Red Wine and Cigarettes
IHateNickel Posted on Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 6:00PM This weekend my husband took me on a date. There’s a great steakhouse at one of the local Indian casinos, so we headed out for a fabulous night of good food and gambling.
Now, two of the items that someone with a nickel allergy should avoid are wine and beer. Wine and beer don’t necessarily have a high nickel content, but they’ve been known to cause irritation in nickel allergy sufferers. I don’t drink beer, so that’s easy, but I do enjoy the occasional glass of good wine. I usually drink white wine when I do, and happily this hasn’t caused any problems for me so far.
Something else that someone with a nickel allergy should avoid are cigarettes. I think we can all agree that cigarettes are bad for everyone’s health, but cigarette smoke contains nickel. I am therefore, literally, allergic to cigarettes. I don’t smoke, so again, this one’s usually easy for me.
So this leads me back to the story at hand…
My husband took me out to a nice steakhouse for dinner. Red wine is almost always paired with a steak, so when I ordered my super–delicious New York Strip Steak at the restaurant, I also ordered a glass of merlot. Then, perhaps getting a little carried away, I ordered a delectable salad starter, choosing to ignore that lettuce is high in nickel content and not something I should have!
Why did I do this? Because I have no will-power! Plus, it’s just plain hard! Keeping track of what foods are good for me and what foods are bad for me is exhausting. I would have been mortified to sit down at this nice, upscale restaurant and pick apart the menu, demanding the chef include or not include items. Instead, I ordered what I wanted, saved myself the embarrassment, and gave no thought to the consequences to my low-nickel diet.
I might have been okay if the evening had stopped at this point, but after dinner we ventured out into the casino. Unfortunately, what do you always find at casinos besides slot machines, bingo, and old people? Smokers. Lots and lots of smokers. Casinos allow smoking indoors, so the place always smells like one giant burning cigarette. Everywhere the haze of smoke drifts lazily up to the ceiling.
I had two glasses of merlot with dinner, and when we left the restaurant I had a good, pleasant buzz from the alcohol. I wasn’t concerned about getting drunk, since I had also just eaten a giant meal with those two glasses of wine. Out in the casino, I ordered one more glass, to sip while we gambled on penny slots.
It only took us about an hour to lose $20 on the penny slots, and by this time, I’m not feeling well. I’m stumbling and I’m dizzy and I’m nauseous. We go outside to get some air, and I can hardly hold myself up; I have to hold on to the bed of the truck for balance. I’m fairly certain I’m going to be sick, so my worried husband puts me in the truck and we head home.
Just like that. One minute I’m gambling away at the slots, the next minute, I almost collapse. The ride home was horrible – an eternity concentrating really hard on not throwing up in my own truck. (Puking out a door on the freeway did not sound like my idea of fun). I was completely befuddled about my condition… three glasses of wine over four hours with a huge meal should never have put me in this condition! Tipsy, yes. Giggly, yes. Hammered and nauseous like I had just downed a bottle of tequila, no!
Once we got home, I was straight away to the bathroom, and I’m embarrassed to say, everything came up. No more wine, no more steak dinner. I brushed my teeth, drank some water, and crawled into bed to die.
The next morning, I was exhausted, queasy, and itchy. I was itchy on my scalp, itchy on my legs and arms, itchy in my ears! Luckily, a day of watching football from the couch was the only thing on the agenda, so I drank a lot of Gatorade and tried to enjoy the down-time.
What a crazy night, eh? Still befuddled by what happened, I wonder how did I get that wrecked after only three glasses of wine? I’m not a heavy drinker, but I’ve never been a light-weight, so it just doesn’t make sense. I look up the alcohol content of the merlot, and it was strong, but it was still just a wine. I’ve had 70-proof scotch not get me that messed up! Eventually, my husband asks me if there is nickel in red wine. I remember it’s on the list of things to avoid. I remember breathing in cigarette smoke all night. I wonder…
Could it have been my nickel allergy? Did I overload myself with nickel to the point that it triggered a strong physical reaction again? When I had the braces in that contained nickel, the emergency room visits were always preceded by violent nausea. Could it be that the red wine combined with four hours of cigarette smoke was too much for my body to handle? Unfortunately, the only way to find out would be to repeat the process, as an experiment. Unfortunately, that’s one experiment I don’t think I can put myself though again!
