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Discussion and anecdotes about the Asian Flush/Flush/Glow/Red Face (turning red when drinking alcohol), including using H2 blockers (e.g. Tagamet, Pepsid, Zantac) and other products to combat its effects. Hosted by Eric Cheng on http://echeng.com
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Asian Flush / Asian Blush / Asian Glow Community → Focused Discussion → H2 Blockers (Tagamet, Pepcid, Zantac, Axid)
"Long-term use of H2 blockers, including Axid, Pepcid, Tagamet, and Zantac, may increase the risk of mental decline in later life."
We're talking Alzheimer's! Wow, we finally find something that actually WORKS to decrease the flushing, and now this!!!
here it is guys - a better cure for asian glow-
http://www.raptorpharma.com/programs_convivia.html
[UPDATE: There is a new thread about Convivia here: http://echeng.com/asianblush/viewtopic.php?pid=1266 Please discuss Convivia over there. -Editor]
Interesting! I'll start another forum topic about Conviva. (it's here)
Also, regarding the study that links H2 blockers and mental decline, my doctor friend has this to say:
Let me assure you, Eric, that this is irrelevant to you and your readership, as are (*hopefully*) most articles in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society!
What this paper is talking about is the fact that use of H2-blockers (and all other medications with anticholinergic effects) can increase cognitive problems in the elderly. In those people who experience cognitive decline while using such medications, discontinuation of the offending agent typically relieves the impairment. Suffice it to say, though, that those most affected are usually those with the poorest cognitive substrate in the first place.
Regardless, this article should NOT give pause to young people who use H2-blockers, whatever the regularity of use.
What this paper is talking about is the fact that use of H2-blockers (and all other medications with anticholinergic effects) can increase cognitive problems in the elderly. In those people who experience cognitive decline while using such medications, discontinuation of the offending agent typically relieves the impairment. Suffice it to say, though, that those most affected are usually those with the poorest cognitive substrate in the first place.
Regardless, this article should NOT give pause to young people who use H2-blockers, whatever the regularity of use.
Hey, I just stumbled across this forum and I'm 20 years old. I've been moderately drinking for 2 years and I've been gettin the "asian flush" every single time I drink. At parties, I'm always made fun of for turning red. Im known as "The Homie Plum". Heh, well since I've read so many people using It I'm going to try it tonight before the club. I was scared about that article, but since you say young people should not give a pause I'm going to for it, even though I'm worried, since there are so many people using it, why should'nt I?
does anyone get really thirsty and a dry mouth and throat the next day after using pepcid?
Hello All
I am 1/4 Japanese and suffer from the dreaded flush. The redness isn't too much of a problem it's the hot feeling I get in the face and kneck, the shortness of breath and the pounding headaches I get after.
I tried pecidtwo because I live in the uk the first time I tried it I took 2 10mg tabs about 2 hrs before drinking. I then had quite a large meal and took another 1 about 30 mins before I started. I drank 2 pints of lager shandy which may not sound like a lot but I drank them in quick succession and if I had drank them like that normally I would have been red. I wasn't red at all and the hot feeling in the face wasn't there. I had to drive home so I didn't continue the experiment furthur.
The second time I had 4 tabs 1.5 hours before drinking on an empty stomach, I had a quick drink of vodka and lemonade which would normally make me red and I was only slightly pink, I did have a little shortness of breath and my eyes were slightly bloodshot but other symptoms were gone and I could drink more that night without getting the pounding headaches like I normally do.
I dont think I get the flush as much as others because if I drink slowly I can have many drinks without turning red it's when I drink fast is when it happens, now I have pepcid I dont need to worry.
Does anyone know of any other product I can get in the uk which contains only famotidine? and more of it
Hi there, i have never posted on one of these boards but i am SO overjoyed that i decided i HAD to.
