Getting a positive COVID-19 test result couldn’t only change the best way people taste and smell alcohol, it could also change the best way they process it.
Anecdotal data has shown that some people have reported a change in the best way their bodies reply to alcohol after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Rebekah Stein, 30, was capable of hold onto her alcohol before being diagnosed with COVID in March 2020. told BuzzFeed News.
One night, after her mild symptoms subsided, she casually stole a sip of her husband’s whiskey, as she had done again and again before.
After just a few seconds of brown alcohol running down her throat, she felt very intoxicated.
The following day she was left with an intense hangover that she didn’t feel deserved one small sip. She reported an irregular heartbeat, chest pain, cough, sore throat, headache, and stuffy nose along with other long-term symptoms of COVID: shortness of breath, regular fevers, body aches, and exhaustion.
It was “principally a COVID relapse,” Stein said.
![Man with covid mask staring at alcohol](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/drinking-covid-230120-01.jpg?w=1024)
“When it first happened, I didn’t connect the dots. I might get up and take a COVID test because I had all of the symptoms of COVID and after I drink my heart rate gets really high overnight,” Stein told BuzzFeed.
“My body seems to know pretty quickly that it’s poisoned.”
Now, nearly three years after her initial COVID diagnosis, Stein continues to be unable to enjoy any form of alcohol.
Alcohol tolerance is often defined as the quantity you can take care of before becoming visibly intoxicated, but alcohol intolerance is an inherited metabolic disease.
Metabolic disorders affect metabolism by affecting the best way the body processes and uses energy, meaning that alcohol intolerance is diagnosed when the body is unable to interrupt down alcohol efficiently.
![Drunk person sitting drinking whiskey and looking out the window during the covid 19 coronavirus quarantine. Stupid expression of surprise on drunkard's face. Tired worker gets drunk and depressed.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/drinking-covid-230120-05.jpg?w=1024)
While not an alcohol allergy, it can result in stuffy nose, red skin, hives, low blood pressure, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Mayonnaise Clinic.
Like other food and beverage intolerances, alcohol intolerance can develop over time, but many suspect it could possibly be one in every of the various unspecified, lingering uncomfortable side effects of long-term COVID.
Increasingly more individuals are connecting on social media, using Google and online forums, trying to find out if there may be a link between their bodies’ recent reactions to alcohol and former COVID diagnoses.
According Addiction.nettogether with the same old symptoms of alcohol intolerance, people have reported:
- decreased tolerance to alcohol
- nausea after just just a few sips of alcohol
- poor mental health for several days after drinking alcohol
- increased anxiety after drinking alcoholic beverages
- exacerbation of long-term COVID symptoms
“Two glasses of rum last night led to today’s blinding migraine. I’m wondering if there may be a link to covid and a rise in alcohol intolerance because it only began happening after I got it.” one person tweeted about theirs unexpected hangover
There was one other Twitter user slightly more confident in her suspicions, sharing: “I by some means developed an alcohol intolerance because of covid-19 so now after I drink I get rashes and the subsequent day I feel completely sick regardless of how much or how little I drink.”
“One in every of the long-term consequences of COVID I even have is alcohol intolerance,” one person claimed about their recent sensitivity to alcohol. “I used to only drink wine or beer, but now even a glass of lager makes me sleep terribly and ruins one other day – I turn out to be unfocused, restless and drained. Hell, who knows how this disease works.
![A woman wearing a face mask and wrapped in a blanket.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/chart-4.jpg?w=1024)
Health workers have several suspicions as to why COVID may result in alcohol intolerance, noting that the virus may directly affect the enzymes answerable for alcohol processing and/or damage the liver, thereby affecting alcohol metabolism.
Others have hypothesized that each COVID and drinking alcohol activate mast cells that cause allergic reactions and release histamine, triggering an influx of those immune responses.
Some have also noted that many COVID patients have blood flow problems that worsen with alcohol consumption.
The post-COVID/long-COVID relationship and alcohol intolerance has yet to be explored by any official organizations or experts, but is anticipated to hitch the growing list of COVID-related research that is certain to return.
One thing that research has confirmed is that “drinking alcohol, even in small amounts, is harmful to everyone, no matter age, sex, gender, ethnicity, alcohol tolerance or lifestyle,” based on a newly published advice from Canada.
That is potentially a giant incentive when you are considering stopping or reducing your alcohol consumption because of possible COVID-induced alcohol intolerance, fulfilling the “dry January” bet or plunging into the “sober curiosity” trend.