Can anyone elaborate on the difference between being allergic to beer and alcohol, versus just there normal negative effects?

I feel like some beers just have such a terrible negative affect on me, that profoundly surpasses what most people meany when they dicuss the negative effects.

Whenever I try and look into it, I just see the standard “top ten hangover symptoms” or whatever.

It’s increasingly hard to find useful information on the Internet.

Is there a difference? Or are we all allergic to alcohol and just the symptoms vary?

konkonjoja,

I’m not sure whether there actually is an allergy against alcohol. Generally, an allergy is an exaggerated response by your immune system to a substance. Basically, your body thinks, some substance (mostly proteins) is part of a pathogen (like a hull protein of a bacterium) and responds accordingly. There are different types of allergies depending on what part of your immune system gets activated.

The adverse effects of alcohol on the other hand, are mostly effects of the poisonous byproducts of intermediate products of alcohol metabolism (the process in which your body gets rid of the alcohol).

Of course, you can be allergic to another compound of an alcoholic beverage, like some proteins from the malt used to make beer or have another kind of reaction, which isn’t an allergy to other compounds.

squiblet,
squiblet avatar

I used to always feel tired after drinking beer. I’d be going to sleep after 3-4 beers and glurking up foam - then it was like I had a hangover before I went to bed. I noticed that I felt more clear-headed with 5-6 cocktails, shots or glasses of wine than 3 beers.

It turned out this was because of celiac disease, so it was a reaction to the gluten in beer. So my question is do you mean just beer or all alcoholic drinks?

AA5B, (edited )

The classic sign of an “allergy” is “alcohol flush reaction”, more common with certain Asian ancestry but could be anyone. It’s actually an inability to metabolize alcohol and can be much worse than just a red face, rather than an allergy. look that up and if it fits, you should avoid alcohol

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction

(As an idiot in college I was always entertained by my roommate turning bright red and acting loopy on less than one beer. Now I know to be concerned)

letsgocrazy,

Yeah, I used to get that randomly - then I moved to Germany where they have a purity law for beer, and that went away… but lately it is coming back… not in the same way - red face / feeling like I have a cold… but say, severe headaches, my guts are totally destroyed.

In fact, thinking about it - the beer I had was from Ireland so it didn’t have the same purity laws.

Lemmylefty,
@Lemmylefty@lemmy.world avatar

Basic BAC calculator.

Pace yourself when drinking so that you are metabolizing the drinks fully before starting a new one. If you still experience hangover symptoms the next day despite being sober, you may have an issue with metabolizing but probably aren’t allergic, since being allergic outright to alcohol would result in more immediate symptoms.

TheLameSauce, (edited )

If your interest is in identifying what component of beer is triggering your reaction, it might be helpful to make friends with a homebrewer or your local small brewery. They can provide you with the individual ingredients (hops, yeast, wort) so you can test which of them gives you the bad reactions.

Once you figure that out, you can experiment with seeing if there’s styles that don’t affect you as much. If it’s hops, there are styles that go much lighter on the hops, or might use a strain that doesn’t cause as much of a reaction for you. If it’s yeast, try some non-traditional yeasted beers - lagers use a completely different type of yeast than standard ales, as do Weiss beirs (like a heffeweissen) and sours (wild ales) - or just cut out the yeast entirely and do seltzers. If it’s wort (the steeped grain water where the sugar comes from that the yeast converts to alcohol) try some gluten free beers to see if it’s a gluten allergy causing you problems. If gluten free doesn’t make a difference, you’re likely better off avoiding beer (and whiskey, effectively unhopped and distilled beer).

FlembleFabber,

Might be handy to actually say what “terrible negative effect” is has on you

letsgocrazy,

When it’s beer from the UK, I get red face, snuffles, like I am having a cold, and feel generally like shit - the runs, hangovers, headaches etc.

When it’s German beer (with the purity laws) - I don’t get the red face and the cold-like effects, but I get runs, feel achey, severe depressive hangovers etc

noqturn,

I’d probably stop drinking beer if I were you.

AttackBunny,

Agreed. Are we talking about vomiting from 1 beer, or like a bad headache if you drink a dark malty beer that doesn’t happen with an IPA? If the former, yeah, you probably shouldn’t drink beer. If the latter, then consider the malt being the issue not the hops, and stick to light beers.

Realistically, alcohol, in any form is effectively poison. It’s just not a high enough dose to do any major damage, when consumed in moderation.

RGB3x3,

I can speak on this. I’ve always had issues with alcohol where I get severe migraine and vomiting to the point where I need the hospital to get an IV with liquids and anti-nausea meds. Like,it’s been the worst pain in my life where I’m dry heaving and can’t keep anything in my stomach, not even water. Oral meds don’t stay down long enough to work either. This is off only 3 normal cocktails over a few hours and with food. Beer and wine is even worse for some reason and it happens every single time. So I just don’t drink it.

I can do a max of two cocktails in a night without severe sickness and then even still, I feel like crap the next day.

AttackBunny,

That sounds horrible.

RGB3x3,

It’s awful. So I just don’t drink most of the time. And if I do, it’s ONE cocktail and I’m done.

jaseyp123,

I sometimes have sneezing fits if I’m drinking high hops beer e.g. IPA, ales etc. Don’t suffer from this with spirits and lighter beer e.g. lager. So anecdotally I put this down to a slight allergy to hops rather than ethanol as such

letsgocrazy,

The difference, not “the door difference”

GregorGizeh,

You can edit post titles on Lemmy, just fyi

letsgocrazy,

Oh nice one! Lemmy does it again!

Thanks

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