Red Wine and foot pain

[girlperson1]

Has anyone ever experienced foot pain from drinking red wine?

[Georgie]

Alcohol can trigger gout attacks. I have a friend who attributed his gout problems to red wine in particular. I don't know if red wine is worse than any other kind of alcohol. Bucko should be able to shed some professional light.

[girlperson1]

It seems to only happen with Ruffino Chianto Classico and no other red wines.

Additionally, I just had a chemical profile blood test about 2 weeks ago and the numbers were all within normal range.

The pain seems to be in the heel of my foot on the inside mostly.

[Bucko]

Gout doesn't hit the heel -- that is more plantar fasciiitis, and this does not come from wine drinking, much less brand specific wine drinking......

[girlperson1]

Thanks, Bucko. Tis' very strange in deed.

[bridgehorse]

hi girl, in response to your message, i sometimes get broken out scaley feet when i drink too much red wine and i notice it goes away if i do not drink for a week..i am thinking it is the sulfites in the wine..i think i will start buying organic wine which does not have sulfites but the organic wines are not the best tasting and the brand names are the not the greatest, but also the organic wines are very expensive, but all in all if the sulfites are what is causing your problem, then maybe you might be better switching to organic wines..good luck and feel better girl..

[This message has been edited by bridgehorse (edited 03-31-2003).]

[Kcwhippet]

Bridge - It's definitely not the sulfites. If you have a concern about sulfites, organic wines aren't the answer, because they have as much sulfite as any other wine. The organic tag only refers to the way the grapes were grown, not the way the wine was made. Every wine in the world has sulfites because they're a natural by-product of fermentation. Some wineries make wines with no added sulfites, but I've yet to taste one that's all that good. Winemakers add sulfites to retard microbial action and retard spoilage, so the wine can age longer than a few months and not turn to vinegar.

[girlperson1]

The scaley or cracked feet might also simply be a sign of mild to moderate dehydration or, some type of intestinal "problem".

Try adding more water to your daily diet. I know it worked for me. My feet too had the worst cracks along the heels and I fixed the problem simply by increasing my daily intake of water.

[wondersofwine]

Foot pain from red wine. Only when WW drops the bottle on his foot or trips over the curb after too much red wine.

[Thomas]

This habit of blaming sulfites for every malady a wine drinker contracts really has me crazy. And it seems no matter how many times we on this board, and elsewhere, relate the truth about the effect of sulfites in wine, few listen or accept our information.

In my wine class for novices last week a trained nurse claimed sulfites gave her headaches (and only when she drank red wine). I had to repeat four times that it likely is not the sulfites before she would relent.

[girlperson1]

If I recall, 99% of all headaches are related to dehydration. Again, consuming water seems to correct the problem.

[bridgehorse]

thanks girl, kc and foodie for your replies..foodie, basically many people on this board in the health section are not arguing or making specific judgement about sulfites, we are basically just trying to find out information unavailable to us in order to understand the real truth. i am sure myself and most of us on the board respect the past answers given here, but sometimes we repeat a question, accidentally and not purposly..but i know we are all here for answers to certain health issues concerning red wine and sulfites has most surely past my mind quite a few times over the many years of drinking and with all the new info and research out these days, i would think there would be newer research on sulfites...thanks...

[Bucko]

Sulfites are overstated. Some cases in point:

Thorax 2001 Oct;56(10):763-9 (ISSN: 0040-6376)

Vally H; Thompson PJ [Related Authors]
Department of Medicine, The University of Western Australia and the Asthma and Allergy Research Institute Inc, Perth, Western Australia. hvally@cyllene.uwa.edu.au.

