hi I'm doctor Austrian achoo and I'm
analogous at the Medical College of
Wisconsin and Children's Hospital
Wisconsin in Milwaukee I'm also a fellow
of the American Academy of Allergy
Asthma and Immunology today I'd like to
talk about alcohol intolerance or
allergies reactions to alcoholic
beverages alcoholic beverages such as
beer wine or distilled spirits can cause
a wide range of reactions some of these
can include nasal symptoms like runny
nose or stuffy nose skin symptoms like
rash swelling or redness or COFF and
difficulty breathing headaches is also
another common symptom these reactions
can occur to a variety of different
alcoholic beverages including beer wine
or distilled spirits the more common
reaction that you can have with alcohol
is to the ethanol itself certain ethnic
groups like Asians actually lack an
enzyme to break down ethanol so when
they ingest or drink alcoholic beverages
they can actually turn red and have
generalized flushing this can also
affect other ethnicities certainly if
they're just lacking that again that
enzyme in regards to other reactions
again to either the beer wine or
distilled spirits not as common as the
flushing that you can have with the
alcohol enzyme deficiency but these
symptoms can react can range from again
nasal symptoms like runny nose or stuffy
nose or itching or again headaches
these are more common in the wind' wine
for example and again the biogenic
amines such as histamine can cause those
symptoms like the itching or the nasal
symptoms the sulfite additives in wine
can actually cause headaches or in
certain individuals that have asthma we
can actually have worsening of their
asthma as you can see there can be a
wide variety of different reactions to
alcoholic beverages and there can be a
number of factors involved so if you
have any questions talk to your doctor
and/or see an allergist
you