Alcohol Consumption

[Randi Free]

Has anyone noticed whether drinking acohol helps or worsens POTS symptoms? Also, for her leg tremors and weakness the doctor gave my daughter clonipin which does seem to help a little. The norpace seems to be helping the most though as long as she takes it regularly. she has a prescription for flexeril but hasn't tried it yet. Just wondering if anyone else has tried these things.

[mandasmom]

Alcohol has always had a major negative impact on me. I won't even touch the stuff anymore. Alcohol tends to dehydrate the body which is usually not a good thing.

[taylortotmom]

One drink at night (when I can go to bed) can be quite helpful. However, I would NEVER combine Klonopin with alcohol. I either take my Klonopin or I have a drink, but never both. They have essentially the same effect on me (calms down my Restless Leg Syndrome at night and relaxes my body). If I do have a drink, I make sure to also drink water as alcohol dehydrates and that is the last thing I need

[Maxine]

Most people I have talked with get worse with alcohol. I can't even take a few sips. I take klonopin, and it has an entirely different affect on me then alcohol. Klonopin is helpful for my symptoms, and I'm on a very low dose.

I used to love my margaritas, and drink a couple on Fridays after long work week. I also liked to drink good imported beer. Even in those days my heart would race when I drank alcohol. About 1 1/2 years after crashing with my POTS I drank a glass of wine and had worsening OI, tremors, stomach upset, tachy ect. I just sat there and gagged while I shook for over 2 hours.

HOWEVER, I have some other health issues, and some people with POTS may be able to tolerate a drink or two. Oh how a good margarita with salt would be----

If it had a good effect on me, I would much rather have that, then a boring old klonopin----------LOL.

Maxine :0)

[dsdmom]

I used to enjoy my wine...before the dys started. But now, like Maxine, I can't even take a few sips. I find it ridiculous and I did it a couple of times because I just could not believe that a few sips would make me feel so awful but it really did...

[flop]

I used to enjoy a glass of wine with a meal a couple of times a week. The last few years I have hardly drunk any alcohol - my doctor advised that because of its dehydrating effect that I should avoid it. I will have a drink on a special occasion (every few months), so long as I stick to 2-3 units I don't notice any major ill effects.

Flop

[jump]

I can tolerate one or two tiny glasses of white wine (2 oz glasses, not the big goblets that have become popular). The next day I am DEFINITELY more symptomatic, so I save it for special occasions like weddings and graduations. But, as others have pointed out, it can be really dangerous to mix meds and alcohol, especially things like kpins. Depending on the dosage it might be safest to just abstain.

Strangely enough, I have one symptom that coffee actually HELPS, even though typically coffee makes me feel worse. Every once in a while my hr will slow down in the afternoon to about 55, and my heart will skip 3-4 times a minute for a few hours. And for some reason I've found that drinking about 6 oz of coffee makes the skipping stop. I have no idea what the science behind that is!!

jump

[DSM3KIDZ]

I was never a fan of alcohol and am not about to start. I have a very low tolerance and will get dizzy after one beer.

Dayna

[pat57]

Alcohol is a vasodialator (spelling) I would ask a Dr. first.

[Ernie]

Hi,

I was never able to tolerate alcohol.

[India]

I can tolerate one drink at night on occasion, maybe two. Sometimes I get symptoms, sometimes not. But I absolutely cannot drink in the middle of the day--heart races, heart skips, heart does funky things. Especially cannot drink when it is hot either. Generally, like others, I tend to avoid it unless it is a special occasion it's just not worth the POTS "hangover".

India

[Kelly]

for POTs patients that suffer with a drop in BP as well as an increase with heartrate, ive heard that alcohol is a bad idea as it thins the blood and lowers the bp, which would cause POTs syptoms to worsen, therefore i dont drink at all . . . . mostly because im so frigtened of fainting and feeling terrible for days! i think its best to ask your doctor whether or not you can drink with your meds and POTs

[darren]

I am the opposite, I tolerate it very well and in fact sometimes it helps me get through situations that would normally trigger a bad bout. First I should add that 13 years in the military I would say I have a very high tolerance to alcohol. Needless to say I don't drink like that anymore.

If I'm in a social environment that is really loud (like a restaurant) or a busy surrounding it almost always triggers pots symptoms. In these cases a couple of drinks sufficiently numbs everything out enough to make it tolerable. It really messes up my sleep though so I don't go from having a drink or two to going to bed I always end up waking at 4am which makes for a couple bad days in a row.

So moderation, followed with some water is beneficial to me. Not to mention my first signs of crashing involves me being really cranky, it spares others from sitting with the grump.

[cbahagrl1234]

Hi- I cannot drink alcohol at all. I may try to have a sip every now and then and I get extremely hot and sweaty. I can feel my heart racing and I just feel overall awful. I would not recommend drinking alcohol!

Candice

[ramakentesh]

Im like Darren here. I can tolerate alcohol and it tends to help in those 'overstimulated' times...

