drinking alcohol with UC

Ok...I find that i MUST comment on this topic!!

I am a beer drinker!!  I LOVE beer, and have always LOVED beer,  and forever will LOVE beer....I have always known that it can cause liver problems,  if done excessively...but there are ALOT of things in life that cause problems in excess.....When diagnosed with UC,  I continued to drink beer socially.    I have NEVER found that it may have caused a flare,  however,  once I did flare,  I would stay away from it,  just because I thought it MIGHT cause problems.    However,  recently I have noticed that it doesn't really seem to make my flare worse...which actually has been somewhat surprising to me...then there was even during my last flare (which i'm currently on pred for and recovering from)  that a friend came to visit.  She wanted to have some drinks for the night, and I was flaring pretty good at that time.  I was hesitant at first, but figured "what the hell..I'm already flaring, bleeding, cramping ,  in pain..what the hell, why Not??"  So I drank,  and drank pretty heavily...OMG<  I was so pleasantly surprised,  that night I could actually go "pee" without having other stuff come out (sorry for the details) and this was for the first time since I started flaring!!    Then I started to actually feel BETTER!!   I was so excited,  I wasn't cramping that night,  I don't even remember having a UC flare BM...and the next day,  I had felt better than I had for awhile.   I was very pleasantly surprised....so for me,  beer seems to be ok for my UC, at least.     just wanted to add my two cents!  I love beer!!  lol

That's great ChristieAnne! Glad you don't have those problems with beer. Amazing how different everyone can be isn't it?

I drank some Amstel Light while on vacation in Bermuda and didn't have any problems from it...and it tasted great because it was so warm and humid....that and a bowl of fish chowder is heavenly I must say! 

I'm not going to fall into to the "beer is good, beer is bad" argument here.  To each his/her own.  But I will give out some information that may provide an answer to the original poster's questions.

As far as the dehydration of using alchohol causing more solid BMs, it sounds good in theory but is most likely not the reason for the firmer BMs.  One possible symptom of dehydration is diarrhea, MedlinePlus link.  Also with this thinking, having diarrhea as a UC symptom would then be a potential treatment since diarrhea causes dehydration.  Also a person with UC would be able to stay close to dehydrated to help alleviate his/her UC symptoms which is wrong.

I have a friend who has quite the opposite problem, irregular.  He was seeing a GI doc who has 30 plus years of experience and mentioned to the doc that he became more regular when he would have one or two beers in the evening after work.  The doc explained that this is very possible because of the soluble fiber content that the system can recieve from beer. This statement seems to be backed in this article from UC Davis.  The doc told him if he continued to have success with this then stick with it if not he would sugest a fiber supplement such as Metamucil (I realize most doctors would say stop the beer now and start the fiber but I live in the sticks so the doctors are not so anal with their approaches).  As we all have seen on this board, some people have much success with fiber causing the BMs to be firmer which then relates to easing many of the other symptoms.  This seems to be backed with this article from News-Medical.net.  This explination seems to make sense to me that beer can actually have a positive effect on UC.  You would want to make sure that you stay hydrated or it would be counterproductive but with the docs explination and what I have found to support that, it is possible.  As far as wines or hard liquors, I have no idea if they would have the same fiber properties.  Personally beer never helped my symptoms (it also never caused more problems) but neither did any fiber supplement.  Take it for what it is worth.

John

Is there a "best" alcohol? Based on sugar content or something ? Vodka?

finick08 said...
yeah il prob change my drinking once i finish uni, haha oh yeah afew weeks ago i had afew to many beers in a short amount of time and guest what came up....My asacol tabz

I read that you suffer from depression and were even hospitalized for being suicidal. People who suffer from depression should not drink.

Why even bother going to university if you aren't going to apply yourself? You can't even write. Do you think college is for fun?

Yeah. I'll probably change my drinking habits once I'm out of University. Ha Ha. Oh yeah, a few weeks ago, I had a few too many beers and guess what came up? My Asacol pill!

Post Edited (subdued) : 9/11/2011 1:26:33 PM (GMT-6)

Bubba, welcome to HW :) We are all very individualistic when it comes to Uc. Some can drink beer, some can drink wine and some can drink hard liquor, some can drink NO liquor. It all depends on how you respond to it. I personally don't like beer, but I did have one about 2 years ago - dang did that give me a major headache! (I think I'm sensitive to malt beverages) But it didn't bother my Uc in the least.

The best hard alcohol for UC'ers would probably be vodka, the best beer probably Heineken (Pretty close to being gluten free), and dry wines are also good because they contain little sugar. The closer to '0' in dryness, the better.. When in remission I don't really have any problems with alcohol, I don't go crazy with it but I can usually put down a mickey of vodka or a 6 of beer and be okay. I'll adjust my diet for about a week after to give my system a rel rest tho just in case, I've worked it down to a science lol. When I am flaring though I try my best to avoid alcohol, beer will give me gas that cause problems and the hard stuff is just rough on the ulcerations. With that said, most of the alcohol is absorbed in the stomach and small intestine, its the sugars and hops that make i to the large intestine and cause problems.

Thank you Sherry for the welcome!  Aguywithuc, I appreciate your thoughts also.  I am new to this and my main concern is safety.  That is why I was wondering if a couple of beers would really be a bad idea.  All the information I was fed once I was diagnosed with UC was "NO ALCOHOL".  I like some of the posts people have put up.  We already suffer enough with this disease, do we really have to cut out something we like completely?  I would hope not.  I so far have not had a "flare up".  Does this only happen when you cut down the prednisone?  Or does it just happen?  One thing that upset me after I got out of the hospital and started doing some research is the fact that there is no cure!  No one in the hospital told me that.  All I heard was that it could be long term.  This whole thing has just blindsided me, I wonder how long I was sick before I got to the point where I had to drive myself to the ER.  Wish I could have cought it much earlier, my first diagnosis was just hemorroids(don't know how to spell that).  So I didn't think anything of it.

I don't drink anymore and I certainly don't miss it! It's definitely better for UC not to drink!

if drinking "shrinks the brain", then mine must be the size of a pea by now.... I drank very heavily thruout my 20's, basically nightly drinking. Stopped when I became pregnant, then started up again when my daughter was around 2. Nowadays, I have maybe 4 drinks a week- usually just a glass or 2 of wine. Although when we get the chance to go out to a bar, I do have mixed drinks- this past wknd I had 2 Bloody marys & a Seabreeze. Which is a lot for me! It never affects my UC one way or another, good or bad. In fact, I find the relaxation I get from a glass of wine to help my UC, in that I'm less stressed overall. My GI has never suggested I stop drinking, unless I'm on Flagyl. I don't like to drink too much simply because I feel my poor liver has enough to contend with from my meds! Plus I can't deal with a hangover.