chest pain and difficult breathing a few days after drinking

This is the best chat I have come across. I can relate to everything that you are all describing. I am 25 years old. I was away in Australia last year for school and that is when mine started. The doctors there said it was anxiety of school and being away from home etc. So after 3 separate visits with 3 ECG tests and multiple blood tests I was sent on my way.

I returned home January of this year and seemed to be fine. I drink 3 to 4 beers a night during the week and admittedly overindulge on the weekends. After drinking I was developing chest pains. My hands would start to sweat, my vision would go dull, my arm would tingle, the back of my left leg would feel numb, and I would feel like I was loosing consciousness. I could hear voices around me but even when I tried to focus on the person talking I wouldn't be able to process the words they were saying.

The first time this happened it resulted in me taking an ambulance to the hospital. The doctors said it was a severe anxiety attack.....I was the day after the super bowl...so naturally I consumed a mass amount of drinks the night before. .... Woke up feeling great...went to the mall....ate lunch....was driving home with my brother and then it happened...around 3pm.

I lay off the booze and went on a detox diet for 1 week after that. Went to my family doctor and he said it was acid reflux and gave me pills to take. I admit they did make me feel better....and back to drinking I went....some days after drinking a lot I can wake up and go the whole day without feeling anything wrong. .... And other days it feels like impending death is upon me.

After that hospital trip I was fine for the next 5 months....summer was fine....then I got a new job, new house, etc. It all started happening again...after drinking I would be short of breath, wheezing, faint, tingling in the arms, and the WORST is the chest pains I would get and all of this never happened until late in the afternoon....

and then another trip to the hospital...on my own accord this time though...I had to leave work.....got to the hospital and was panicking....heart rate hit 180bpm, they gave me a relaxant and again said it was anxiety....I went back to my family doctor and this time he gave me anxiety pills.....

I never believed that all of this could be anxiety...especially since it was directly correlated with drinking the night before....so I put embarrassment and shame aside and told my doctor how often and much I drink....he assured me I did not have heart problems...I am fit, young and healthy...he said it was all in my head and these were all symptoms of anxiety...

so I am taking his word for it....I try and deal with the aftermath the next day by not focusing on it....I find it is magnified when I am tired as well so I try and get good rest at night....or sleep in longer....

I can relate to all of you in and have been in the worst of positions...slumped over checking my pulse thinking I am going to die...sometimes brought to tears because of the fear.......however I am dealing with it....

After going on a few websites and checking symptoms of heart attacks, typing in "feels like im dying" in Google, things like that....it helps...it relaxes me reading those pages when I start to feel like I am having an "episode"

I have been having the same symptoms for some months now an I know how awful it feels.
I think mine is anxiety too but I don't feel anxious or think I'm stressed at all. The chest pains are only on my left side and I have had an ECG which was clear as well as blood tests and chest X-Ray,. All fine.

I just wish I could be normal again, really effects me day to day!

I only drink once in a few months , that if somebody sponsor me .

This happens to me last Saturday night ,where one of my friend take me out for drink . Me myself had drink about 7 Big bottle of Tiger Beer+Guiness Stout mixed together.

Around halftime of Chelsea vs Everton match . I cant take it anymore and when to toilet and start vomitting .
After 30 minutes i went to toilet again and start to vomit .but this time there is nothing in the content , then suddenly my chest pains too much . After that night ..the Next morning , i had difficulty to breathe and feel some chest pain and i feel my tummy increased its size .

It is already the 4th day since the incident happen . I were still having difficulty in breathing . Iam not sure how long this torture will go on .

I regret taking too much alcohol since i get it free .

Your stories describe my situation perfectly.

I'm 30, in generally good health, but I have drunk alcohol socially for years. In the past year, this has escalated so that I was drinking almost every day. Over the last months, I have developed a shortness of breath some evenings. One episode was so bad that I went to the ER. The ER doctor diagnosed me with anxiety and prescribed Xanax. Bloodwork also suggested there is something wrong with my liver. My family physician didn't think it was anxiety (or that it was anxiety triggered by an asthma attack--as a child I had asthma but I have not had a serious attack since I was 14 until now--or triggered by the liver problem). He advised me to lay off the booze. Also, he did not prescribe Xanax, since anti-anxiety meds + diminished lung performance can be dangerous.

Since then, I have had alcohol on two occasions and both times were followed by shortness of breath between 12 and 48 hours later. I have been to a pulmonary specialist and my lungs are in good shape, so asthma is looking less likely as the culprit. I have also had episodes that were not presaged by drinking, so abstaining from alcohol may be a necessary, but not sufficient, cure.

I am thinking more and more that the ER doctor may have been right, and that this is anxiety-related.

I had this happen last night. i went to the er and the doctor took a ekg, blood test, chest ex-ray and told me i tested negative for everything and that i have anxiety. Its been happening over the past year. same exact symptoms everyone discribed 1-2 days after drinking. I work out 5 days a week and only happens after i drink. Not every time i could drink 3 days straight and nothing will happen. last night i thought i was having a heart attack. the doctor has prescribed an inhaler and anxiety pills im not sure that will help. has anyone one tried the anxiety pills during an episode and if so what was the outcome? any feed back would be great. I know exactly how you guys feel.

Wow, I had no idea this problem was so common. I was hoping to find a medical explanation for this, but instead, I'll post a solution that works for me, in hopes that it will benefit everyone else suffering from this odd side effect of boozing it up on occasion.

First off, I'm male, in my upper 30's. I've been having chest pain the morning after drinking for a little over 3 years. I've had multiple EKGs, pulmonary tests, blood tests, the works. A few doctors just chalked it up to anxiety and put my on Xanax, half a .25mg tablet before bedtime. I admit, this works. However, the side effect of Xanax is that I tend to sleep a little too well; I wake up feeling a bit spaced out. Therefore, I stopped taking it and tried to find other solutions.

