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Alcohol helping bleeding?

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 2/27/2011 11:17 PM (GMT 0)
I've had Crohn's for about 20 years now. I basically never drank alcohol for the past more than 20 years. But more recently I decided what the heck and have had a drink here and there. Each time I have had a drink, the next day my bleeding is greatly lessened. I am at a loss to understand why this occurs. My history is Crohn's Colitis with severe issues for 15 years (pain, heavy bleeding, diarrhea-about 30 times a day, urgency, and all the rest, but no surgeries) and then 5 years of pretty good with the help of biologics. I've now developed antibodies to Cimzia (along with Remicade and Humira) so I'm back to bad again. :-( Anyway I figured that things could not get much worse and tried alcohol on those few occasions. I am just baffled as to why the bleeding would be so drastically less the day after a drink. Has anyone else experienced this? I should mention that it all returns to the same old issues the next day.
Posted 2/27/2011 11:41 PM (GMT 0)
Alcohol is used to sterlise things so maybe for some reason it stops the bleeding in the bowel whilst it is being disgested. Seeing as they are now saying that a glass of red wine or beer (proper beer not lager) has been found to be beneficial is the latest studies reported over here, maybe after checking with your GI you could have one drink a day. Odd things work for reasons not even the doctors truely understand.
Posted 2/27/2011 11:59 PM (GMT 0)
alcohol supresses the immune system....so that might be the reason why the bleeding is lessened....I have ulcerative colitis, and the day after I drink the bleeding is always less.
Posted 2/28/2011 12:40 AM (GMT 0)
I don't drink much alcohol, but my dad has UC and he swears his glass of scotch a day helps his UC. He is funny, because he is so certain it has helped that he is always trying to get me to drink scotch whiskey.

I like nightside's thought process, it is an interesting theory!
Posted 2/28/2011 2:57 AM (GMT 0)
I wish I could say the same! If I have a Beer, I feel it the next day for sure. I'll have a lot of mucous and bleeding while I'm in a flare if I have a beer. However, I haven't tried a glass of wine. Hmmm
Posted 2/28/2011 3:23 AM (GMT 0)
I don't really see a difference in my crohn's when I have wine (any drink) or don't have it. However, I'd go with nightside's guess too. Alcohol actually can thin the blood, so nightside's idea would be a better explanation. Interesting idea!!
Posted 2/28/2011 1:12 PM (GMT 0)
Alcohol ALWAYS makes my bleeding worse! It doesn't matter what I drink, it all makes me bleed much worse the next day.
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