hey everyone, nice reading posts about people who know what im dealing with/ im 22, in good shape, and im in college so of course i binge drink. symptoms seem to go away after a few day, been to the er and they diagnose acid reflux. i believe that this "condition" is some kind of multiple conditions. I do not experience the shortness of breath, but i have noticed that running sometimes seems to help. I spoke to a doctor friend of mine and he seems to believe that the chest tightness is caused by inflamation due to the booze. It is also strange to me that many of the people here are very active as i am myself. Exercise can also cause acid reflux, particularly cardio so I have honestly chalked this up to a combination of dehydration, acid reflux, inflrmation (which causes the chest tightness or pain due to the irritation from alcohol and exercise), they anxiety and shortness of breath is clearly caused by the fact that we all feel like we're dying. In the end I hope this helps some of you. I guess i should have been a doctor?
That is helpful. I like wine, but have allergies after/when drinking wine. The next day I am short of breath and have chest pain. With continual heart problems in my family it is scary. On the weekend, if I take a shot the next day I feel better, which makes me think since alcohol is a blood thinner that if I took a baby aspirin that it might have the same effect? But what you posted makes a lot of sense. Thank you!
I'm the original poster of this comment.. Well, i'm 25 days sober and suffering from none of my symptoms anymore. I'm also sleeping a lot better at night. Will have a drink again soon, but purely in moderation and see how that goes..
Yeah, that's also been working for me. I take a month off the grog, and then I can drink without any dramas - but not to excess. After about three days of drinking every day, the symptoms return. Three days after stopping, and the symptoms begin to disappear. Moderation is the key.
paulie.
I have spent the last 2 days sleeping awkwardly with stabbing chest pains in the left and right side when turning over or getting out of bed, experienced shortness of breath (even walking up stairs) and a slight pain if large inhale of air is taken. Also tightness of chest. These symptoms have followed about 3 out of the last 5 days of on and off drinking of wine and vodka and smoking, with the final a binge session being quite a big one (about half to 1 litre of vodka and 2 to 3 bottles of red wine). I am now on day 2/3 of symptoms following the heavy session.
I have experienced this before more mildly with what first felt like back pain (but I now think is liver or kidney pain), but this time is more severe and pain is in heart area and around shoulder blade on left side. Hot baths seem to work temporarily and i will try drinking salted water which I read on here is a good antidote - however how much salt to put in per litre???
I am in mid 30s. Obviously the answer to this is quit drinking to any level of excess, for others here who are not describing panic attacks I think this is really the only answer for us... shame as I have full optics in my new house with every spirit and about 300 bottles of wine I could have guzzled...
Excessive Alcohol use over an extended period of time really messes with your serotonin levels, thats why people can have anxiety and panic after binge drinking. Alcohol messes with your GABA receptors resulting in anxiety. Alcohol robs you of B vitamins, it dehydrates you. So all of this in combination really makes you feel like c**p.
Not to mention the physical effects. Like Acid reflux, inflammed stomach, enlarged gallbladder which puts pressure on the diaphragm causing messed up breathing. The chest pains you guys are feeling might not necessarily be from your heart, Its most likely pain from your stomach.
Same here the day after drinking i get chest tightness and pain on the left side. had bloos work and ekg done which came back fine.I've been searching all over with no luck on a diagnoses. I don't think this is due to acid reflux. It also gets WORSE after eating. Anyone diagnose this please help
Yes I agree with you, I do not think it is heart directly , if it was it would not go so quickly and at least one person would have reported a bad test result. I reported the stabbing chest pains a few days ago which have now completely gone, I had since (against my own good advice lol) a couple of glasses of wine with no bad effect... So I think the answer is this is a warning, cut down or quit while your ahead! (The breathing thing of putting finger in mouth also works well).
The anxiety and panic attacks whilst accurate for some is completely irrelevant for others of us, these are not phantom pains in my case, its really painful chest pains accompanying a severe hangover!
It would be interesting if someone got a decent remedy for this or identified precisely what it is.. I have to say the Guest I am responding to who mentions physical effects and Acid Reflux does sound possible, but I read elsewhere this is often as a result of throwing up (I did not throw up at all).