BACKGROUND: Wine appears to be a significant trigger for asthma. Although sulfite additives have been implicated as a major cause of wine induced asthma, direct evidence is limited. Two studies were undertaken to assess sulfite reactivity in wine sensitive asthmatics. The first study assessed sensitivity to sulfites in wine using a single dose sulfited wine challenge protocol followed by a double blind, placebo controlled challenge. In the second study a cumulative dose sulfited wine challenge protocol was employed to establish if wine sensitive asthmatics as a group have an increased sensitivity to sulfites. METHODS: In study 1, 24 asthmatic patients with a strong history of wine induced asthma were screened. Subjects showing positive responses to single blind high sulfite (300 ppm) wine challenge were rechallenged on separate days in a double blind, placebo controlled fashion with wines of varying sulfite levels to characterise their responses to these drinks. In study 2, wine sensitive asthmatic patients (n=12) and control asthmatics (n=6) were challenged cumulatively with wine containing increasing concentrations of sulfite in order to characterise further their sensitivity to sulfites in wine. RESULTS: Four of the 24 self-reporting wine sensitive asthmatic patients were found to respond to sulfite additives in wine when challenged in a single dose fashion (study 1). In the double blind dose-response study all four had a significant fall in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)) (>15% from baseline) following exposure to wine containing 300 ppm sulfite, but did not respond to wines containing 20, 75 or 150 ppm sulfite. Responses were maximal at 5 minutes (mean (SD) maximal decline in FEV(1) 28.7 (13)%) and took 15-60 minutes to return to baseline levels. In the cumulative dose-response study (study 2) no significant difference was observed in any of the lung function parameters measured (FEV(1), peak expiratory flow (PEF), mid phase forced expiratory flow (FEF(25-75))) between wine sensitive and normal asthmatic subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Only a small number of wine sensitive asthmatic patients responded to a single dose challenge with sulfited wine under laboratory conditions. This may suggest that the role of sulfites and/or wine in triggering asthmatic responses has been overestimated. Alternatively, cofactors or other components in wine may play an important role in wine induced asthma. Cumulative sulfite dose challenges did not detect an increased sensitivity to sulfite in wine sensitive asthmatics and an alternative approach to identifying sulfite/wine sensitive asthma may be required.
***********
J Allergy Clin Immunol 1999 Jan;103(1 Pt 1):41-6 (ISSN: 0091-6749)

Vally H; Carr A; El-Saleh J; Thompson P [Related Authors]
Asthma and Allergy Research Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre, Perth, Nedlands, Australia.

BACKGROUND: The sulfite family of food additives has been implicated in the pathogenesis of wine-induced asthma. However, the evidence supporting this is weak, and because wines have many hundreds of components, nonsulfite-associated mechanisms may also play a role. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to assess the potential sensitivity of persons with asthma to nonsulfite components in wine by using low-sulfite wine challenges. METHODS: Sixteen adults with a strong history of wine-induced asthma were challenged with both low-sulfite red and white wines and wine-placebo drinks. Challenges were performed double blind, using a Latin square design, with lung function being assessed before the challenge and at 5, 10, 15, 30, and 60 minutes after the challenge. Subsequently, single-blind challenges with high-sulfite white wine were also completed in 10 individuals whose lack of reactivity to low-sulfite white wine suggested possible reactivity to sulfite additives. RESULTS: The mean FEV1; forced expiratory flow, mid-expiratory phase; and peak expiratory flow of subjects to low-sulfite red and white wines and red and white placebo wines were not significantly different. Furthermore, with a predetermined criterion of a fall in FEV1 of more than 15% representing a positive challenge, only one individual exhibited a positive reaction in the presence of a negative response to placebo. Only 2 of the 10 test individuals who were challenged with a high-sulfite wine demonstrated a marked and rapid fall in FEV1. Reactivity to low-sulfite wines appears to occur only in a small number of individuals who report sensitivity to wines, suggesting that the sulfite additives may be the major cause of wine-induced asthmatic reactions. However, direct challenge with high-sulfite wine revealed only 2 clear reactions in this asthma cohort. CONCLUSION: Wine-induced asthma appears to be a complex phenomenon and may involve several mechanisms that are codependent.
************
The search string "Sulfites and headaches" yielded no returns.

[girlperson1]

if you use www.altavista.com to do your search, try the advanced search where you can built a boolean expression. Try:

sulfite~headache

This would instruct the search engine to look for the words sulfite and headache and if the two words are near each other within the space of 10 words searched forwards and backwards, it returns the search. Don't forget the tilde, (~) it's needed because its the boolean expression for NEAR. Create variations on the words sulfite and headache. Also, use unique words as often as possible.

Good luck.

[Bucko]

No, this was on medline, a physician only search engine where you must link words with an "and."

[girlperson1]

Bucko, I'm familiar with Medline. I only mentioned altavista as a suggestion **just in case** anyone wanted to generate a search using boolean expressions.

Full instructions for such a search can be found under the HELP section for altavista.

[bridgehorse]

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my web site: www.dw.bigstep.com

[girlperson1]

Kewl!!

my website is http://www.rps-atlantic.org

[girlperson1]

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[bridgehorse]

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