Im not asian, im a red head but i get the so called "asian flush" really bad. My face goes SO red like you would not believe after only one drink. It made me stop going out, and drinking with my friends because i felt so self conscious. I live in NZ and you cant get pepcid here so i settled for a 14 pack of ZANTAC 150mg (only $14 nz) and took one an hour and a half before drinking then another one 30mins before drinking. (the pack says strictly to take no more than 2 in 24hrs)
i cannot believe the results!!! my face was porcelain white (in a good way). I got SO drunk for the first time in years and have heaps of (nice) photos as a result. I am so happy, i will definitely continue to take these magic pills. And i can definitely recomment zantac working, for those of you who are unsure. It has allowed me to actually have a good time when im out. Another thing i should add, i used to feel really SICK after only a few drinks, like id feel like i was gonna spew even though i didnt feel the slightest bit drunk, i think this may have some connected to the red pulsing face, because after taking these zantacs i didnt feel sick. However, i definitely felt the alcohol a lot quicker than usual and a lot stronger. Which is a good thing i guess, because less money spent on alcs :)
Anyways, thankyou so much for this forum!!!!
P.s : in total i had half a 500ml bottle of 42% Vodka, plus 2 double redbulls and vodkas.
Also...just to clear up the rumour about zantac elimintating hangovers, it didnt for me!!!!
I still had a terrible hangover, not unusual for me. Maybe i have a weak stomach, But i spewed up about 10 times the next morning, even though it was pretty much just water, my stomach was not completely settled until well into the afternoon the next day :s
Hello-
I saw this post a few months ago and after talking to my friend who tried this, he said that he stopped taking Pepcid AC because he started throwing up blood. It scared me at first, but he must have been taking like 4 tablets a day. I decided that 1 a day wouldnt be harmful because people do it all the time that have chronic heartburn and they drink on it as well. Anyway, I take 1 about an hour before i drink and it works! If I take it on my first drink, it usually takes 30 min to kick in.
My other question is, does anyone on this forum have eczema as well? And do you notice the effects of the eczema flaring up on the spots MORE when you drink? I feel like if my skin is broken out, the alcohol will immediately become blotchy in those spots, verses when my skin is clearer.
Let me know, thanks!
Hey, quick update. Had 3 pepcidtwo 10mg chewables on friday about an hr before drinking on an empty stomache. Drunk quicker than my mates which is a 1st (I have never drunk quickly because of the flush) and was only slightly pink for a little while and then it went away completely! No hot feeling in the face, normally I can hear my heart beat in my brain but that was inexistant. The only thing I had a headache at about 6 in the morning after being up all night but the other symptoms were gone.
I now have some of those tabs which are just 20mg famotidine so they will be better I reckon. Will try at the weekend
Hi Everyone,
I came across these forums about 2 months ago. I am 100% Chinese, f, mid-20s, ~115lbs....and have suffered from the 'asian flush' since I started drinking. I found after 1/2 a mixed drink (eg. vodka cran) I would have a BEET RED face + body, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, nausea, and a pounding head. It's been a social embarrassment as long as I can remember and as I have a very diverse group of friends (in terms of ethnicity) I've always been asked if I'm feeling alright or if I'm drunk or hear the comment 'you are REALLY red'. THANKS. I KNOW.
I'm not sure the age of most of you on the forum, but being past university/college age, I also have work events where I need to take clients out etc. Needless to say I don't look professional with a RED face and just abstain from drinking in those situations. I find wine (esp. red) really does a number on me, even with a few sips. I usually stick with liquor like vodka, amaretto, and rum but regardless of what I drink, I always experience the same effects. By 3-4 drinks I feel pretty dizzy and sick so I usually need to stop.
I am very social, and since now have just dealt with the redness by 'sucking it up'. In the last couple weeks, I've tried about 30mg of pepcid about an hour before going out drinking with friends and it WORKS! I'm still a little pink but it is nothing compared to drinking without using pepcid. I haven't been pushing my drinking so far, just about 3-4 drinks or so each time I go out (usually 2x a week). I have no more rapid heartbeat, dizziness or a killer headache and I am absolutely thrilled! I plan to increase the amount of drinks in the next couple weeks to find out what my limits are.
I know i've rambled on, but here is my MAIN QUESTION. It's about FOOD. From what I've read, the general consensus is not to eat at all right before or during drinking. I've been following this suggestion and while it hasn't been a big deal when going out with friends, what about dinner parties, weddings, bbqs where the alcohol is flowing along with the food?? How do you all deal with that? Do you just eat very little? Do you add more mg of pepcid during the evening? I love food, and it would be very noticeable to everyone that I wasn't eating or eating very little - especially at a formal function. It upsets me that I have to sacrifice food for the sake of not looking like a tomato while drinking.