For now, I think I’ll just decisively avoid red wine and smoke-filled rooms.
Reader Comments (6)
Must be something in the family..... sounds just like my olive oil allergy!
I think Sierra has the nickel issue though - at least to some extent. Her jeans with large snaps and/or belt buckles tend to cause a rash around her navel.
Really like the blog :) I've bookmarked it now so I can come back....
Hi PamO,
I don’t have an answer as to whether a nickel allergy is genetic or not. I’ve seen it said both ways on reputable sites.
Take a look at this week’s post Testing Stuff for Nickel. If it is nickel causing her rash, a nickel test kit can tell you if her snaps and buckles contain nickel. If you can’t replace them with a nickel-free option, you can try a coat of clear nail polish on the snap or buckle to help prevent the rash.
Thanks! :)
Yes! Red wine does contain nickel. It's also the yeast that aggravates nickel allergies.
I am so excited to have found this site. I have been thinking of starting a Nickel Allergy blog to gather information for those that have no resources out there. This is great. I am sure you have ventured onto it, but a great forum of clueless itchy people is neurotalk.com and search Darn Nickel Allergy with Dermatitis / Food allergies.
hi - here is a handy reference from the Danish government...
I have a systemic nickel allergy to... actually , according to the list red wine has very little nickel in it
yet it bothers me as well ( i get hammered on one glass)
http://www.foodcomp.dk/v7/fcdb_foodnutrlist.asp?CompId=0072
5613851686
Oh. My. God.
One never knows (and I'm referring to the person who created tho blog) the effect that one can have on complete strangers when one embarks upon a project. I just found your blog after Googling "cigarettes nickel." Yours is the third or fourth site that I clicked on.
I believe I have a nickel allergy and that right now I am so filled with the toxicity of it that I'm about to shoot myself. I have the WORST rashes on both my hands and feet and I itch everywhere. I never smoked cigarettes growing up but have been smoking for about five years now and have been steadily increasing the number of cigarettes that I smoke to the point that now I have been smoking a pack of Marlboro Lights per DAY!! My chest area (lungs) REALLY hurts, as if I pulled muscles in my chest/breast area. What I think is actually going on is that my lungs are suffering from grievous inflammation!
I've been really wanting to stop smoking cigarettes, but providing myself with all of the normal, sensible reasons as to why I should quit have not thus far been compelling. But now I realize that my steady increase of cigarettes has filled me with nickel toxin and awakened within my DNA both the toxicity and the extreme responses that my body is having.
I never before in my life have experienced such symptoms, although I am very allergic to certain things (cats, certain hanging plants--I know, that sounds strange, but it's true).
This whole sordid nickel crap affair started when I was working with concrete powder this summer on a little project in my backyard. Concrete powder has trace elements of nickel. I began getting weird bumps on both palms. The bumps were filled with a whitish pus. My hands began itching like I have never before experienced and it did not stop no matter how much I was itching it. In fact, whenever I itch my palms now, my whole body shudders. I can't explain it better than that.
[I went to a dermatologist about four weeks ago but the cortisone cream he gave me doesn't work. It just makes my hands hurt more and itch more.]
The bumps on my palms (and feet) are just the beginning. The skin starts becoming tight and thick, with cracks and becomes so painful it's almost impossible to use my hands. Which leads to the cherry on this nickel sundae--I frigging type (transcriptionist) for a LIVING. My hands are vital to my work! When I type, my hands (base of my palms and wrists) rest on the top of either side of my MacBook for a very significant period of time every day. I've been doing this for years and years. I looked up the possibility that MacBooks have nickel. What do you think I found? Yes.
So as you can see, I've been exposing myself to nickel in extreme ways. YOUR blog has woken me up and believe it or not, I don't ever want to smoke another cigarette again in my life. I'm deathly frightened right now.
Pls help iv just been diagnosed with nickle allergy abd im struggling with this as are constantly suffering with swolen eyes im at the point were I never leave the house .aby tips advice would be much appreciated