To ask if you have started getting bright red cheeks after drinking alcohol in middle age

[Mightneedencouraged]

Just met some friends for an after work drinks and my cheeks are livid! This definitely never used to happen. How embarrassing.

Oh yes me too.

I find I'm OK in the part of the year when I'm taking two anti histamines a day for allergies, so definitely allergic reaction. Sulphites

Only sometimes. And it doesn't seem to be related to what specific drink is.

I did notice it happened sometimes after I got to menopause. I have found less and less pleasure in alcohol and have been exploring no alcoholic beers which are good. Wine is less successful but recently bought Botivo which is a bittersweet aperitif that you mixed with sparkling water. I still maybe2/3 drinks over a weekend but sometimes none. I feel so much better. It’s a poison after all.

I get it randomly even without alcohol on board. Just face and neck, sometimes upper chest.
After exercise
After sex
After a drink (any)
Randomly at work mid afternoon
After being out in the cold
After being out in the wind

It can be really uncomfortable, face feels like it’s burning. On HRT now and it’s improved initially but last few weeks is getting worse again. Wonder if I need to up the HRT as having might sweats again too

Yes in the last few years it happened with wine, white and rose, cider and certain spirits. Face, neck and chest go red, hot and occasionally itchy. I've stopped drinking those now. I can drink flavoured gins without any effect.

I don't personally but have friends that do so I think it's pretty common tbh.

I get it from makeup now sometimes as well as booze…

It's the artificial sulphates causing a reaction. I used to be in the wine industry and we did some not very scientific tests. A group of people prone to 'flushing' drank normal wine and then on a different day organic wine. They were flush free on the second day. Norml wine is contains all sorts of synthetic preservativs and sulphates. Organic wine has sulphates but they are natural and there is way less than in non organic wine. My husband suffered from flush a now we only drink organic wine he doesn't.

Yes, occasionally I get it when I drink Merlot. All other reds (and I have done extensive research!) are fine, as is white wine and spirits. Weird.

It’s histamine intolerance and is very closely tied to hormones (research has recently shown its connection to PMDD). Middle age means hormones shifting so would make sense this can be triggered. I take an antihistamine if I know I’m going to be drinking

That's interesting as I used to get terrible dysphoria and now don't really. I guess I'd pick pink face over that!

Yes. Awful creeping blush over chest, neck and face, accompanied by intense overheated feeling then headache. I just stopped bothering to drink altogether, and I'm all the better for it.

Hm I am not going to stop drinking as I think alcohol is part of a well-rounded life but might test out whether some make me ruddier than others.

You’re lucky! I get both - mentally unwell and a bright red clown - what a look!

Not yet but my male friend was like that already in his 20s.

I used to have a bit of a reliance on nytol (essentially an anti histamine) but stopped as read that over use can exacerbate dementia.

So now I’m a bit scared to take antihistamines. Would love to be told I’m wrong. Perhaps it’s only the older style that are the problem.

@Tulipvase i believe second generation do not carry the same risk.

I'm prescribed two Fexofenadine 180 a day.

Thank you - I’ll look into that.

If its happening due to weather as well then its likely rosacea

Might be acne rosacea, I am middle aged and I have this and it's exacerbated by drinking alcohol. You can get a very effective cream (forget it's name) from GP.

This has always happened to me with spirits and wine. My MIL has it and she's almost 80 and only drinks whiskey and lager.

I thought it was heat from burning off alcohol or something? Interesting!

Yes me too - I am hopeful it has improved my health, being virtually teetotal since my early 30s (when mine started)..

I’m mid 40s and I haven’t drank alcohol for a few years as I started to react to it. I got red cheeks that actually felt painful and dreadful headaches the following day, even if I’d only drank a small amount.

I think it is linked to menopause as I have also developed a couple of food allergies in the last few years as well. Fun times!

Oestrogen drops and makes the processing of alcohol harder and slower so it’s in the system longer and causes effects like flushing etc. It’s a big bloody wake up call to what alcohol actually is- a poison. I still have one or two at the weekend but it’s become less appealing as I’ve looked into it more. I discovered that it was the ceremony of drinking that I like; the pouring , the opening a bottle and I had found0% beers and other non alcoholic but adult drinks hit that spot. Nothing better than sleeping well and waking up clear headed.

I haven’t been able to drink alcohol at all since my mid 40s. From about 40 onwards I was feeling poorly if I had more than one glass of wine. Heart racing, hot, sleepy, flushed, drunk. Then had one night out with a friend where we shared a bottle of wine and then had a pint in the pub afterwards and i literally don’t remember getting home, I woke up on my kitchen floor and spent the next 24 hours vomiting. I just can’t drink now.