alcohol intolerance???

This is sad. I have the same reaction to burger king.
I have since quit fast food to better my health
but binge drink like a SOB.

Best advice: give it a rest and take lots of milk thistle, it tends
to give me liver a boost.

glad to hear i am not alone. i only wish there was a definitive answer. i have been experiencing horrendous hangovers now for the last 3 years (im 23). i get an extreme headache right behind my eyeball which lasts up to 12hours. this is followed by vomitting the yellow stuff all day long at regular intervals. i end up becoming dehydrated because i cant even hold down a sip of water! the thing that gets me down is that this can happen even if i only have a few drinks. i have tried changing what i drink but this doesnt work. i would say i get this 75% of the time. I am the only one out of my friends that gets this and it drives me mad especially if i am just having a social few drinks and do not even get to the stage of being merry! Yes; the sensible solution is to stop drinking but there's got to be something out there! i drank guinness last night and no hangover...here's hoping i have found my drink :-|

It's not exactly legal but when i take ecstasy it enables me to drink all night. When i don't take it I'm the same as all you guys, puking all day the next day, the worst headache imaginable. Absolutely horrible.

I have a method that helps that doesn't involve ecstasy. :) Here's what you do. Take a drink, then drink a glass of water. Do that for every drink you have. Not only will you get drunk faster (believe it or not) but you will not have a hangover the next day. You should try that instead the next time and let me know how it goes, okay?

Hey everybody, that yellow stuff you're throwing up is bile. This is your body's way of telling you something is seriously wrong. For those of you who are vomiting the bile after drinking, this means what you all do not want to admit, which is that you have to stop drinking. Sorry to give you the bad news, but those are the facts.

The reason you used to be able to drink like mad when you were younger with no ill-effects but now you get drunk a lot faster, your hangovers are worse, and you throw up a lot (whether the bile is present or not) is because your body has developed a level of intolerance to alcohol. Those two factors -- able to drink a lot more than your mates and then after a certain number of years you get drunk a lot faster than they do -- are the first two signs of alcoholism.

Alcoholism is a disease that can be arrested. But it requires you to stop drinking. Go to a doctor (who will probably never ask you how much you drink and will probably be clueless about the alcoholism, but may be able to give you something to help keep you from throwing up the bile, at least). But above all else, stop drinking. Find a support group. Find other young people who are also pissed off about having to quit drinking with your friends. But do your body this favor, and stop drinking now!

That yellow bile is an enormous warning flag. Heed it!

Guest wrote:

Hey everybody, that yellow stuff you're throwing up is bile. This is your body's way of telling you something is seriously wrong. For those of you who are vomiting the bile after drinking, this means what you all do not want to admit, which is that you have to stop drinking. Sorry to give you the bad news, but those are the facts.

The reason you used to be able to drink like mad when you were younger with no ill-effects but now you get drunk a lot faster, your hangovers are worse, and you throw up a lot (whether the bile is present or not) is because your body has developed a level of intolerance to alcohol. Those two factors -- able to drink a lot more than your mates and then after a certain number of years you get drunk a lot faster than they do -- are the first two signs of alcoholism.

Alcoholism is a disease that can be arrested. But it requires you to stop drinking. Go to a doctor (who will probably never ask you how much you drink and will probably be clueless about the alcoholism, but may be able to give you something to help keep you from throwing up the bile, at least). But above all else, stop drinking. Find a support group. Find other young people who are also pissed off about having to quit drinking with your friends. But do your body this favor, and stop drinking now!

That yellow bile is an enormous warning flag. Heed it! [/quote

I don't think you really understand the problem at all. I have exactly the same symptoms and I've found that people usually underestimate the whole ordeal: "oh, a hangover, just deal with it". You're doing the same, but in a different way. It's not that I "get drunk" faster AT ALL. Quite the opposite - I can barely drink. I have three social drinks and I'll throw up the next day - I'll get drunk and I'll throw up for 12 hours!

