A creeping blush after a tipple compels Gill South to get to the bottom of an embarrassing problem.
A distressing thing started to happen to me at the end of last summer - every time I had a glass of wine, red or white, I would get a bit flushed. I would get rosy cheeks like a Bavarian milk maid. All very well when you are at home,
but not great when you are out somewhere. It also happened the last time I had a gin and tonic. My neck and face were just suffused with heat.
The symptoms have abated over winter thankfully. I have been careful not to drink on an empty stomach and have avoided gin and tonics altogether. But daylight saving is not far away and with it, warmer weather. I would like to be able to have a G&T from time to time - I have children, need I say more?
So I determined to research this problem my way. I wasn't keen to speak to any actual doctors about this, I thought they would tell me to stop drinking altogether and where's the fun in that? Can I just say here, I am no lush. I would have around four glasses of wine a week and in summer, I might supplement that with a G&T on a Friday or Sunday night. I'm only slightly lying.
Who would know about this condition, I wondered. Winemakers of course, they must get questions about this all the time. So I called up Tim Turvey at Clearview Estate in Hawkes Bay and wine entrepreneur Erica Crawford in Auckland. Tim, ever helpful, agreed that doctors wouldn't be able to help at all. He suggests an antihistamine half an hour before I have a drink. Wine has antioxidants and histamines occurring naturally in it. Erica sympathises with me and suggests trying organic wines which shouldn't have any anti-pesticides in them. She suffers from a headache for a good day and a half after having most red wines now, it affects her sinuses, she says. When I think about it, so do I. My pinot noir hangovers (after just a glass or two) are becoming so unpleasant, I rarely drink it now.
Philip Gregan, from NZ Winemakers, puts a nice spin on it - this is an opportunity for me to go a wine tasting, he says, and find something which suits me better.
It isn't a complete surprise to hear Loula George, a highly respected medical herbalist and naturopath at Mother-well Natural Health, suggest that these reactions to alcohol might be perimenopause symptoms. Some women are getting these as early as their late 30s, she says. If I have ever been slightly sensitive to wine, I'm going to have stronger reactions to it as I grow older. Oh marvellous. Acupuncture can help, says Loula, and drinking lots of water. We agree to meet and come up with some strategies.
And you know the odd thing? Researching this article has really made me feel like a nice glass of wine. A nice buttery chardonnay to be exact. Yum.
Next week
I work from home so it's important to know how healthy my house is. I go to see dowsing expert and electro-biology environmental inspector, Albino Gola for advice.