Here's my experience with Pepcid AC:
Just to let you all know, I'm not an experienced, frequent, or heavy drinker.
I'm 5'8", 145 lbs, 21y.o., 100% Chinese (half-Canto, half-ChaoZhou). I don't think my dad's side (Cantonese) flushes, but my mom's side (ChaoZhou) definitely flushes. I normally get the following symptoms:
- Flushing (pink color)
- Bloodshot eyes
- Increased heart rate
(Following are probably associated with the alcohol itself)
- Light-headedness
- Coughing (should be noted that I will also experience coughing after drinking a significant amount of soda -- significant being substituing all drinks with soda for a couple of days)
Intensity of symptoms appears to vary with which beer (Budweiser seems to be the worst, but I've only tried Budweiser, Heineken, and Tsingtao so far)
: Will also occasionally experience headache, drowsiness, and (slight) hangover with Budweiser (after 1 can)
I had a Hot Pocket and some Cheetos before starting this test. This is a timeline of what happened:
4:05pm - 1x 10mg tablet Pepcid AC w/ some water
4:08pm - 7oz cup of Swiss Iced Tea
5:05pm - Started drinking 12oz can Budweiser
5:10pm - No flush yet
5:15pm - No flush yet
. .. - Noticing slight increase in heart rate
5:20pm - Finished drinking 1st can
. .. - No flush yet
5:23pm - Heart rate appears normal, increase might have been due to going up and down steps
5:25pm - Cheeks appear slightly more rosey than normal
5:30pm - No significant change
5:35pm - No significant change
5:40pm - Face and ears getting slightly warmer (ears becoming more red)
5:45pm - No significant change
I stopped keeping track at this point because the symptoms weren't getting any worse. My ears were noticeably more red than my face. It's actually pretty hard to notice the redness on my face because my skin will actually appear to tan more (up to a point, where it will start progressing towards pink) if I flush/blush. I didn't experience any bloodshot eyes and only felt the onset of light-headedness and coughing (both of which dissappeared pretty early on). I got the Pepcid AC (original strength -- blue box) from my local supermarket. Cost was $10 for a 30pk. I plan on doing another test tomorrow (w/ more beers to figure out how much the Pepcid AC negates).
[Btw, the insert from my box of Pepcid AC says that you can use up to 2 tablets per 24 hour period. I'm not sure if the same applies to the other variants of Pepcid, but it's probably something people want to watch out for.]