And the bile isn't a "warning sign". You throw up bile when your stomach has nothing left to throw up, so if you're continually vomiting then you will obviously end up throwing up bile. Also, if you've only been drinking the night before you might not have anything in your stomach left to throw up.

And to the person who said to drink booze, then water, it doesn't quite work like that either. I've tried that before to no avail.

This is clearly a problem that needs to be researched. Unfortunately I think the only answer for now is to give up alcohol. I gave up booze after battling this problem for almost two years and found I could drink once every 6 months or so without side effects. So now I just get drunk once around my birthday. :) it sucks not to be able to have a social drink however.

My situation:

- 23 yo, female, non-smoker.
- Heavy drinker between 14 and 21 (seems to be the one thread between us all).
- Not dependant on what I drink and sometimes not even how much.
- During the "hangovers" I get dizzy spells and hot/cold flushes and find myself short of breath.
- I also bruise really easily during times my body is acting like this.
- Able to drink once every 6 or more months if I give up completely at other times.

Well to be clear, alcohol allergy is something that has been researched and it sounds like you definitely have it! Unfortunately, like any other allergy, you have to avoid it to keep from getting sick again. I'm glad to hear you're at least doing that because you can make yourself a lot sicker. Thanks for posting your insight though. It was really important that you said that.

I definitely would not call it an allergy. It doesn't seem like anyone who has posted has listed symptoms of a rash or other common food allergy symptoms. And I don't think it's just straight up intolerance either.

Until shortly after 21st birthday, I could drink a lot of alcohol with absolutely no headaches, vomiting, or hangover whatsoever. I would always brag about this to my friends and I thought it was amazing. For my 21st birthday, I drank somewhere around 13-18 shots, and went to class the next day, still a little drunk, but no problems. That is a lot of alcohol for a 5'4'' girl who weighs 130 lbs. That's a lot of alcohol for anyone. Now, I did need a lot of help getting home and there were parts of the night that I forgot, but I was fine the next day.

I'm 23 now, and it seems like every once and a while, regardless of what I drink (but usually more often if there's beer involved or if there's no food involved) or how much, I will wake up the next day with either a massive headache, or I will feel groggy and will throw up bile about every hour for about 12 hours. It is so so so painful, I get clammy, I can't keep anything down, I sweat, and I get heat flashes. A couple months before any of this started, I was living in Germany and admitted myself to the emergency room because I was vomiting and had diarrhea for five straight days, and I couldn't keep anything down and was disgustingly dehydrated. I thought I had the Noro virus, but the doctors said I didn't have it, just something about my liver or kidneys being inflamed (my CRP was 500 something mg/L, and I think it's supposed to be about 5 mg/L in your blood test). This wasn't after any drinking.. just randomly happened. I never followed up on it, and don't know if it's related. In high school I also was mysteriously sick with the same symptoms (more vomiting than diarrhea though) for about a week, with a terrible pain in my abdomen, and after scans and all that at the hospital, they had no idea what was wrong. I just got mysteriously better after a week or two. Again, I don't know if it's related, but I thought I would throw it out there.

To me, it seems like the story on this thread has the following trend:

I was able to drink a lot of alcohol with no problems the next day (very uncommon and amazing to myself and all my friends)
Now I can't drink at all without throwing up bile and having overreactions, or this will randomly happen regardless of what I drink. (very uncommon and amazing to myself and unfortunate to all my friends)

(I'm a geologist, not a biologist. Please excuse the inaccuracies to follow):
It seems like we've gone from overreactive kidneys or livers or gall bladders or alcohol processing, to underreactive alcohol processing. I don't think this is intolerance, I think there is something wrong with an organ or a process in our bodies. At one point it was going crazy, a marathon and olympic champion alcohol processor, to something that can hardly make it around the block anymore.

It would be great if one of the original posters who saw doctors about this would share what has been going on with them for the past couple of years.