Has anyone a solution to this? What are everyone's experiences with:
1. big meal while drinking, followed by more drinking (dinner party)
2. drinking, followed by a normal to big meal plus drinking, and then more drinking (wedding)
3. drinking and eating in moderation but through the whole day (bbq)
How much pepcid do you have? When do you take the pepcid? When do you find the redness comes back? Which foods do you avoid?
Just to clarify, when I talk about drinking during a meal, I mean a few drinks, not like 10. :P
I know all of you must have situations like this, so if anyone could shed some light on this, I'm sure everyone (including me) would be very thankful.
Thanks to e.cheng for creating these forums!
any chance someone could BUY pepcid and send it to new zealand for me?? I'd pay postage :)
kia ora, hellohellohello!
You can get the generic stuff from your doctor, it's called famotidine. I get mine from my doc (I'm in NZ too) and he's cool with it.
Otherwise, I *think* that the chemist on Queen St, Auckland, in the Strand Arcade has an online shop with famo?
As always, be responsible, be safe :)
I am an 18 year old student living in the UK and as everybody knows, uni involves a lot of drinking. I can usually get to about half a pint before the redness starts kicking in and after a little while im tomato red. I dont think my symptoms are as bad as some described on these posts. I get a quickened heartbeat and really red face but dont get sick or have headaches in the morning. Anyways, read the posts so decided to give the Pepcid AC max a go. Last night, took 1 20mg 2 hours after eating and about 40 mintues before drinking. Had a pint of strongbow at a moderate pace and started feeling myself getting hotter towards the end of the pint. Check myself in the mirror and i was only slightly tinted red - not noticable at all. I then went 2 drink a few bottles of bud. Whilst on my first bottle, i could feel my heart racing - but no way near as much as usual and felt my face going red. However when i checked in the mirror my face was still only tinted pink and nothing noticable at all. Read some posts about taking 2x 20mg tablets but the instructions say only take 1 tablet at a time so not sure on that. First experiment has been a success and will continue to keep experimenting.
Hi everyone - I am 1/2 Japanese and 1/2 Irish. I also turn bright red when I drink any kind of alcohol and sometimes get a rapid heart rate depending on the type of alcohol. About 5 years ago, a friend told me about Tagamet or Cimetadine (generic Tagamet) for Asian Flush. First of all, at the time, I didn't even know it was called Asian Flush and I didn't know I was turning red because I was Asian, funny. Anyway, I've been taking Cimetadine ever since and it works every time, no more redness and no rapid heart rate. I hope there are no serious side effects:-) It's seriously the wonder pill! I tell as many of my Asian friends and even strangers as I can. I haven't tried Pepcid AC but will check it out and see if it works too. Referring to an earlier post, I've never had any issue with it not working because of eating.
Hey Im feeling you man lol i need this shit to!!! i have been trying to figure a way of getting them but i cant!! i dont got a credit card to get pepcid over internet and i cant get pepcid/famo over the counter because im living in new zealand.. that can get hold of it in new zealand help me out just a little. i will do anything lol! my social life is getting worse and worse as weekends go on.. i am always the sober one at the partys which isnt very fun..and EVERYTIME .. some1 from somewhere out of the blues at the party goes wanna drink??! no1 else gets offered a drink besides from me.. and i always have to turn it down.. n say i dont drink.. which then drags on into a long convo about..y i cant..
hey there, im from nz too. i just take two zantac tablets about 1hr before drinking and im sweet. i get a teensy bit of a blush (but a pretty one!) its so amazing!!! i used to go redder than ANYONE here i bet. like the reddest i have ever seen anyone!! (im a red head!) lol
im only half japanese but my face gets red as shit and also i get a bad headache that makes me feel like shit
Hey all, I stumbled across this forum a week ago and decided to try famotidine out. I'm in australia, victoria, and had to geta prescription for pepcidine. Luckily my doctor was open to this after i explained what i wanted to use it for. He basically told me that it was my body and that i'm young and he doesn't want to get in my way from experimenting. He's awesome :)
Anyway I tried this out a few days ago, and just had to post the results. I had 40mg about an hour and a half before drinks and I was amazed at the effects. I'm usually a pretty heavy drinker, and all my mates know me for going red - to the point of purple. On wednesday after a couple bourbon and cokes I felt like i was going red. Disappointed, i went to the bathroom to see my face. Suprisingly there was only a very very very light touch of pink even though i felt really hot. So yes, famotidine does work, it's amazing and I'm glad as hell that I found this website. What i found though, was that if i wasn't active, i'd get this buzzing headache that would persist for ages. Usually I can drink quite a lot as well, but this time i found that i was stumbling around after only 5 or 6 drinks.
