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POTS and drinking


Lisa

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Hello all,

Happy holidays everyone!! Well, of course I have yet another question to ask you all :rolleyes: I was wondering if anyone knows if it is harmful to drink alcohol when you have POTS. Personally, my experience has been that having a hangover in the morning is actually better than the usual morning crappiness I feel with POTS! What do you guys think?

Lisa

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Most people have told me alcohol makes them feel much worse. It dilates blood vessels which can lead to even more pooling blood than normal. One person told me "you can tell after the first drink whether you are going to feel bad from it or not." Personally, I haven't drank in about 6 years, though I do miss being able to have an occasional drink with dinner or at a party.

Take care,

Michelle

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Another big problem with alcohol is that it dehydrates. My hangover days are far behind me, but I love a couple of cocktails or glasses of wine. I've had drinks a few times since getting POTS, and didn't have any problem. But I had a big crash in July (unrelated to drinking), and I am still not better. I haven't had alcohol for the past few months, because the risk doesn't seem worth it right now.

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Hi:

My drinking days are over. I can't seem to tolerate any alcohol with POTS....it really makes my symptoms much worse....It's true though that the POTS symptoms can be just as bad or worse than a hangover....my problem is that alcohol and other things like caffeine....actually any stimulants or depressants tend to send me into a major POTS crash that ends up taking very long to bounce back from.

Good luck!

Kristen

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Has anyone else had the same reaction to alcohol as me? I can handle a couple of glasses of rum, I don't know why. But anything else, especially wine (and RED is just OUT of the QUESTION!) just makes me feel heavier and heavier until I collapse and feel so heavy that I cannot actually breathe. I don't mean I'm gasping. I mean I literally STOP breathing altogether for up to 30 or 40 seconds. Quite often I can hear people around me, and they'll be saying stuff like 2Breathe, come on, breathe" etc but most times I just can't...it's like my whole body shuts down. I can't move or do anything. It's weird! :ph34r:

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:rolleyes: My doctor told me that if I take a sodium tablet and a meteroporal before going out, and drink some water too, I'll be OK. I have done this a few times and been fine. That is until I got ARDS. Now I really have no desire,

Miriam15221@yahoo.com

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Guest tearose

One or two sips and I'm feeling no pain. Half a glass and I'm too loopy and may/usually get chest pains...not worth going there!

Heck, I get fuzzy form tylenol and too much water!

What is ARDS? And welcome Miriam Poorman-Knox!

tearose

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One or two sips and I'm feeling no pain.  Half a glass and I'm too loopy and may/usually get chest pains...not worth going there!

Heck, I get fuzzy form tylenol and too much water!

What is ARDS?  And  welcome Miriam Poorman-Knox!

tearose

ARDS is Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome- not related to POTS. I was in ICU on life support for 3 weeks. Didn't even know I was sick. It takes a year to recover

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Alcohol can be strange for me. I have very low blood volume as it is, so dehydration for me - alcohol induced - can make my heart rate higher, my tremors worse and my dizziness bad.

If im not feeling symptomatic i do drink on occassion, but about four times , two days after drinking alcohol (especially red wine), i have had a quite nasty 'autonomic storm' - which is basically where my autonomic nervous system goes nuts and i get body tremors, anxiety, mental confusion and rapid heart rates - like a POTS crash i suppose you would say.

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