Allergic to Alcohol?

[Lalena]

I know there is a lot out there about wine making people sneeze, but aside from a few drunken sneeze videos on youtube there is not much mention to allergies to alcohol in general.

I think I am allergic to something in alcohol. Usually whenever I drink I, at the very least, get stuffy. It seems that wine effects me worst (red is really bad, but white does it too), then beer, and then liquor. Usually wine will stuff me up pretty badly and make me sneeze a bit. With beer I get VERY VERY stuffy with only a few sneezes. I talk with an extremely congested voice. Liquor has the smallest effect, but it does make me a little stuffed up with almost no sneezing.

I do not have to be drunk for this effect to happen. Usually it starts after only 2 or 3 drinks, so I can't say it's drunken sneezing. It's such a strange effect!

Does this happen to anyone else? Or do you know anyone that this happens to?

[ThePokeFan599]

Does this happen to anyone else? Or do you know anyone that this happens to?

My face turns a little red after drinking alcohol, but no sneezes or stuffiness.

[haymaker]

I reckon its more prevalent than people realize.

I know of 3 people who have it, only one of which has recognised the connection: ie that when they drink alcohol they start sneezing.

Edited August 8, 2011 by haymaker

[Anonymouse]

I think I heard it was the sulfites in wine. Some people get headaches, some people get stuffed up. My boyfriend gets a little bit of both. I second what haymaker said, I think more people than you'd expect react that way.

[Stimuli]

Lol even thought I am underage a sadly have some experiences with alcohol, I haven't sneezed while drinking anything with alcohol thought <,<

[Dye]

Being quite familliar with alcohol, even though I'm young, I haven't had this happen to me... But then, I don't have too much at any one time. Except when I was 2, I got drunk on beer dad accidentally left in my reach. It was late, and I was supposed to be asleep. But I got drunk, and phoned my mum.

But not much since then. Couple of glasses of WKD here, few shots there... So I'm not entirely sure.

[count tiszula]

There seem to be two major causes of alcohol sneezing; there is the vaso dilation [is that right?] effect, which means that the delicate sensitive vessels in the nostrils become lovelily engorged and go all sneezy. Then there is the allergy to certain elements in various drinks; elements in red wine are common [congeners? they are also supposed to cause hangovers], and a few people report sneeziness caused by certain beers, perhaps strong European lagers.

Drunk at two, Daisoku? Coudn't you wait till the legal age [which is five]?

[Trillium]

Another possibility is the presence of a fair amount of histamine, especially in red wine and darker beers, which is created via the brewing/fermenting process. Excess histamine can cause allergy-like symptoms, even if there is no true IgE allergy.

Case in point: my ex-husband used to sneeze like crazy after drinking a couple of dark beers, and he'd been allergy tested with no allergy results. (But because I disliked him, this squicked me out rather than turned me on.)

[Chanel_no5]

Like Trillium said, there are histamines in some alcoholic beverages (mostly red wine), which can trigger allergic reactions even though the person isn't actually allergic to anything. Since the histamines aren't coming from the body, but from the drink, that makes sense though... and there's the thing that Count mentioned as well, that it has an impact on the blood vessles in the nose which makes some people sneezy.

I sometimes get a bit stuffy from wine, but not all the time, so I suppose that depends on the level of histamines in that particular bottle and also how sensitive my body is at the moment. Don't think I've actually had sneezing fits from it, however. But I know people who really can't stop sneezing after having wine. Which is why they stick to beer. Which I strongly discourage of course.

[Sneezles]

I can't stop sneezing after red wine

[Honkytonklagoon]

I can't stop sneezing after red wine

Well, you're magical. But it is a very sexy thought, to be out drinking with someone, and that someone begin to descend into sneeziness.

[FreeFluShots]

Doesn't happen to me, but my friend W always sneezes when he's drunk. But it doesn't happen until he's gotten pretty boozy, and only seems to happen with whiskey (that is, I've seen him drink a lot of beer and not sneeze at all, but he doesn't seem to get very drunk on beer). When starts on whiskey, after two or three he starts to sneeze several times a minute for quite a while, then it seems to ease off again. It's not exactly like a full-blown fit, because there's usually some space between each sneeze, but it's the same idea. My friend D always teases him about it... I have no idea what causes this to happen, but it doesn't really seem like an allergy to me, to be honest. *shrug*