Drinking

[Brooke]

I was also going to add, I used to drink alcohol on the weeknds. I stopped doing that since being on methotrexate however I had some drinks on Saturday night and boy, my head hurt sooo bad I almost wanted to go to ER. I will never do that again. I have had the ocasional couple beers while being on methotrexate but this weekend I had a couple of mixed drinks and a few beers.

[JanW]

I never drank more than two a night (and far away from my mtx dosage), but never noticed anything. Could be because I was only on the tolerance dose though, I guess.

[Jack]

I have drunk alcohol throughout my treatment and never been advised that it might be a problem. I only ever had a couple of drinks in the evening, but I'm now down to a couple of drinks in a week. It seems to have lost its appeal.

[elephant]

Brooke the alcohol can increase you heart rate ( tachycardia) so that is probably why it hurt. I noticed that if I have one glass of wine my heart rate goes up, so it makes me not want to drink. My blood pressure medicine tenormin helps decrease the heart rate.

[Brooke]

Kind of lost the appeal to me too Jack. I already get headaches from coughing, I don't need to add too it with alcohol!

[Sangye]

Your docs should be advising you to limit your alcohol consumption while on mtx--that's a standard warning for mtx. Mtx is very hard on the liver and alcohol can put it over the edge. In holistic medicine, the liver is the single most important organ in the body. Liver stress is at the root of many diseases.

[MCC]

I couldn't drink at all for months before my diagnosis as just a sip would give me a terrible headache. Now, I am not on methotrexate, but I have been told I cannot drink for 6 months because I am on Izoniazad to prevent dormant TB flaring up, which it was discovered I have also.

[Luce]

I've never been on mtx but have tried to have the occasional drink for birthdays etc while on Cellcept, but regretted it every tiime. A couple of sips and I'd decide that I wasn't enjoying it and if I did stretch to more than one vodka and lemonade (never got to more than three) I'd have the worst hangover ever the next day and sometimes for the whole weekend.
So I quickly decided it just wasn't worth feeling rough for the next two days when I hadn't even really enjoyed the drink in the first place.
Does anyone know if you can drink on Rituximab? I haven't tried yet because I'm not sure either way, but I'd like to at least enjoy the toast at my wedding if possible.

[elephant]

I asked my Rheumy, if I could have a glass of wine because I was going to a wedding. She said, " one glass." That is all I had and I felt fine. I am on cellcept and other drugs.

[Doug]

I've had some drinks since my initiation into the WG world. My doctors told me a drink from time to time was acceptable, even beneficial for a daily glass of wine. (Though the doctor who gave me that advice noted the benefit was not so great you should strart drinking wine to acquire the benefits!) I have an alcoholic drink in my immediate future (today is St. Patrick's Day), but I promise not to like it. Much! If it's colored green, I can guarantee I won't like it. I won't drink it in fact. I suspect the corned beef and cabbage meal that goes with it will be a meal I eat as a show of solidarity for the sponsoring organization. The more I think of it, the meal and the drink, the more I think I, as a weggie, should just say no!

[Sangye]

I found this (http://vasculitis.med.jhu.edu/resources/medbrochures/MTX%20after%20formatting.pdf) pamphlet about mtx while digging around on the JHU Vasculitis Center website. It discusses drinking while on mtx.

[coffeelover]

thanks Sangye. I always wondered about the side effects of drinking. myself, I choose to not drink at all orvery, very seldom. The "drink" has caused numerous problems with family and friends throughout my life and I figure...why bother! Coffee on the other hand....

[Cindy M]

I am not much of a drink, probably considered not a drinker....I probably had 4 to 5 drinks a year and that would be sharing a beer with clamato juice with my sister after our soccer games. Once I started all these medications I just assumed that drinking was out of the question. Needless to say there are more times than not that I would love to be part of the crowd and have a nice fancy drink and forget all about WG. My sister just laughs at me because all I would probably have is one to two sips and then decide I've had enough. I really am just a cheap drunk.

[jola57]

I compromise and drink virgin drinks (no alcohol) and so still enjoy the taste. Wine is hard to do have not had any that tasted good.