I have a friend who’s allergic to hops and the same thing happens to her. Every subsequent reaction got worse though and the last time she drank a beer her lips swelled up and she was almost in anaphylaxis and went to the ER. She only drank it again because she thought it was a new lotion she had bought and not the beer!
My sulfite sensitivity got so bad that I can’t even drink hard alcohol; been dry for over a decade. I would get splotches and migraines and anaphylaxis. F’n miserable.
I drank a lot in my teens, in my early 20s this started happening to my face after only a single beer or shot. Turns out its some histamine reaction that I developed. My allergies have gotten worse over the years and am on permanent allergy immunotherapy (3 shots every month for life). There are times it doesnt happen, but doctors just tell me to avoid alcohol.
I started having reactions a year ago at age 34, I have a histamine intolerance. Some times I'm fine sometimes I'm not. I started taking a histamine neutralizing enzyme which has helped a lot. My doctor is sending me for allergy testing. It sucks
I have the same but it started about 6 months after I started using lamotragine. Even after I stopped using it I still get urticaria on my back (instead of my whole body) when I exercise or get too stimulated like when I get too happy, heck I even get a small breakout when I bend down to tie my shoe.
In the end I didn't even need any medication for managing my mood because it turned out to be anxiety from childhood trauma.
You should stop lamotrigine immediately if you start getting rashes. It is potentially lethal (you can read the medication instructions leaflet for more info on that) leading to Layelle syndrome or Stephen-Johnson reaction and more of the other fun auto-immune skin reactions stuff. It’s dangerous because when an intense enough response happens, then the breakouts/rashes also happen on your internal organs -_-
Don’t ask me how I know about this. (Hint: was misdiagnosed as bipolar 5 years ago when in reality it was CPTSD, put on lamotrigine, almost ended up in an ER due to increasingly common rashes on my body)
I am very familiar with what you’re discussing here and while I know your intentions are good, please never advise a stranger to stop taking their psych meds on the internet.
Yeah, it has a LOT of side effects. I don't know if it is related but my right shoulder and toes were constantly twitching, I could stop them for a bit but there was like this constant uncomfortable feeling when I did. I did have a rotator cuff injury when I was younger but it never caused twitching, the twitching in my shoulder stopped around a week after my last dose but my toes still twitch from time to time.
Btw, do you also get a dry throat when you get heat rashes?
Might be wrong, but looks like hives. Me? Haven’t had alcohol in years due to the allergy. I understand it to be a reaction to the histamines in alcohol. Nearly stopped breathing once after one drink at a company event, Even a few sips of wine now affects my entire upper body. Don’t mess with it imo. Mine got worse as months went by. Few people have the problem. See your doc.
Yep, I have the same thing. People are shocked to learn that humans can develop an allergy or intolerance to alcohol. Luckily it’s an easy thing to avoid, I’m an exceptionally cheap date and I’ll drive you home. #winning
I'm slightly allergic to hops depending on how it's processed. Corona is one of my favourites cause it doesn't flare me up. I love Heineken but it causes me to flare up.
It is no joke...I never thought that Archer would have so much humor that was based in reality until my brother asked for help in his sobriety journey.
1 seizure
2 abrupt trips in a police car for making a scene in two different hospitals, and those awkward calls from nurses, police, and other people involved as I was learning what started the whole mess
3 days in a detox, with several calls about how he's being held against his will, even though he checked himself in (thankfully he gave me medical PoA on check in)
2 more weeks of metered alcohol use while waiting for a bed in in-patient center
2 weeks in in-patient care with another 3 day detox
1 year if sobriety (required to keep his job)
2 years of slowly falling off the wagon after the work requirement
4 weeks in in-patient care
1 year and 6 months sober again
As he keeps saying, it isn't easy, but it is sure worth it.
He's really done well this time around and has built himself a little community of people who have been through it too.
You make sure to send him a bravo and a hug from me. I successfully quit heroin and haven't had a drink in almost 3 ish years now I think.
And while for me after the dope quitting alcohol wasn't super hard there is nothing I could ever commend more than someone who rather than giving up dusting themselves off so many times and continue to fight for sobriety. Your brother is a God damn all star for that he did not give her and he deserves the self-esteem and pride that comes with that. He should know others are proud of him too
There was a dengue outbreak in northeastern México/US border region in the earlier 00s... it was fun getting the symptoms during my last final of the semester. Started doing it fine and 2hrs later I felt like a road roller squished me. Luckly I just needed like a 60 in the final to pass the class, got like a 75 at the end.