hello lads been looking in this thread for a while now and finally decided to post a reply while im in the middle of the fun we all experience lol.Im a 28 year old northern irish man always been a heavy binge drinker from the age of 14 or so.The pain i get is always at th eleft side of chest in the ribs and were the heart beats out.Its as if your heart is heavy and beating heavy this causes me to gasp for breth and its weird i have the exact same symtoms as people who say that its as if the mechanism for breathing is broken and you have to remember to breath. Ive had this problem after drinking for a couple of years now along with a bad taste in mouth stomach noises had camera down in my stomach and no ulcers or hitatal hernia was found.I did however test positive for hployari a stomach infection afew months ago which can cause gastro but ive had no relief of symtoms while taking anacids everyday.Chest pain always there .I also am aware that i suffer from anxiety and im banging my head against a brick wall trying to find out why this cheat pain and breathing is so bad for days after drinking.Im a weekend alcoholic and no point me saying otherwise i cant go one week without a drink which i enjoy but id love to find out whats really going on
Alcohol can destroy your parietal cells ( in your stomach), consequently you will not be able to absorb vitamin B12. You may not be producing intrinsic factor anymore ( the enzyme that will cary B12 , from your food, into your bloodstream) In that case you need B12 jabs as they bypass the stomach. You will also need to supplement your folate intake with folic acid as these two vitamins are relaint on each other ie neither will work efficiently without good levels of the other. The mouth ulcers are signs of this. B12 is important as part of the methlation cycle... the end result of deficiency is high homocysteine, high cholesterol and heart disease.
Quite often people with these symptoms are prescribed antacid meds when really their problem is low stomach acid. You could ask to have your hydrochloric acid levels checked.
Basically for most of you with these symptoms you need to listen to your body... it is telling you that the level of alcohol is far too much... stop over-indulging and you will not have these problems. It's the choice you have to make... alcohol or your health. Ask yourselfif you have to over indulge in oreder to have a good time... if the answer is 'Yes' then you have a drink problem. If the answer is 'No' then why are you risking your health?
Get well and God bless you
thanks for the reply .Im not convinced this is justa stomach issue.Im still experienceing a sharp pain in left side of chest today and heavy heartbeat.Although the gastro problems and sore throat bad taste in mouth stomach noises have all the hallmarks of this being a acid problem,how do you explain the heavy heartbeat and shortness of breath?.I .am admiteedly one those people who have a drink problem ,
good morning! ive been having the same symptoms, did you ever figure our what it was?
I just want to say I am so thankful I found this thread. I have searched for YEARS trying to figure out what was going on, and thought nobody else was going through the same thing as me. I have never actually gone to the doctor like many here have as it usually passes and I'm not one to go to the doctor a lot, however have thought about it lately as I was worrying I'd have a heart attack or stroke at work.
I enjoyed reading everyone else's background and symptoms so I thought I would give mine as well. I seem to drink a lot more than most on here when it happens, and have all of the symptoms combined.
I, like a lot of previous posters, am pretty active. I usually exercise 5 times per week, and binge drink once. Usually when it is one night of drinking, I do not get these symptoms or they are very mild. This usually happens to me when I drink a 750ml of rum or vodka in one night. There have been times when I go on benders where I drink a 750ml of rum or vodka multiple days in a row with no other liquid or food intake. This is when it gets REALLY bad. (This happens once in a blue moon, not trying to sound like a power alcoholic).
Symptoms that I get:
-In the morning I wake up very out of it, spacey, and dry.
-Chest Pains start the afternoon on the day after drinking. This is only on the right side of my chest, extends into my armpit, shoulder, upper left back. Whenever this happens I do what my girlfriend refers to "teapotting" where I constantly have to have my left hand pressed against the side of my body right below the armpit (looks like a teapot) or holding my chest. I do this all day long as it gives a little relief (looks ackward at work). This can last up to 2 days. The pain includes the area becoming very tight, sometimes feels like my heart is racing, or that my left lung is beating.
- With this I also get the numbness in my left arm extending to my fingers, as well my left leg. Both my calves usually strain but that's obviously due to the dehydration.
- I lose a lot of grip strength in my left hand when this happens as well. Sometimes to the point where I cannot hold objects.
-I usually cannot eat, or at least feel like not eating at all, a day or so after this happens.
- I get extremely sweaty for a few days when this happens. My palm/fingers especially.
- I cannot sleep the night after when it's bad (or if I do, very little and in and out). I will sit there and have racing thoughts, usually about work, that make no sense at all. This sucks the worst as I am extremely tired, spend the whole time yawning, but cannot sleep. Sometime I will have very lucid dreams however I don't actually fall asleep, just in my thoughts.
- Like some others have said here, when this happens and I can't sleep, I will hear voices or what I think is a TV on in another room or apartment, but when I try to focus in on it I can't make out any of the words.
I know I must sound like a power alcoholic with some crazy issues (noises, etc), but I swear I'm not :) I live a normal active life with a nice paying job, occasionally have to use my sick days for these hungover nightmares. I understand drinking a 750 in one night isn't smart, but it's few and far between. I just know as I read through this thread it was nice to see some of the specific issues I was going through, so just wanted to let others out there no in more detail what others are experiencing. And thank you for everyone giving their feedback on what tests they have had run before, and the possible reasons we are experiencing this.