Red face

[Dr.Krunk]

Within the past year I started noticing my face would get red when consuming alcohol, possibly flush reaction. Now I'm starting to have the same reaction when consuming Kava. I never mix the two and am a fairly healthy 22 y/o. I know the safe answer that most are going to assume is go to the doctor, which I do plan on doing. Just curious if others can offer any input.

 

[violet]

Sounds like histamine flush. Very common with alcohol. Kava can induce it, as well as a plethora of foods that we think of as being very healthful. Consuming things high in histamine, histamine releasers or both, can cause a flush (among other things) if the histamine builds up before the body is able to clear it.

 

[skippykava]

@Dr.Krunk Skin flushing among other symptoms can be a sign of mast cell activation syndrome. Mast cell activation syndrome will respond to high histamine foods. It is what many people have who are histamine sensitive. You may develop other symptoms later. If you ever do you should go to https://tmsforacure.org and contact a local support group to find a specialist in the condition since it is not well taught. There is no cure, but there are medications. Also, certain things could cause the syndrome such as infectious diseases which are keeping the body sensitive to mast cell activation. But, this may not be the case as it could be genetic, or it could be caused by an infection which is not known or beyond our ability to detect or eliminate.

 

[PepperyPyrone]

Just thought I would throw this out there. I have a hypothesis that kava inhibits ALDH2 (acetaldehyde dehydrogenase) which causes the alcohol flush and/or rash to be worse when mixing kava and alcohol together, regardless of the gene mutations listed below. Just a hypothesis though. Including myself, I have also talked to people who have also experienced this increased sensitivity and flushing/rash when mixing the two. Again, just thinking out loud. I could be completely wrong in my hypothesis, just wondering if anyone else might have run across this in the literature. But in your case if you are not mixing the two and get this reaction to kava, perhaps it is just a histamine/immunological reaction, an "allergy".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction

 

[SelfBiasResistor]

Within the past year I started noticing my face would get red when consuming alcohol, possibly flush reaction. Now I'm starting to have the same reaction when consuming Kava. I never mix the two and am a fairly healthy 22 y/o. I know the safe answer that most are going to assume is go to the doctor, which I do plan on doing. Just curious if others can offer any input.

Is it just red or is it actual flushing? As in warmth and increased blood flow/heart rate. I get both occasionally.

 

[Pounigirl]

Does your entire face get red or just like your cheeks? Maybe it could be Rosacea?

 

[Dr.Krunk]

Is it just red or is it actual flushing? As in warmth and increased blood flow/heart rate. I get both occasionally.

It does seem to be a legitimate flush reaction. I haven’t measured heart rate or noticed a perceivable difference. There does seem to be an increase in temperature on my face and it’s not necessarily restricted to my cheeks. This reaction only seems to occur from very large amounts of Kava.