Skin Pain After Drinking Alcohol

[TroubleProblems]

First a little about myself:
I am a 28 year old female in relatively good shape and health.  I drink maybe once a week and excessively once a month.  I don’t take any medications (even Advil) regularly and I am not of Asian descent.  About a year ago after heavy drinking I started to notice that my body hurt.  Not the usually kind of hurt that would be associated with drinking, like falling or overexerting one’s body.  This is more like my skin hurts, it does not feel like my muscles, bones, or joints, it literally hurts to be touched.  The pain is primarily above my torso.  I usually notice it on my neck first, then my shoulders, chest, etc.  The pain usually starts the next evening and then last for a couple of days.  I have been a social drinker for years now and like I said this developed only about a year ago.  I have tried to research this online and while I know I am not alone with these symptoms, I cannot find a diagnosis that fits my symptoms.   I realize allergies can change, but this seems unlikely to me.  Alcoholic Myopathy seems unlikely because of it’s slow onset, it doesn’t feel like it’s targeting the muscles, and my legs are fine.  Also because of its onset and family history I am excluding Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  Please let me know if you think I am prematurely ruling any of these diagnoses or if there is another option I am unaware of.   I don’t mind going to the doctor, but with something like this I believe I will just be told to stop drinking, and I am looking for an actual reason.  Also, I apologize because I had no idea which forum this fits into. I would love to hear any thoughts.  Thank you!

[veronicamarie123]

i’m a 22 year old women and have the exact same thing as everyone’s been describing. pain on the skin almost feel bruised, can happen about 12-36 hours after drinking. pain on abdomen,hips,sometimes arms and neck. I have been tested for celiac which was negative and had a scan of my gallbladder with nothing showing up.  

not sure if this is related but i also got pancreatitis last year after 2 drinks but the doctors could not figure out what caused that either. i am not a heavy drinker because of the pain and pain in am a healthy weight.

[Abbyst]

I am a 23 year old female. I would say I am in good shape. After drinking alcohol (mainly vodka and Diet Coke) I get the ‘bruised’ feeling 24 hours after. I get this in my neck, face and chest. This usually has gone off after a further 24 hours. I have had bloods done and also a chest x ray but all comes back normal. I don’t know what to do next. I have a worry it may be Hodgkin’s lymphoma due to researching on the internet and I am looking into getting tested for this. Has anyone had any luck finding out what this could be?

[Abbyst]

I have been  looking into this as I really want to get to the bottom of what this could be. I believe this started for me after I got breast implants and I have been looking into BII which can cause a lot of problems. Just wondering if anyone else has had breast surgery and experiences this? (This forum seems to be all female) Just trying to rule out any possibility…

[Ceefacks42]

I get the alcohol bruised skin feeling. The only other thing that gives me the same symptoms is a general anesthesia. Maybe that’s why you got it after your implants?

[Brookala25]

Just like all of you ladies, I have the same thing. After a night of moderate to heavy drinking especially if a couple nights in a row, I wake up with the super bruised torso/ stomach area. Sometimes it’s bad and is on my shoulders and neck as well. No answers ever- this thread is the closest I’ve seen to anyone knowing what’s going on so I will continue to follow! :)

[hmsiani]

I am a 33 year old female and have been experiencing this pain since 2012 (I have it right now too as I type this, after having 3 Angry Orchard ciders yesterday over the course of 8 hours! Not much if you think about it. And they day before I had one gluten-free beer). It took me years to make the connection that this pain only seems to occur about 24 hours after drinking, but now it sometimes occurs much sooner, within hours. I always thought it was fibromyalgia but now I'm not so sure. And just like what everyone else has been experiencing here, the pain is pretty severe; I have the "bruised" feeling on my face cheeks, sometimes my eyelids (I started to think it happens anywhere there are muscles in your body, even if those muscles are deep below the skin, you will still feel pain on the surface), the back of my neck, shoulders, back, my butt, legs, upper arms...it literally spreads everywhere. Accompanying it I feel very fatigued and moody. And it goes away the next day. It used to happen only if I drank heavy, but now it will happen even if I just drink ONE beer (and believe me that is hard to do sometimes but I'm forcing myself to stop at one JUST to see if I get a reaction the next day), or more than 2 shots in one hour but that is it for the night. I never get buzzed or drunk anymore because I don't drink enough too. And I'll only have a drink once or twice a month now. And it doesn't matter now if it's wine or sake, beer, tequila, a mixed drink, vodka, happens to me with any alcohol. I figured maybe I'm consuming more than what my body can handle per hour, but I'm not so sure anymore. It seems to happen no matter what. I thought maybe it was leaky gut syndrome, and perhaps the enzymes are somehow making it into my blood and attacking my muscles? But why after alcohol in particular? Am I not metabolizing it correctly? Is the alcohol "sitting" in my blood stream? I pretty much have the same questions all of you have. I have not seen a doctor about this, I'm not hopeful at all with what they may tell me.

I was very much considering what Carol Atkin in this thread posted too (thank you for that information, definitely food for thought and totally possible!)

I will say, I don't know about anyone else here but the year this pain started for me was the same year I happened to be on Prednisone a dangerous amount of times for some skin rashes I was constantly getting. So I thought I had some kind of permanent "damage" from the prednisone, that caused something to happen in my body in which alcohol triggers this pain. So not sure if it IS related to steroidal use??? I haven't had prednisone since 2012.

[HD1234]

Does anyone know yet what causes this? I'm a 36yo female and have exactly the same issue. If I have more than 4 alcoholic drinks, then ~24 hours later, the seriously bruised torso feeling sets in. Over the past few years, that bruised upper body feeling has been lasting longer -- more often 2 days instead of just a day. Anybody else noticing this worsening over time?

[Milliemayh]

Hello, I’m a 25 year old female having the same symptoms. 24 hours after drinking alcohol the pain starts  in my back then around to  the front of my abdomen and up to the back of my neck. It hurts to touch and doesn’t go away until the next day. Have been to the doctors twice, one did bloods and there was nothing to show, the second told me not to drink. I understand that but that doesn’t help me understand why this happens. It’s comforting  to know others are experiencing the same symptoms.