Dude! I’m also part of the had dengue and didn’t know till later club lol. I was working in India, was the first in my office to go down with it. Brutal, could barely eat for like 4 days. Whole office got sick. Found out like a week or two after we were better that the whole area had a wave of it and it was almost certainly dengue, but I never had any weird alcohol effects after
Yeah, after the test I spent 2 days in bed, then went to a party at a ranch and spent the evening feeling miserable and questioning my judgment...
A week later it went away and I drank a beer... rashes flared up and I was like... ok, I didnt want to drink anyways... a couple of days later another beer, another flare and then I panicked and went to the Doc.
Same. My tongue always felt weird after eating pineapple but I thought it was just the acidity. Then it started being actually painful, like my tongue was burning, so I quit eating it for a while. Tried again (because I LOVE pineapple) and got a full blown allergy attack. Luckily didn't close my throat, but my eyes got swollen and I got an almost immediate rash. So yeah.... thirty something years old and it just happened.
An allergic reaction to pineapple could indicate an allergy to latex. I found out when I had a biopsy surgery. Mentioned pineapple when asked about allergies and the nurse stopped me from going in to the theatre. They had to open another theatre just for me as they couldn’t risk a reaction to latex. Keep that in mind if you ever find yourself in hospital
There’s a bunch of foods that are related to latex allergies so if you have latex and pineapple allergy already, you might be more susceptible to them. My youngest has latex and kiwi allergy. It’s not just fruits though.
Same exact thing with me. I played pineapple roulette over and over (because who can resist a juicy bite of pineapple!) But I'll never forget my last soiree with pineapple. Thanksgiving in Jersey... Thought I was gonna die 😂😂😂
Same thing for me but with banana. I've eaten banana all my life, one day just went to anaphylactic shock. Doc said it could last a day or a lifetime. I love bananas ):
Same here. Started when i was about 25. Sometimes i think that eating two a day for years is what did it for me.
Fun fact; soon after it happened to me, i read that you can usually still eat them cooked because something about the enzymes changing under a certain amount of heat. Turned out to be true. Ive enjoyed them cooked into my oatmeal without issue for years.
I’m in the cooked-pineapple club, too. Pineapple on the BBQ is the bestest. Canned is fine as well. When I was a whipper-snapper, I tried making Divinity Salad (midwestern jello casserole) with raw pineapple, and it never set because of the acidity- which is why the recipe calls for canned.
I know someone who had this happen with pineapple! Cinnamon also likes to pop up as a random thing you suddenly become allergic to after never having issues, and it can present like you have burns/blisters around your mouth with more splotchiness then dries out and looks freaky in a different damn way versus expected allergy symptoms, so that’s…a weird one.
And it’s really fucking hard to avoid because cinnamon isn’t an allergen that’s required to be listed, so it’s one of those things that can hide under “natural flavors” as an ingredient, which is…so…fun…and not all all problematic. deadpan blink
My lil dude has autism-related ARFID and cinnamon raisin bread was one of his very few safe foods (esp great as I could sneak so many things into it if I baked it myself), then last year, he looked like what I described after eating a cinnamon roll. It was so gnarly that they wouldn’t let him back to his kindergarten class because it looked like HFM, even though I explained exactly what was going on and they knew he had a few other allergies already that had skin reactions. It was actually pretty weird that they seemed annoyed when I brought in a note from his physician detailing that it WAS a cinnamon allergy skin reaction..like did they prefer for HFM to be going around? wtf?
Having cinnamon be an issue for someone whose safest safe foods are baked goods is goddamn exhausting. It’s more difficult to navigate than his dairy and cashew allergies, which I did not expect.
Ha! Mine was raspberries.
I only had to go to the ER for an antiemetic, morphine and intense hydration before I put it together. I no longer like raspberries!
Same thing happened to me with pineapple, it was also my favorite fruit. It’s extra maddening in my case because technically I’m not even allergic to it, as I do not have IgE antibodies (the normal trigger for allergic reactions) for it. Instead, one of my medical conditions decided it hates pineapple and I therefore need to have increasingly bad oral reactions to it.
I have this too. Only happens with the first drink and lasts about 20 minutes. It occurs all over my face in the shape of a batman mask. Kind of cool party trick!
I never knew about this. Alcohol makes me break out similarly to OP, and in the past year or 2 has started causing immediate migraines when it wears off. Sounds like it’s high time for me to quit drinking completely…
Yup, I quit 2 years ago because of it, no regrets. The less you drink the worse the reactions get when you do drink. The more you drink the higher your cancer risk. Cutting it out is the only thing that made sense.
