alcohol and effect of

[boston34mom]

Hello,

I have a very weird question and I am sure that many will jump to conclusions about self-medicating, etc. Please do not judge (i have not seen a lot of judging here, so I appreciate your thoughts).

I posted last week that I have been having tingling and numbness in my extremities since August. It is awful. I have not had other symptoms of MS that I can tell and that neuros have asked me about...but I have been through all the testing and this sensory problem is "unexplained". Everything points to anxiety, but I do not consider myself an anxious person, so I just don't believe that whatever stress I have in my life can all of a sudden cause intermittent tingling in both hands, fingers and feet, as well as numb spots in those places and electric shocks!

Now for my question, I had a huge birthday party for my husband this weekend which involved two nights of social drinking. I am 35 years old and often drink socially, but not in excess. Maybe this weekend I drank a bit more than normal as we were without our young kids...but nothing crazy. I realized on the second night that I felt absolutely no tingling when I was consuming the alcohol.

Can someone explain to me the significance or insignificance of this, based on their own experience and expertise? How does alcohol effect MS sensory symptoms?

Thank you

[ssdragss3]

I am a single father who has had as a 2004 Love the topics want to join this group what do I do Sincerley Yours James

[DieticianSA]

Mary (aka: twopack) your comment is absoluetly spot on! Brilliant!
I am a dietician in South Africa & really enjoyed reading your response to Boston.

Boston, take Mary's advice! Alcohol is toxic & it is not necessary to survive. If anything it does more damage than good & can worsen the symptoms & cause what ever condition it is (especially anything to do with the nervous system) to get progressively worse.

Mary CLEARLY only wants the best for you whereas others may just want you to not care about yourself as much, because they may have given up on themselves.

You can also judge someones opinion (not in the critical sense) by their own state of mind so if someone is in a negative state of mind, that is the comment they will give because it is how they feel about themself & their own struggle inside.

The best is to take the opinion of someone who has chosen to not allow their condition to control them to the point that they reach that negative state of mind. It is difficult but it is a choice & your mind is truly your greatest & strongest tool in getting through anything, because it allows for reasoning.

Do what is best for YOU & your body.

By the way have you ever been screened for diabetes or low blood pressure? Its can also have underlying symptoms of tingling & numbness in your peripheries as well as poor circulation. Worth checking out.

All the best & kindest regards to you all

xxx

[boston34mom]

Thank you all for answers. They are extremely helpful.

I am so unhappy about not knowing what is going on with me. Sometimes I think this MUST be anxiety as my "symptoms" are so benign. Basically, just tingling and numbness. And, although I feel it in all four extremities, it is often more prevalent on my right side. But, yes, from the research I have done and dr's I have met, it seems unlikely that just this symptom alone makes me a candidate for ANY diagnosis.

I am having a follow-up with my neuro this weekend, per my request to try to get some more testing done. Nerve conduction, spinal MRI, etc. I will advocate for me as I know no one else is doing that. I am also seeing a therapist on Friday, but I have to say, I am not optimistic about my time with her :)

Thanks, again.

[Dagun]

Hi, I would like to add that my neuro asked me if I drink alcohol, and expecialy if I drink alot when I drink. That was a "No" from me. But he said because of my bilateral tingling (this was when I just had the tingling/numb thing) he would think I had Polyneuropathy, but the things that cause it, is diabetes, alcohol and more stuff that can cause poisoning in the body.

But at the end that did not fit for what is going on with me. I think that was because the EMG testing was neg, then he ruled this completely out. Have you had EMG test? I sure hope you find out what is going on, this is so frustrating being in limbo. Sorry for my English, sounds stupid sometimes :).

My best,
Dagun

[Lulu54]

Boston, there really isn't another important thing  I can add to this since Mary and JJ wrote such  thorough replies.  

Somewhere in my memory I am thinking I heard a neuro talk on this briefly - the question was 'why do my symptoms go away when I have a drink' or something to that extent.  The answer was they actually looked at this and the effect of alcohol on our ability to walk when we have MS and found that our walking deteriorated, but our perception of how we were functioning improved.

Fortunately this is a very unusual online forum where judgmental folks seem to have not found very interesting.  The few that have tried to stick around quickly got bored and left because they found we are an extremely supportive group and welcome everyone and have no problems discussing any topic that needs to be broached.

Those times without the kids can be rare and you deserve the chance to unwind. I'm glad you had that opportunity.
best, L

[supermum_ms]

On the original post regarding alcohol, lol if having a couple of drinks when your kids free and celebrating is 'bad' then every parent on the planet is in big big trouble, dont sweat it, really if someone is going to be judgemental over that, then the problem is there's!

Mary basically said all i was thinking, seriously though if 'anyone' is drinking alcohol as an every day thing or self medicating, then stop it now before it gets to be a forever problem. I have a brother who's an alcoholic and today he's living the consequences of a once a day drink that snowballed into self medicating, peripheral neuropathy is no small thing to live with. [JJ now stumbles off her soap box lol]

Personally speaking, i feel drunk just opening the bottle lol DH bought me some stupidly expensive designer apple cider at a market the other week, i was feeling tiddly by the third mouthful - oh maybe it was worth the price lol Point though, abstinance, indulgence has not changed the 'sensory' sx i get but miniscule amounts of alcohol surely do make my communication and mobility issues much worse.

On the later post, the all 4 exstremities is unusual for MS, typically the MS sensory sx 'present' on one side of the body first, often in odd patches of tingles or numb spots and its not always a full limb. If you look at 'red flags' that dr's are looking for, then all peripheral, crossing over (eg L foot + R arm), traveling around or all over, are all indications that its less likely to be MS related, less likely or Atypical.

