CAN ALCOHOL AFFECT JOINTS?

I ahve the same issues. Check for Gout, especially with red wine. Also have a Rheumatiod factor checked by your MD.

G

I have read all the postings as I was looking for answers about my joint pains. It mostly is in my knees. Im 43 now and been drinking Special Brew (9%) since I was 15 years old. During the past year I started getting joint pains but did not think it related to the alcohol. Recently I tried to give up drinking and then found that the pain goes away. But when I start back drinking again it comes back in a different place in my knees. It scared me at first as I thought I had cancer or something, but reading this site has comforted me a bit as it seems there are a lot of people out there with the same problem.

Beer is worst; scotch and brandy are OK.
Beer gave me excruciating knee joint pain that I couldn't even walk up/down the stairs. So I stopped drinking beer 15-20 years ago . That solved the knee joint pain problem! But I still enjoy red/white wine and I usually wake up with finger joint pain.

Me, too.

Looks like GOUT is likely reason. After drinking, try drinking lemon water to break up uric acid build-up in joints and reduce pain. Also, pineapple and licorice supposedly help. And of course forcing fluids (water) is a good idea. Sometimes alternating heat and ice on joint every 10 minutes helps, too.

I must I agree I have the same problem and not to sure what it is. My Knees really ache after drinking, it feels almost like growing pains, when I was younger. I also had this problem, back in the day, when I use to use drugs like ecstacy. I do have gout in my family. I reckon, it must be some form of toxins that affects the joints as in the case where acid affects the joints with Gout. So maybe it is similiar to gout, but not quite so severe........

i have the same problem, minutes after drinking smirnoffs on an empty stomach my shoulers are killing me. If i drink after eating something though, it's not nearly as bad. but it goes away within the hour.

I have terrible joint pain. It is the worst in my knees sacroiliac joint (the one that connects your low back to your pelvis) and my hips. It defiantly gets worse when I drink red wine and has gotten significantly worse after child birth. It does not fit the profile for gout though, there is no redness or swelling. Has anyone else gotten a diagnosis? I have had all the inflammatory test done and they are all normal. I am only 27 and I can imagine having to live the rest of my life like this! it is unbearable...

how funny. i have noticed recently that my body cannot tolerate alcohol, i have always been a bit of a drinker but last night i had one glass of white wine and suffered from extreme joing pain especially in my wrists and knees. wine seems to be the trigger for me especially red which i love. i am 41 years old and this seems to have happened over the last year or so.

Dehydration, sulfites, histamine release and build up of uric acid are all connected to alcohol consumption. You might try bromelaine tablets (from pinneapple) that break down the food and alcohol to allow healthy digestion and absorption of nutrients. Also consider organic wines which have less sulfites and are quite enjoyable tasting too. And try to consume foods that have healthy oils (extra virgin olive or organic flax seed) and/or high fiber foods in them while drinking as they will help your body to remove unwanted build up of uric acid.

Whatever you do- don't mix alcohol with pickles or ice cream as they usually contain polysorbate 80 which will trigger high release of histamines into your body! And since alcohol does the same thing you get a double whammy of congestion and inflamation.

I usually take bromelain with turmeric tablets which seem to help counter some of alcohol effects. Plus glucosamine, msm and chondroitin tablets to help keep joints naturally lubricated. Our bodies produce less and less of the natural joint fluids as we get older so recommend these to your daily diet as well. ;-)

As someone said earlier, this thread doesn't need another me too .. but I'm a me too! :-)

I am 37 and began noticing knee pain when I was 31 .. it took me almost a year to figure out what was happening to me. At the time I thought I must have had torn miniscus or possible ligament damage in my knees. At one point I was on crutches and seeing all kinds of doctors. I had an MRI done which revealed nothing, of course. I was referred to a rheumetoid doctor who thought I was crazy and couldn't get over that I was his youngest patient. It was about that time that I started to piece together what I understood about Gout compared to my symptoms. Although I never have any redness or swelling that is typical of Gout, the described joint pain was very similar. As a test, I stopped drinking alcohol and increased my water intake .. two days later I was off the crutches .. a couple days after that I was back to walking normally and it wasn't long before I was nearly pain free.

It was clear I was on to something!

Over the past few years I have found that beer usually has the worst effect on me followed by red wine and then least affected by white wine. As a result, I find that I stick to white wine when selecting an alcoholic beverage. I don't drink a lot of hard liquor so I don't know how much that affects me. Typically after a beer or red wine I can feel something that I might describe as heat or swelling in my lower extremities - usually my feet - although this doesn't usually last long - maybe for the duration of the alcoholic buzz. Most often the next day or two I will have some knee pain. If I drink two or more nights in a row the lingering pain intesifies for the coming days. I'm not talking about heavy drinking either .. one/two beers or one/two glasses of wine per night. If I string together more than a couple of days of drinking I become nearly disabled - limping, etc. It is fairly consistent .. stop, and I am back to normal.

I have never been diagnosed with anything and, like many other people on here, I get really strange reactions from people when I tell them about this. I always hate when those weird conversations come up.

Anyway, I'm not sure who the author is of this last post but it was clearly the most informative on the thread. I'm going to try out a couple of his suggestions and see if there are any positive results.

Best regards,
Jerry

So I just turned 21 a bit ago, but have been a big partier since I was 18. Basically my first two years of school were one big party. But within the last six months, i've notice some pain associated with alcohol. When i drink large amounts of beer, i seem to wake up the next morning in rolling pain. But it never hits me till after I sleep. It seems most of everybody here gets hit in the knees, but i dont. I seem to get hit most in the hips, shoulders, and elbows. I just used to assume that everybody got this as part of a hang over... but when my friend told me no, i assumed it was attributed to my weight.

Now as I am graduating, I am over that "party" phase and i've noticed it go away. I might still have one mixed drink on movie night or something, but that little bit doesnt affect me one bit.

But i would still like to research this a bit further....

I had this problem in 2001, I used to drink rum mixed with Coke almost thrice a week quite heavily.
I started experiencing this pain in the joints from the waist, knees and on the foot too. It was really unbearable, it used to be so worse that I could not even shift myself in a bed, nor can climb stairs or walk properly.

I consulted the local hospital, where they had prescribed a huge list of tests, all of them turned out to be negative. They finally said that it could be related too food allergy and had asked me to become a veggie. But still the pain continued, then I concluded that I get the pain only when I drink the black rum with the soda, so I had stopped the rum and switched to whiskey with plain water nothing happened until this september, when I had bacardi limon again mixed with sprite. I had a swelling in my wrist. This time the hospital prescribed me with a few medicine which gave me a releif within two days.
So I had finally decided to stop drinking alcohol for good.

I too have swelling and sever pain in my knees. I was great until I start
to drink. Now I feel pain all the time, swelling knees bruises that just show up. And now that I do not drink I still have the pain and swelling. They hurt so bad that I have a hard time walking. I am 56 and weigh 116
so I am not overweight. My Doctor tells me it is arthritis but I think it is more.

AFTER DRINKING ALCOHOL I ALWAYS FIND THAT THE NEXT DAY I HAVE SEVERE PAIN IN MY KNEES AND ELBOWS. THIS USUALLY LASTS UNTIL I WAKE UP THE FOLLOWING DAY!!! (AGONY) DRINK PLENTY OF WATER B4 BED AND TAKE A FEW PARACETAMOL WHEN YOU WAKE UP :-(

"While generally safe for human use at recommended doses, acute overdoses of paracetamol can cause potentially fatal liver damage and, in rare individuals, a normal dose can do the same; the risk is heightened by alcoholism."

Great, just what this forum needs is more liver damage.