What works for me? Gatorade, Pedialyte, and buffered thermotab salt tablets! Yes, it is related to the de-hydration that others have mentioned, so water does help. However, water alone does not cure my problem. My guess is that the alcohol's diuretic effect is flushing a large quantity of salts from my body, and the chest pain is the resulting symptom. I mostly take a salt tablet with plain water, or wash it down with some Gatorade on really bad mornings. The chest pain and feelings of anxiety subside within 30-60 minutes. Theoretically, the potassium in bananas should help as well.

As I mentioned, this works for me. I was only searching this morning to see if I could find a medical definition for this. Any docs in the house?

Please note, taking too much salt tends to lead to higher blood pressure. Therefore, if you go this route, it's advisable to discuss this with your doctor. I'd suggest monitoring your blood pressure to make sure that you stay within normal limits.

Please post back if this suggestion works for you.

I hate seeing a bunch of other people that have my problem, but man it is nice not to feel alone any longer. I have the exact same symptoms as all these other posters. I am convinced that these symptoms are related to dehydration or a salt imbalance. I'm going to try gatorade for the electrolytes before drinking or maybe before bed if I have been drinking to see if it alleviates the chest pains the next day. I think the pains cause anxiety which then causes the shortness of breath. I've had the apnea too, woken myself up from sleep the night after a night drinking. I wonder if a salt imbalance could cause this. I also noticed that we all seem to be beer drinkers. I've wondered if it is something in the hops that causes it (I drink alot of hop-heavy brews). I have noticed that the chest pains don't seem as intense if I was drinking wine or liquor as opposed to beer. I'm going to look into symptoms of water intoxication or salt deprivation and see if maybe they relate to what I feel. I'll post again if I find anything.

After reading through these posts; and knowing my own history with these symptoms; I am throughly satistifed that we are all experiencing; as someone has already posted; dehydration

My belief is we all enjoy a binge and on those occasions forget to drink water or electrolyte rich liquids. Anxiety is most likely a result of us freaking out over being dehydrated and the symptoms that feel so much like "dying"

Simple cure; don't drink so much you lose the ability to regulate normal fluid intact; for those of us who will continue to drink, because its just so much fun, remember to stay hydrated and if you get these symptoms again, stay calm; and rehydrate yourself.

I want to thank everyone here, I was worried about the chest pains, until I realized... i was just stupid.

Stay hydrated everyone![/url]

I had lung surgery when i was 16, I had pnemonia all of the time as a kid. The Dr. said that I had a short floppy broncial tube that did not push the air in and out of my lungs properly. (They say it is common for kids whose parents have asthma, typically doesnt cause problems, for me it did.) For a couple of years now I have had some lung pain under my left breast. Sometimes its a dull pain, I feel sensitive on that side, sometimes i do not want to lay on it. If I breathe heavy sometimes there is a sharp pain. This really worries me and I have found it to be worse after a night of drinking. I do work out, sometimes I feel shortness of breath, some times I can run three miles straight without noticing a thing. I have even found that while exercising if I twist my upper torso I hear some wheezing. Again very scary. I have even heard some wheezing without the twisting!

I have been trying to get in to have an MRI but my insurance is being difficult. From reading blogs it seems a lot of people are saying it could be caused from lack of salt, dehydration and some say acid reflux.

went on a stag do and drunk for 4 days solid, no food, no other liquid and very little sleep.

Came back a few days ago and i have pangs of chest pain, mouth ulsers and what feels like a throat infection.


Am i going to die :-(

This is great... It does take a load of your mind knowing others have the same problem... like most on here i have had asthma as a child and work out 4 - 5 days a week... Chest pains but mainly breathing problems start 1 - 2 days after having a good drink... i only have these good drinks once a month...

I thought it was down to maybe a low immune system and being around large groups of people whilst intoxicated and catching some sort of virus, mild chest infection etc.

It does seem to be worse after drinking lager or beer and has only started since i turned 24... Im going to try the hydrating before, during and after drinking and will check back in here soon... Good Luck guys...

It's because drinking alcohol unaturally increases the levels of GABA in your brain to a point that the brain stops producing it. This chemical is responsible for regular cardio function. For example, if I booz thursday, friday and saturday, I'll be in experiencing breathing issues on the monday or tuesday. Lay off the booz for two weeks and pay attention to how amazing you will start to feel.

I think the same thing happen to me but not as bad, im good now, still a little trouble breathing, but not that much, should i get it checked out or will i be fine in a few days?

I am guessing that most people on here that are having these symptoms are between 18 to 30. What is happening is that the alcohol changes the way your neurons fire in your brain for a short period of time. This causes it to affect your nervous system to where it goes into a slight panic which can cause a feeling of difficulty of breathing, chest pains, panic attacks, tingling of the limbs, blurry vision, and confusion. It happens to me every time i drink now because i was an alcoholic and got drunk for a few years straight. That part will kill you but these symptoms will not and they are not too serious. I wore a heart monitor and had many tests done and the doctor said everything was fine. I too wondered what was going on for a while.

I just want to know that I am having the exact same issues. I quit smoking last year because I thought it was the cigarettes, but here it is 11 months later, and I still have difficult breathing, and shortness of breath the day after I drink, or 2 days.


I drank a lot last Friday, and some on Saturday...and here it is Monday, and it feels like something has been in my throat/lungs all day, and sore to breath deep.


ugh I hate this. I did major lung tests few months ago and heart test and everything is clear. I am low on Vitamin D/B12 but taking supplements.


I wonder if this dehydration/salt imbalance or something?