Can alchohol exacerbate allergy symptoms?
Both beer and wine can cause reactions if you are sensitive to tyramines.
When I was still drinking, I would get allergic symptoms every time I drank Miller Genuine Draft, but no other beer. I would also like to know why
As a drinker, and allergy sufferer, I can say it has been my experience that alcohol has the opposite effect. For me, a beer and a half stops the sneezing pretty well. If it’s a placebo effect, I don’t want to know.
The word for something that causes allergic reactions is an ALLERGAN.
Histamines are the substances that the body produces in response to allergans, which cause the symptoms of an allergy: vasodilation, mucous production, tissue swelling etc.
Many people descrbe the facial flushing, nausea and sweating they get from alcohol (commonly exacerbated by the antibiotic Metronidazole) as an allergy. It isn’t, it’s a defect in the enzyme pathway (the defect is either inherited, or induced by medication) which breaks down alcohol, so that instead of the normal waste products, a surplus of acetaldehyde is produced. The acetaldehyde is what causes the symptoms of flushing and nausea.
It is unlikely for the C2H5OH itself to cause a true allergy, more likely for an additive in the drink to do so.
I also had an allergic reaction (hives) whenever I drank MGD. I now drink Michelob and have no problems.
Why the plural, “histamines”? Is there more than one?
Yes. More importantly, there are numerous antihistamines.
But there are foods/drinks that contain histamine. And beer and wine are two of them.
I find that when I am drinking it makes my reactions to the things I am allergic to much worse. (strange cats usually mean minor sniffles and being careful not to touch my eyes. strange cats and beer usually mean having to lay down so I can concentrate on breathing)
As a young girl I suffered from pretty severe asthma. A sip of alcohol* would make breathing a bit easier until I could be taken to the ER.
*I do not in any way advocate giving alcohol to minors.
I find when drinking some types of alcohol, my nose stuffs up almost immediately. So, I can vouch for a reaction. I always assumed it was an allergy.
Because it’s your body’s way of saying “please stop drinking this swill, and get me a perfectly poured Guinness or something similar”.
Miller puts something in all thier beers that causes hay-fever like reactions for me.
All thier beer except “milwaukee’s best” (yes, it’s awful) which apparently doesn’t have the budget for the problematic ingredient.
Ethanol is a smooth muscle relaxer. This may help open up a bronchiole which is constricted by spasm of the smooth muscle surrounding it.
Caffiene can help too, in an emergency.
But medicines designed to treat bronchospasm are better and I would not suggest anyone use alcohol or caffiene for these purposes save in a true emergency, while waiting for the paramedics to arrive.
Qagdop, isn’t alcohol something asthmatics are supposed to avoid? I thought I’d heard something to that effect.
I’d be dead by now for sure!
A lot of things can trigger asthma, and they’re different for different asthmatics. Many tolerate alcohol just fine.
I have heard apple juice and cheap white wine can, in large quantities, trigger an asthma attack.
I have non-allergic vaso-motor rhinitis…which is a fancy way of saying I have a stuffy nose.
Beer/alcohol always makes my nose more stuffy. I hate it! It certainly takes some of the pleasure out of drinking. Not all the pleasure, mind you. Just some of it! 