red/blotchy face whilst drinking alcohol

Is there anything you can do to prevent your face from turning very red and blotchy when you know that you will be drinking alcohol.

I'm actually hoping for an answer to this one too..., i've heard pepcid works, little before you drink, and on a full stomach. But its an extremely annoying problem. People will tell you, well just don't drink. But first, you want to have a good time once in a while, and sometimes you don't have a choice. I'm a waitress and every week in a class, we have to try out new kinds of alcohol for the first hand experience of a buzz on it. I cannot skip this because it helps me familiarize with all the drinks very effectively, yet i can't get up from the class after one or two drinks looking totally blown, and the worst part is my tolerance is the same as most people my size, i just get beet red after one drink and maybe the slightest slightest buzz. SOMEONE HELP... both of us please.

I am not sure if this is an anxiety problem or not. For the past several years I have been having many issues with a red/blotchy neck and chest (everyday this happens). It happens with a change of emotions like the following: excited, nervous, angry, embarassment, even when I step out the shower, tanning bed, driving a car anywhere, talking on the phone, or running into my friends somewhere, and even if I am outside and the sun hits my neck just right, or I go out with my friends and I have a sip of alchol. I also feel a rapid heart beat, and get really hot while I am receiving the red blotches on my neck, and chest. Please tell me there is a cure and there is something I could take for this. Right now the Dr. has me on high blood pressure medication, but I really don't have high blood pressure, and I don't feel as if I should be taking it, if I am not suffering from it. Is there a special cream and/or medication that will prevent this from happening all the time?

i used to have the red/blothcy thing too. it is called Hives and it is due to allergies, and i would take a children's chewable antiistamine when i would feel it happening. i stopped eating dairy and my allergies went way, and so did my hives.

I get red blotches on my face, neck and chest when i'm stressed, on the phone, drinking stimulants or talking fast... al results of high emotion. I used to just flush -- all over red, but it would disappear quicker, in response to changing stimulus. Now i get the blotches, that have really defined jaggered edges. It's very dramatic, and can be embarrassing if someone mentioned it.
I have found something to help though. I used to go to an auricular acupuncturist - from a local charity, and because i was nervous the first time, the first thing he did was put one needle in my ear while i was having my induction interview. Within seconds the blotchiness lost its edges and my face flushed over red, and then it dissipated. He told me that it was to improve the peripheral circulation - certain people are prone to trapped chi (he called it - i think it just means energy - it's the chinese way of thinking about it).
Whenever i had a treatment i always had this needle as part of it. I was also instructed on where to massage/press my ears to trigger the same response. If your interested, it would be better to look for an aricular acupuncture chart on the net, so you get it right. you can buy tiny magnets to put on ear points as well, these are really effective, and means you don't have to keep touching your ears.
The point that worked for me was the shen men, its an anti anxiety point, and easy to manipulate using fingers. Any point that is good for circluation for example the liver point, will also help. The kidney point will work if it's a result of high emotions and anxiety.
Flushing is also worse if you have excess niacin (vitamin B3) in your diet. It can be found in energy drinks and added to certain foods, naturally occurs in meat and grain i think... so if sometimes your more prone to blotchiness than others, maybe there's a dietary aspect. to it too.

For some reason every once in a while when I drink I get red... It does not happen all the time. It starts out with a light warming sensation and then my face begins to look tan or sunburn... After about 30 min practically all my scars on my body turn pink and it looks blotchy around my face, neck, back and chest... All scars on legs, arms, or anywhere else turn pink.... Strange but is there any particular reason for this? Some kind of allergic reaction?

I don't know what ethnicity you all are, but it's often called asian flush or asian sunburn. I just came across a forum where people noticed it was worse with a full stomach, and a lot of those posters, as well as I, take pepcid before drinking and it doesn't happen, although my eyes still get really bloodshot. I'm hoping that someone knows the mechanism for this working. I want to make sure I'm not poisoning myself (any worse than drinking).

I am having the same issues, but I just started taking Eredicane and it seems to be working. Its a dietary supplement you can buy online and it is made specifically for this reason. Its all natural and can be found by searching eredicane on yahoo.

Guest wrote:

I don't know what ethnicity you all are, but it's often called asian flush or asian sunburn. I just came across a forum where people noticed it was worse with a full stomach, and a lot of those posters, as well as I, take pepcid before drinking and it doesn't happen, although my eyes still get really bloodshot. I'm hoping that someone knows the mechanism for this working. I want to make sure I'm not poisoning myself (any worse than drinking).

Its genetics and we can't do anything about it.

We have an inactive enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2). This enzyme is responsible for breaking down acetaldehyde, a byproduct of the metabolism of alcohol. Acetaldehyde is a toxin, and when we can't break it down, we start going "red-faced" or our heartbeat races like crazy, etc as a response to the toxin.

I'm Chinese, and I get the this issue. I realised this when I got completely smashed in an "end of high-school" party.

Nowadays, I usually say I don't drink alcohol with a confident tone, and folks don't mind it. Well, it doesn't affect what they think of me as a whole.

I get that too, but I found that if I stay away from sugar mixers that it doesn't happen. Whereas if I drink, say, rum and regular coke, after a few I start turning. If I stick with diet, however, nothin' happens. Weird.
Also, I've tried Benadryl a few hours before going out and that also helps the redness.
I'm German/Irish, so I don't think it's related to the asian flush.