Word from the been there done that club (moi) please do not settle for 'probably xyz' dx, be your best advicate but make sure you are doing all that is possible to get you at your optimum level of physical and emotional health. There is no need to wait for a dr to tell you that, and if it did turn out to be a bigger issue, then you'll need to be doing that anyway, take the pre-emptive strike approach.

Cheers.........JJ      

  

[boston34mom]

Wow, thank you all so much. So, it sounds like whether or not my symptoms are related to MS, I can be having a lack of symptoms after consuming alcohol regardless of the diagnosis.
Very interesting. All these symptoms started this summer, I saw drs of every kind, got no answers and took six months off.
I am now searching for answers again as I am beyond frustrated that I still have this tingling and numbness. I am going back to the neuro this weekend.
If you read my other post and are still reading this link, does it sound to you like my symptoms of tinglling and numbness in all four extremities could be MS-related? I have read in many places that if you are feeling it in all four places and not having any other symptoms (cognitive, optical, etc) then it most likely it NOT.
But, then, what could it be???????
Frustrated in Boston :(

[twopack]

It's not such a weird question Boston.  In fact, it has been asked before.

People usually get a mixed response when they ask how alcohol affects MS symptoms.  It depends on the individual, their specific symptoms and a multitude of contributing factors.  

Like Sarah said, alcohol consumption is strongly discouraged in combination with many of the drugs taken by PwMS.  Some of us also adhere to diet plans we hope are helping us fight MS.  You guessed it - most of those prohibit alcohol.  Many others are so over the numbness, tingling, dizziness, slurring, vision changes and slow uncoordinated movement from our MS that we just don't enjoy the alcohol experience anymore.

That doesn't mean we wouldn't want to.  It doesn't mean we don't have celebratory drinks sometimes.  It certainly doesn't mean we judge others negatively just because they enjoy socializing with alcoholic beverages in hand.

What might have caused this to happen in your case?  We can’t really know.  But here are a few possibilities.

Here’s some reference information on what alcohol does as you take a drink.
http://www.bupa.co.uk/individuals/health-information/directory/a/alcohol-effects-of

Alcohol dilates blood vessels and brings more blood to smaller vessels.  If tingling is caused by circulation problems alcohol might help temporarily (before it goes into destruct mode).

Alcohol slows nerve signals.  Tingling can come from too much repeated firing of nerve signals.  When those signals are temporarily inhibited by alcohol the tingling might stop (but chronic alcohol use can cause permanent numbness.)

Alcohol changes our perceptions - of both internal and environmental signals.  We can be more easily distracted away from unpleasantness or simply care less about its presence.

Relaxation and anxiety aren't easy states to self-evaluate.  Even the internal organs that are programmed to respond to our emotional state don't always get it right.  We live in a hurried and high stress world.  It can make us forget what calm and relaxed REALLY feel like!

I don't know what's causing your symptoms Boston but if it has been suggested they might be caused by anxiety the doc should have had concrete suggestions about how to get back to balance (and an Rx to get you in with an appropriate professional - NO, not a shrink!).  Ever try bio-feedback testing?  It can give you interesting info and tools to work with.  If it solves the problem - GREAT.  If not, you usually still benefit big time.

It doesn't sound to me like you were self-medicating this w/e.  It sounds like you were celebrating and noticed when something unexpected happened.  The info might be helpful - or not.  Using alcohol in the future to control your symptoms WOULD be self-medicating and it would be a huge mistake.  It sounds like you already know that.

Remember, alcohol is toxic.  As soon as it enters the mouth the entire body concentrates ALL its efforts on eliminating it as soon as possible.  As 'therapy', alcohol is very difficult to dose control accurately and often slows the process of finding the real cause and proper treatment for the symptoms you want to eliminate.

So, keep searching for you answers.  I think I'd start by adding some B12 (I prefer sublingual methylcobalamin) and maybe some vitamin D (unless you live in that part of Boston that always gets sunshine - ha-ha) while you look for a general practitioner who is really interested in listening to YOU and investigating until you find an answer together.

Oh yeah, Happy Birthday (belated) to the birthday boy.  I hope he didn't run up on too traumatic of a number - you know, since it took two days of celebrating?!  ;)

Mary

[stillsearching1121]

I have made the exact same observation.  I too don't drink often but I just came back from a girls trip away and needless to say we drank more than normal for any of us.  Two of the ladies have RA and Firbro dx and I just got the fibro dx this morning so I'll be moving on.  I wanted to let you know that we all agreed that we feel better, not just while we drink, but for the entire day after.  We each have many sx that disappeared after drinking and have all made this observation at other occasions as well.  My explanation is that all of these sx are neurological at the very root.  So if alcohol affects the CNS then it could in turn shut off some of these signals.  Now I have to add that during my last "episode" 4 years ago, within 30 minutes of even half a glass of wine, I felt 100xs worse.  So I quit drinking completely for 3.5 years...so I think it can go both ways.

No judgement here...just wanted to let you know there are others out there that have made the same observations.  Best of luck to you!

[SarahL2491]

MS and the central NERVOUS system are basically married to each other for lack of a better explanation.

So if you are temporarily relaxed, you might not "notice" it.  Would not mean that it is not there.

Am not judging you by no means but many meds clearly state that alcohol should not be consumed with them so not a good habit to get into.

Good luck and welcome to our little corner, we talk, discuss, share, whine, etc., as you have probably noticed if you lurk here.  We also have Limboland for those who are not Dxd with MS but still wonder.....