This not only saves me money, but also the embarrassment of social drinking. The headache is something i can put up with haha:)
Thanks everyone!
Has anyone heard of Sobrietol? It is taken orally and is supposed to give us the missing enzyme that we are missing to break down alcohol.
I've come up with a theory that the reason we think it gets us more drunk when taking famotidine is that we are so impressed with the fact that we can drink more and not go red, we actually drink faster which we are not used to causing us to feel more drunk?
My theory anyway
Has anyone heard of Sobrietol? It is taken orally and is supposed to give us the missing enzyme that we are missing to break down alcohol.
I haven't heard anything about this... but from what the audio says on the site, isn't the whole point of drinking to get drunk? this stuff is saying it reduces alcohol level..................
.......so i dunno.
Anyone heard anything about that?
edit: oh ok nevermind. I see the little Asian Flush section on the site now...... interesting though. I'd try it out, but it's quite costly! Maybe someone with deeper pockets than mine can try it for us? :)
i'm korean and have dealt with this asian flush stuff...the pounding headache the hot pulsating face, beet red face, difficulty breathing, u name it i've dealt with it...i tried taking pepcid an hour before drinking and its actually working!!! i can't believe it. i never thought id ever be able to drink. i did the pecid complete chewable tablets and so far so good!! thank u guys for all the helpful posts!!
Hey guys. I started a Sobrietol thread here:
http://echeng.com/asianblush/viewtopic.php?id=57
(stay on topic here, please. :) )
Ethanol is the substance that makes you drunk. if one were to use an inhibitor such as Formepizole or 4-Methylpyrazole hydrochloride to inhibit the enzyme activity of ADH (alcohol dehydrogenase) would you not get drunk really fast but reduce the whole affect of asian flush? That is the basic concept behind using H-2 blockers as they inhbit the action of ADH. However Im unsure as to whether such drugs are available on the high street and what side affects they may have.
btw Formepizole and 4-Methylpyrazole hydrochloride are inhibitors used to inhbit ADH when someone has methanol poisoning. (methanol and ethanol are broken down by the same enzyme ADH thats why ethanol used to be used as a treatment for methanol poisoning.) sorry this might be gobbledy gook for some but any Medic students out there want to shed some light?
I've come up with a theory that the reason we think it gets us more drunk when taking famotidine is that we are so impressed with the fact that we can drink more and not go red, we actually drink faster which we are not used to causing us to feel more drunk?
My theory anyway
its actually because the enzyme ADH is inhibited (ie doesnt work aswell and therefore cant break down the ethanol) therefore there is a build up of ethanol which causes the 'drunkness'. In this way H2 blockers dont help the cause of flushing (the acetaldehyde/ethanal) but slow down the rate at which it is made and gives our less efficient enzymes more time to break the stuff down to acetic acid. :)
Ethanol is the substance that makes you drunk. if one were to use an inhibitor such as Formepizole or 4-Methylpyrazole hydrochloride to inhibit the enzyme activity of ADH (alcohol dehydrogenase) would you not get drunk really fast but reduce the whole affect of asian flush? That is the basic concept behind using H-2 blockers as they inhbit the action of ADH. However Im unsure as to whether such drugs are available on the high street and what side affects they may have.
btw Formepizole and 4-Methylpyrazole hydrochloride are inhibitors used to inhbit ADH when someone has methanol poisoning. (methanol and ethanol are broken down by the same enzyme ADH thats why ethanol used to be used as a treatment for methanol poisoning.) sorry this might be gobbledy gook for some but any Medic students out there want to shed some light?
by the way there is research going on right now in hawaii to find the correct dose of 4-mp in treating flushing associated with drinking-
Asian Flush / Asian Blush / Asian Glow Community → Focused Discussion → H2 Blockers (Tagamet, Pepcid, Zantac, Axid)
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