Wine Allergy or Sulfite Sensitivity? Wine Drinkers Want to Know
If you’ve ever had a glass of wine and found yourself sneezing or with a runny nose, you are not alone according to Lauren Cox of ABC News Medical Unit.
In her article, Cox talks with experts and sufferers who offer up ideas on what could be causing the symptoms of something that looks like a wine allergy.
Dr. Brian Vickery, from the Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at Duke University in Durham, N.C., suggests that it’s something in the grape: “There are a handful of people reported in the medical literature who were allergic to something in the grape.”
Yet, even an allergic reaction to wine may have nothing to do with the grape and could involve sulfites. Another doctor, Dr. N. Franklin Adkinson, from Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center in Baltimore, told ABC bluntly that “It’s not an allergy, it’s a reflex.” For example, asthmatics, the article claims, who encounter sulfites may find that it acts as an irritant just like cigarette smoke.
Dr. Clifford W. Bassett, from the Public Education Committee at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, says that it actually may be a combination of things such as a ragweed allergy combined with a sensitivity to a chemical in a food which he called an oral allergy.
With the lengthy process of wine-making also comes the possibility that other chemicals are being introduced into the process - anything from eggs and its chemical components to sulfur dioxide.
Tyler Colman, author of the blog drvino.com, suggests in the article that wine drinkers may want to try opening a bag of dried apricots which he claims contains sulfur dioxide and may prove to be a good test to see if one is allergic to wine.
September 15, 2008 – 4:16 pm
