Expert: Marc Rubin, RPh Asthma Educator - 2/18/2008

Question
I had many allergies as a child, mostly to pollens and dust but a few food allergies too.  I took allergy shots for a few years and either they worked or I grew out of the allergies.  I am 51 now.  I started drinking red wine about 2 years ago.  I am a vegetarian. I had chronic fatigue syndrome in the 90's but have mostly recovered and am pretty healthy. About a month ago I noticed my throat would swell up often. No real pain just hard to swallow. It was hard to even take a vitamin pill.  I did a little investigation and when I stopped drinking wine I totally recovered from the problem.  Am I allergic to wine or sulfates or grapes?  Will I be allergic to all alcohol?

Answer
The reaction you are having is a potentially dangerous one, since each time you ingest the triggering agent, the episode quite possibly will be of a more severe nature. Testing for food allergies or alcohol allergy is best done by a double-blind situation, since skin testing and RAST testing unfortunately are not very clear in this area. In double-blind, conducted by an allergist, the compound may or may not be an active ingredient, and the tester is also unaware, so the patient cannot react to body language. What is important is that should there be a reaction, medication will be immediately available to counter the effect. Until you are properly screened, I would not go anywhere near ingesting wine or alcoholic beverages. Should it be indeed proven, then you would always want to keep rescue medication (Epi-pen)with you, and some Benadryl.The only to properly prove the case would be by this type of exam, and it would be inappropriate for me to hazard a guess of what I think it may be.

Good luck, and just think, while everyone is having a drink, you can enjoy the entertainment of everyone else behaving strangely after a few drinks. :)