[delphicdragon]

When I get really really symptomatic one sip of wine is often times enough to stop the symptoms completely (and usually put me to sleep). I've tried to drink more than that and I wind up buzzed so quickly (1/2 glass or less) that it's not worth it. I get buzzed even if I make sure that I drink an equal or double amount of water to compensate for the wine. So, alcohol can help me stop an attack, but I've never allowed myself to drink enough that I have symptoms of OI. Wish I could consume just a glass, then I wouldn't feel so awkward in some social situations where everyone has beer or wine and I've got soda.

Sara

[Tessa]

I have never been a fan of alcohol. It makes me dizzy, gives me headache and nauseas.

I have a very low tolerance.

I have always felt very sick after drinking just one glass.

I use to have drops in bp and heart rate is high... So, alcohol is a bad idea for me.

All my symptoms worsen.

I do not recommend it.

Love,

Tessa

[Guest tearose]

IF I am to drink any alcohol, I'm very prepared. I am well hydrated, wearing highest levels of compression and usually am well rested. It can make me very sleepy. I do best if I drink only at night. I seem to have better blood pressure in the evenings.

[mountainsunflower]

I can not tolerate it at all- like some others have posted- even a sip of wine causes problems. Alcohol increases my heart rate and makes my symptoms worse- it will also make me pretty anxious.

[willows]

If you want to read a funny story , but not so funny story then read this ..............for alcohol is like a form of torture for both Mike and myself

I have in my youth ( can I remember back that far ) had a couple of drinks thinking , this is OK no problem ...........but what I might think is OK to me , isnt to all around me and I was doing exactly what Mike did .

You see alcohol acts as a really bad depressant and OMG did I go strange ...............OTT BIG TIME with just two or three drinks inside of me, and Mike, my poor lad is exactly the same.

Read on .................he went out with two of his mates mid August to camp on the cliff tops and like most lads of this age took some cans of beer with them . They started the camp at mid afternoon and Mike had one can of cider , at about 6-7 pm he had another one ...............then at around 9 pm he had his third ( his mates had downed twice as much as this by then with no effects ) .

At 10:30 pm after struggling with him of 1 1/2 hours we got a frantic call from jack his best mate in a panicking voice :

' Help , Help Mikes gone all strange and he's sicking everywhere , he doesn't know who we are ,he's really upset and we dont know what to do '

Needless to say an alarm bell rung in my head and armed with buckets , towels and wet wipes Mark and I drove to the nearest point to the camp site , to be met by all three lads outside of a farm gate and what a sight !!!!!!!!!!

Mike was not only covered in sick ..........and I do mean covered , but cow poo was stuck in his hair, on his hands, face and clothing and the smell was quite undeliverable !!!!!

Mike was crying his heart-out at the top of his voice , great big shuddering sobs with foot long trails of snot streaming from his nose ( like little kids do when they have terrible colds ) he didnt know where he was , who he was or what he was doing .

Jack and I had to half drag half lift Mike to the car , who I might add was still bawling his head off like a man who'd just lost all his family . He knew who I was , but other than this he had no idea who Mark was , Jack or his other mates was .

When we got him home .....still bawling his head off very loudly , trying to get him up steep steps when he is 6 foot 2 inches tall and walking like an 18 month old baby and I'm 5 foot 2 inches and the steps ( all 12 ) are as steep as you can get , well it was like watching a Laural and Hardly film !!!!!

But I managed it , then up the stairs to the bathroom , where with Marks help we had to strip him to his boxers and wash , scape and dig out cow poo and sick from just about every orifice imaginable .

Sticking him on his side in bed with vast quantities of towels draped everywhere around him plus a bucket by his side , that is after somehow managing to get the following down his throat : anti-sickness, replacement salts, paracetamol, diazepam and a stomach protecting drug was something I class as an outstanding achievement .

After sleeping all night with Mark and myself doing 1 hour checks , he woke up at 9 am with a look of utter bewilderment on his face as he sat up ......... feeling wonderful .............and asked if he had been out last night or not and did he or did he not arrange to go on a camping trip ????

It took us sometime to explain what had happened and he wouldnt believe us at first until Jack his mate arrived looking very worried and explained how he and the other lad had stripped Mike down to his boxers to change one set of clothes which had so much sick on that you couldnt see the clothing at all ..........and then explained why Mike still smelt of cow poo .............he had fallen over and fell head first into a huge pile of the stuff rolling around in it as he tried to stand up , fall down , stand up then fall down again.

I've been T-Total since 1st January 1974 and Mike is now the same , but his two mates still talk about the night Mike sobbed his heart out crying for everything and ever name they said at him including :

next doors dog a tin of beans a packet of twiglets and all sorts of crazy people or things they could think of ..............all of which is on tape and they intend to play on his wedding day ..............Oh poor old Mike

Aren't boys just wonderful .................but a lesson learnt the hard way for Mike ............Ami .

[ramakentesh]

LOL. Wow! Big night!

In my youth I was a bit of a drinker - well when i was at college any way. But since pots came along i try to avoid more than a very small sample of beer on occasion.

I tolerate it well compared to most things - a sip of coffee and im in all sorts!