Anyone else’s ability to drink wine worsen with age?!

[Island67]

I had one glass of red wine last night - ONE glass. I drank it at about 7:30pm. I have a headache and a teeny bit of post-alcohol anxiety this morning.

The other week I had two large glasses of white wine at lunchtime and got a cracking headache that evening, and felt slightly off for two days after.

Do I have to quit wine?!

(I’m in my early 40s.)

(I have no connection to the linked website, btw! I just googled 'where to buy biodynamic wine uk' and that's the first thing that came up.)

Awesome thanks @MayIDestroyYou 🍷

Please don't start buying different wines to try and avoid a hangover! Do you know the most dangerous ingredient in wine? The alcohol not the blooming sulphites (although they are bad). Just give it up 😂. The world does not fall in!

Yes, I gave up almost entire at 38.

Entirely.^

@Northernsoullover

Please don't start buying different wines to try and avoid a hangover! Do you know the most dangerous ingredient in wine? The alcohol not the blooming sulphites (although they are bad). Just give it up 😂. The world does not fall in!

Don't be ridiculous. I'm a grown adult and haven't been drunk in over three decades. It's vanishingly rare for me to drink enough to suffer a hangover.

I'm perfectly well aware of what immoderate alcohol intake can do - and I'm very sorry for anyone who suffers from addiction or lives with an addict. But as I am neither addicted nor a heavy drinker I see no reason whatsoever to give up wine. I am piercingly aware of the improvement in the quality of the wine I drink.

Yes…it’s really sad.. I stopped drinking wine in my mid 40s because of the awful sleep and hangover. Stick with gin now, and only ever venture into wine territory if it’s organic/expensive. I miss it.

I thought it was just me! Ten years ago I could easily polish off a bottle of wine on a Saturday evening and be up bright and breezy at 7am next day. now I can only cope with one glass or I spend the whole night sweating and tossing and turning! Gin and tonic slightly better in that I can cope with 2 (homemade so probably strong) glasses before the sleepless night. Definitely can't mix anymore though ie a glass of champagne then a glass of wine has me throwing up. Ditto a glass of champagne then gin .

rose which is what i like, makes me wheezy and gives me hot flushes.

Just had ONE bottle of beer and my mouth is as dry as the desert. This never used to happen. I give up!

Alcohol in general just ruins my sleep these days. I can still have a fair few and not suffer a hangover but I'll wake up at 2:30am (always the same time) and not get back to sleep, so I spend the rest of the day shattered. It's just not worth it.

Wine does give me a headache now though, even in small amounts, but it never did when I was younger. It's different to a hangover headache, almost like the early stages of a migraine. Gin and other spirits are fine though.

I could barely drink wine at all when I was younger, reds gave me headaches and whites just weren’t to my taste. I can manage the odd glass now and again, but must be with a meal, and if it’s red it has to be the tiniest glass or it triggers a migraine.

I’ve found recently that certain spirits are starting to do the same. Possibly because I don’t drink very often.

I’m fascinated by this thread. I’m heading into peri-menopause and for the last year alcohol has started to give me a hayfever-like reaction. I sneeze, itchy eyes and face, and runny nose. The weird thing is that it doesn’t happen every time I drink, it doesn’t seem to be triggered by a particular amount or type of alcohol. It’s random, but getting more frequent.

@MayIDestroyYou its all rotten fruit no matter how poncey the price tag

Indeed ... Just natural and non-natural materials mixed together and presented in a culturally recognisable form - like a Rembrandt, or an Ella Fitzgerald recording!

Interesting to hear everyone's responses.
The waking at 2.30/3am and hay fever like reactions are - I'm fairly sure - due to histamine. Especially high in wine and beer but present in all alcohol.
It can also occur with certain high histamine foods - anything aged or long preserved (think cured meats, kimchi/sauerkraut/kefir), aged cheeses...
Look up MCAS and investigate DAO tablets is my advice!
Or just don't drink....

Actually now I think of it histamine intolerance more accurately fits what's being talked about