Am i allergic to vodka?

Hey everyone.

ok. well here's my story. yesterday i went to a party with a few of my friends. now, i've been drinking for a few years now. the first time i drank, i went right off to a bottle of smirnoff green apple twist vodka.. i drank way more than my body could take and i ended up blacking out and puking everywhere.

well ever since then, i've been trying to raise up my tolerance, but ive been starting slow. just been messing around with coolers and beers. but still, i wanted to go bak to the harder drinks.

so yesterday after about.. 2 years i tried it again. my friend, just so happens, had some Smirnoff green apple twist vodka (35%) . so whatd i do? i started drinking.

everything was fine.. until i needed to pee so i went to the bathroom. when i saw myself in the mirror tho, i was red. Really really red. obviously, being a small chinese girl it shows up on me more than others but, i noticed that it was Really red, and it wasnt only on my cheeks. the redness was on my forehead and even my chin! it formed a 'circle' around my face.. it was itchy too. it almost seemed like it was spreading

thing is, i've drank vodka before, and other drinks, i.e. rum, coolers, beer but i've never had a reaction like that before! normally i get a bit pinkish, if that. im not allergic to anything, so i never get hives etc.

i hope that's enough information, i really need to know if i am allergic... i mean, it was unusual to say the least. man i looked like a dark red cheerio


please help guys and gals! big party coming up, and i wanna see what i'll be doing. i mean, i love vodka drinks and i hope it'll stay that way!

cheers --

Other than you being of Asian decent we had the exact same experience. I know that Asians lack a certain enzyme to break down alcohol. Well I'm a cacausian male and the same thing is happening to me, but only at random times....usually lowend vodka. I have no idea what to do. Honestly I do look like a freak. I feel pressure all throughout my head and very, very red! so what is it? I haven't found an answer either.

Hmmm...don't know what to tell you guy's other than your not the only one's w/ the problem. I have been a fairly regular drinker for a while until about 6 months ago. It seemed like everytime i had a drink (mostly strawberry vodka) my face would turn beat red...and it wasn't just my face.....i noticed bright red blochy spots all over my chest and back too. You would think that would be enough for me to stop but out of curiosity i tried a whiskey and yet again the same thing happened. I know everyone says alcohol allergies are rare but i can't help but wonder what is going on with the rest of us.....someone help!

Do a search on Oriental Flushing Syndrome or Asian Flush, also Asian Blush. Affects non-Asian as well.

well i went and had an allergy test maybe 2yrs ago and they told me i'm allergic to fermented alcohol. they later told me its only how the alcohol is processed so i may only be allergic to some types. needless to say at 20yrs old, i went out with my college roomates, bought 54 kinds of alcohol and over the course of a month saw what would flush out my face and give me a red chest.

it was only the cheap stuff! the natty ice's the miller high lifes etc. the high end stuff, corona's, blue moons, etc all left me just fine.

i am recently having problems with vodka though, feeling nauseous after only 1 drink etc. this is concerning : /

What is the asian flush?

wow, wrote this post over a year ago. but nevertheless glad it got some responses

better yet, know that im not the only one... to be honest, i thought that that sort of patching would only occur in people of asian descent.

its been a year or so, and i havent been drinking nearly as much as i have before. but even so, i do have the occasional parties, but the same occurence has not occured since.

that is a good thing i suppose.. i do recall however, that on that night with the '' explosion ' of red i did do ALOT of alcohal mixing. 8+ different types of drinks between 20-40% not including beers and coolers. im wondering if that might have factored into it? perhaps the case of vodka being in the mix is just a single factor, if that at all.

but in any case, if you guy have more info post it here.. i'll look up 'asian flush' quite curious..

Yeah, I know this tread is old, but... I started getting the same symptoms (Rash on face, face and ears burning) after drinking vodka at some time in 2003. I'd been drinking vodka for years before then without any problems. I have no idea how I could just become allergic to it after all those years of being fine with it. Soon after that I also found out that baileys had the same effect on me. All other drinks that I've tried, and I've tried a lot, don't produce the symptoms. I tried looking for information about it a while ago but I pretty much drew a blank.