips of alcohol makes me immediately feel very bad. It seems to be triggering severe and sudden OI, and I get light-headed/dizzy with cognitive issues.

I can't drink enough to get a hangover. When I was able to drink a bit more, a single glass of wine would make me feel buzzed and unsteady on my feet.
 

lookinglass

Senior Member
Messages
115
Location
Tenerife
Just wrote on another alcohol thread. I have had alcohol intolerance all my life. It is a poison to me. Wine smells like petrol, tastes like battery acid and hard liquor makes me vomit, have migraines ( I did try to drink a few times when a young woman!) and pains down left arm. Still smells the same now, 8 years after ME diagnosis. Even perfume stings on my skin.
 

L'engle

moogle
Messages
3,197
Location
Canada
One of the first things I noticed when I was tipping over into a disabled level of illness was that beer tasted bad, like it was spoiled. I even had others taste the same beer and it was fine for them. Now, however, I can tolerate small amounts of alcohol--that is when I am not taking a drug that prohibits it.

Sushi

I thought this was just me. Beer tastes like liquid essence of rotting bread to me. Apparently it's refreshing but to me it seems like moldy rot.

Can't handle even a bit of alcohol without getting weak and sick. I usually try it about once a year, like a small glass of white wine at Christmas dinner, then feel quite ill and don't try it again until I've forgotten what the bad effect is like a year or two later.