I have this too although, not often. I’d get all red and hot after the first 2 beers. Then after maybe an hour it would go away and I’d feel fine the rest of the night
It happened to me a couple of times. I’m white so I was confused. I had this blotchy red face ears and neck and I can taste alcohol on my own breath and felt miserable. It doesn’t happen to me anymore though
I get it due to cold weather nowadays. It’s weird because it just started all of a sudden. Cold urticaria is what the doc called it. Even AC on a summer day means I need to take cetirizine.
I had it when I was a teen. Both when hot and cold. Very annoying. Then it suddenly disappeared. And then in my late twenties I had it after scratching myself. So I got allergic to myself. Funny stuff.
Histamine intolerance maybe! If OP has also hangover symptoms when consuming moderate amounts of fermented alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, ale, etc.) then highly likely. Otherwise more probable an allergy to some ingredient like others said.
If it's only for alcohol, it might just be a specific sensitivity/allergy/alcohol intolerance. Could also be to the wheat or some other ingredient in the beer.
If you ever notice this happening with other food, beverages, or exposures (e.g laundry detergent, cleaning products, smoke, mold, heat, cold... etc etc), could be a broader histamine issue. I ended up being diagnosed with MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome), but beer was actually my first obvious trigger and it took me another couple of years to start connecting all of the dots afterward.
I have this too. In the last 4 years. I’ve narrowd it down to incredibly sweet alcoholic drinks. Take a shot of peanut butter whiskey. If it happens, we have the same thing. I have no idea what it is. It came out of nowhere. I can drink plain shit beer and I’m fine. I can sip tequila and I’m fine. If I sip a cognac, I’m turning blotchy, hot, tight chest, sweating. Keep in mind something around “sugary alcohol” and see if it makes a difference.
You should find another allergy med. There’s some pretty alarming research associating Benadryl use (along with the other first gen anti-histamines) with increased incidence of dementia.
I’ve recently read about the issues with Benadryl crossing the blood/brain boundary (pretty sure I’ve shaved a couple decades off my life expectancy at this point). What are the newer meds that I should ask my doctor about? Thanks for your time.
If you’re willing to test some stuff, SAMe helps to break histamine down. (Methionine is much cheaper than SAMe, and is the precursor that allows your body to make SAMe in a more gentle fashion than slamming it with a bunch of SAMe all at once) but make sure you have your homocysteine tested first. If that’s high, folate and B12 will allow your body to turn that into the methionine instead of supplementing it.
My wife has Hereditary Angioedema (HAE) and it looks exactly like this. She wants this to be on your radar to ask about as it is rare, but it shows up like allergy issues but isn't quite the same and has different medications. She is really worried about you saying your chest feels tight because that can mean your trachea is affected by the edema, swelling, and it can be life threatening. Your airway is important, you breathing is always preferred.
I'm annoyed by the non-answers you're getting here. Twisted Tea is a good start since the ingredients are knowable, which gives you a short list to work from. From here we can narrow it down.
What IPAs? All of them? If its specific ones, we can compare the ingredients list and see what they share. If there's more drinks that do it, that's better.
Try drinking Ovaltine. If Ovaltine does it then its probably the barley. Perhaps its specifically malted barley. However, a lot of other beers should trigger it as well if barley/malted barley were the answer. So I doubt it.
Keep in mind it could only trigger noticeably at a certain amount consumed. Thorough data collection may be required to narrow it down.
I have a histamine reaction to IPA. I thought it was all beer but I drank a coors and it didn't happen so I started trying other beers. Seems to only be IPAs. I've since met other folks with a similar allergy.
Doesn't happen with other hoppy beers like reds or stout, just IPAs.
Just an fyi, I used to drink vodka regularly but just like 2 oz usually so not a lot. I started to get inflammation pretty often from it... Ended up diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. I don't know if the inflammation possibly caused the cancer or was a reflection of the cancer I already had but either way I suggest you stop drinking ASAP if it gives you inflammation like that.
I wish someone had told me that a few years ago.... Anyhow, I hope you see this. ❤️
Random question- are you drinking caffeine before/with alcohol? I had the same thing happen to me and it turns out I can't mix the two (even within a few hours proximity) otherwise I break out in a rash and it feels like my throat gets tight.
Not to freak you out, but you may mention this reaction to your doctor and ask about getting screened for Lymphoma. Sometimes a symptom of Hodgkins Lymphoma can be a reaction like this to drinking alcohol, accompanied sometimes by other symptoms (pain in lymph nodes, night sweating, unexplained weight loss, and feeling itchy).
alcohol flushing syndrome, it's hereditary, spoiler it's not great health-wise and it's a sign you should ease off that night. Of course, I powered through it when i binge drank in the 90s.
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u/DoallthenKnit2relax Jul 29 '26
You could be allergic to hops or wheat/gluten intolerant...I get the same red splotches after some foods.