These reactions begin with a reddening or pinkness of the face (known as alcohol flush) and a sensation of warmth, indicating the body’s struggle to break down alcohol effectively. If you have strange symptoms soon after drinking, your body may not be processing alcohol properly. People often mistake alcohol allergies for alcohol intolerance. Alcohol intolerance is a rare condition in which your body cannot process alcohol correctly, leading to a build-up of a chemical called acetaldehyde.

Enzyme Deficiencies

Common signs include facial flushing, nausea, rapid heartbeat, headache, and nasal congestion. These symptoms are often mistaken for a simple allergic reaction; however, they are indicative of the body’s inability to metabolize alcohol effectively. In some cases, more severe reactions will occur, such as worsening of asthma or even anaphylaxis, especially when combined with specific allergens found in certain alcoholic beverages. When you drink alcohol, your liver first breaks down alcohol into a toxic chemical called acetaldehyde. Your body uses an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase, or ALDH2, to break down acetaldehyde.

• Diagnosing alcohol intolerance primarily involves a consultation with your healthcare provider, who will inquire about any adverse reactions you experience following alcohol consumption.
• Alcoholic beverages are made from complex mixtures of grains, chemicals, and preservatives that your body needs to break down.
• With this condition, you have an inactive or less-active form of the chemical that breaks down alcohol in your body.
• If you have histamine intolerance, you may experience worse symptoms after consuming alcohol with a high histamine content.
• Maria joined Newsweek in 2022 from Contentive and had previously worked at CityWire Wealth Manager.

Medical tools and resources

Anaphylaxis is a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction that can cause dangerously low blood pressure and problems breathing. If you have a severe reaction and carry an EpiPen (epinephrine), use it and call 911. In addition to this, studies have identified a link between alcohol consumption and an increased risk of certain cancers. If a person is allergic to a particular ingredient found in some drinks, they could switch to drinks that do not contain it. A skin prick test should take place in a medical setting in case of a severe allergic reaction. The healthcare professional uses a lancet to pierce a person’s skin and apply a small amount of the suspected allergen to see if it causes a reaction.

Health topics

• You can also get allergy testing to check whether you have a true allergy to alcohol.
• Additionally, certain medical conditions, such as liver disease or gastrointestinal disorders, will make individuals more susceptible to alcohol intolerance.
• Very rarely, a person may have a “true” alcohol allergy, meaning they are allergic to the ethanol in alcohol.
• For example, alcohol may exacerbate preexisting asthma conditions.

In contrast, an alcohol allergy could become life threatening. Your doctor also may recommend that you stop drinking all alcoholic beverages for a while. Then you can start again, perhaps trying just one of your go-to alcohol intolerance symptoms drinks at a time. If the reactions return with specific drinks, then you know which ones cause problems for you. This could be due to the histamine response, which is common when you’re allergic to something.

• It was estimated that an American drank on average over 2.51 gallons of ethanol in 2021.
• An alcohol allergy and alcohol intolerance are two different conditions.
• There are several ways for a doctor to diagnose an alcohol allergy or intolerance, including the approaches below.
• Common sulfites include potassium bisulfite or potassium metabisulfite.

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