Can you develop an alcohol allergy later in life?

Can you develop an alcohol allergy later in life?

The short answer to “Can you develop an alcohol allergy later in life?” is yes!!

I know this because it happened to me. I was a drinker in my early and mid-thirties. I haven't had any problems with alcohol allergies. I stopped drinking. I started drinking again in my mid-forties. My drinking was at the level of getting drunk about 3 nights a week. (Yes, I was an alcoholic, which has to do with an alcohol allergy, which I will explain) After two years of drinking, I suddenly thought I was having a stroke.

This is probably the best way to describe allergic reactions to alcohol to someone who has never experienced it. The symptoms I was experiencing made me think I was having a stroke because I had never heard of an alcohol allergy before. My symptoms for drinking that night hit fast and hard and included:

• Gefühl von starkem Druck in meinem Kopf und Stauung. Dies war das größte und erste Symptom.
• Ich hatte das Gefühl, als würde mir jemand Nadeln ins Gesicht stecken. Ein prickelndes Gefühl am ganzen Körper
• Rotes Gesicht der Rüben. Es sah so aus, als würde ich sehr rot werden
• Rote Flecken. Rote Flecken zeigten sich auf meinen Schultern, Brust, Armen und Beinen
• Rasanter Puls. Es konnte auch fühlen, wie mein Puls in meinen Adern pochte, fast als wäre mein Puls zu intensiv oder zu hart

Those were my main symptoms. I had absolutely no idea at the time that this had anything to do with alcohol allergic reactions to alcohol, simply because I had never heard of anything like it.

I had ignored my symptoms at the time, thinking they were just a strange coincidence, but the only thing I remember is that the whole experience definitely ruined the enjoyment of my drinking.

These alcohol allergy symptoms continued to occur over the next two years, but NOT regularly, which was also puzzling. I was able to drink several times over a few weeks and then the symptoms suddenly reappeared.

I actually stopped drinking at 48 and these symptoms had a lot to do with it. Although I STILL have no idea what these symptoms were, I had the common sense to realize that these symptoms I was experiencing when I drank alcohol were my body's rebellion and telling me to stop.

The reason I developed an allergy to alcohol later in life was because after two years of regular alcohol consumption, my body's ability to process and break down alcohol was reduced. For some people (particularly Asians due to genetics), their ability to process and break down alcohol is hereditary. In other words, 50% of the Asian population will experience these symptoms when they drink alcohol, even if they rarely drink or have no addiction to alcohol at all.

This allergy to alcohol and its symptoms are called Asian Flush, Asian Glow or Asian Girl Glow. The cause of my symptoms when drinking alcohol was that I was abusing my body. People who drink socially and get these symptoms have a true allergy to alcohol. For these people, these symptoms are not your body's way of telling you to stop drinking, but rather they are caused by a "genetic defect" that severely limits your body's ability to handle alcohol.

For people like me (people who drink too much, both in terms of frequency and quantity), the answer is to stop drinking! For people who do not have a drinking problem and instead have the Asian Flush, the symptoms ARE treatable.

Inspired by Dan Appleman