Hi,

I am in the same situation and I wondered if anyone has ever looked into acute/chronic pancreatitis. After doing a bit of research online this seems to be a possible cause for these symptoms, although this diagnose would of course require thorough medical examination.

Like most others on here – I have the same problem.

Brief history, started drinking when I was 17 – 18
I am a heavy drinker, I am now 40. Used to be able to drink a lot. Sometimes get up with a hangover sometimes not, but it was all manageable.

Like three months again I drank a lot =, and in the morning I needed to throw up I was throwing up all day, and finally in the late afternoon I was able to get something in my stomach. I thought this was a one time occurrence, but it has not been. Every time now that I drink, and it does not have to be in excess. I wake up having to throw up.

One thing also – for the past 5 years I have had this sharp pain on my lefts side of my back (just below the rib cage) after drinking alcohol. I have gone to many doctors and had tests done they have no clue why I have sharp pains on my left side.

I have this same problem with alcohol and I have decided to stay away from it as much as possible, unless I feel like being sick for a few days after. I have always had this problem since the first time I drank. I get so sick that I am in bed for at least 12 hours throwing up sweaty, with a terrible headache. It is not worth it to me so I will not even try to drink anymore. I have accepted that my body can not break down the alcohol. I am one of the few people in this world that this happens to. I do not think that I am really missing out on anything only on making an ass out of myself and doing embarrassing things that I normally wouldn't do. I guess it is a blessing that I cannot drink.

I agree that it may not seem like an allergy but they do have different forms so bear that in mind because that could be the issue. I don't know if that's what you're talking about but it sounds to me more like an allergy. Ultimately, I don't think either of us will be able to tell...keep me posted on how you're doing, okay?

Has anyone here ever tried a "liver cleanse"? It seems like all of us on this post have a long history of heavy alcohol use prior to our current problems with extreme intolerance. It seems like this must be our bodies way of warning us that we have gone too far.
I've seen various diets and products that claim to cleanse and detoxify the liver.This makes sense to me, but before I start I thought I would post to this forum and see if anyone has has any experience to share?

If by liver cleansing, you mean that crazy concoction of olive oils, salts, and grapefruit? I read about this a long time ago when I thought my problems could be gall bladder/stone related. From what I understand, the treatment does absolutely nothing. The stuff you end up excreting in your stool that is supposedly "gall stones" is nothing more than the oil solidifying with the salt and grapefruit juice or something. I actually had an ultra-sound done to check for gallstones because they thought that might be the problem, but there was nothing.
I believe the only medical way to remove gall stones is a very, very slow dissolving process that can take years and thousands of pills, or alternatively you can have the stones, or the entire gall bladder removed as it's not a necessary organ.
Random thought, have any of you ever consumed alcohol on a regular basis while taking anti-biotics? I know I did. I really doubt that would be the cause of the problem, but I've explored so many other possible causes and come up with nothing. So, if any of you remember drinking heavily while on anti biotics, please leave some input even though I doubt it has anything to do with it. Since I seem to only get really sick from beer, I thought maybe somehow the anti-biotics made me intolerant to the yeast in beer or something? I'm not a biologist or scientist or anything.. just a layman with a crazy idea :$

I have been doing some research on this and it quite simply boils down to one thing, your liver. If your liver is not functioning correctly then the toxins from your alcoholic beverages in your body result in this horrible 12hour sickness. Do any of you also happen to suffer from allergies as well? This too is due to the liver not functioning correctly. Liver problems can occur from a number of sources but typically bad diet, processed foods, stress (or prolonged periods of emotional unrest).

Best thing to do is to detox completely for a few weeks, eat plenty of the greens, fruit, raw foods and only good quality lean meat. Make sure you are happy-for people with these symptoms a stressful week followed by booze is probably always disastrous (or an argument with a partner on a night out). Milk thistle can help speed up the liver detox, the liver does repair but does have a major effect on your general feeling of wellbeing and on other organs, so sort it now and enjoy a drink again (responsibly ofcourse)!

Lee