How you could be allergic to your glass of wine

As I climbed the steps that lead up from my local beach, I had a sudden revelation: I wasn't wheezing and nor was I breathless. Normally, after such a climb, I'd be feeling it in my lungs, breathing heavily, chest tight, but I was absolutely fine.

At first, I attributed it to my strict adherence to my asthma nurse's recent advice to vacuum more regularly, to keep dust levels down, and to change my bed sheets every week without fail.

I was diagnosed with asthma in my late 30s but it was very mild — and came and went — until about five years ago.

Then, two years ago, the tightness in my chest and the wheezing worsened further after I bought a charming, but dusty, period house on the Kent coast. Soon after moving, I had to swap the blue (salbutamol) reliever inhaler I'd used for decades to a new, more powerful inhaler for moderate-to-severe asthma.

But despite literally taking a clean sweep to my home and buying an air purifier, my symptoms didn't really improve much.

Then something else occurred to me. That unexpectedly easy climb came after I'd kicked off 2024 by throwing myself into Dry January — and then I'd felt so much better I kept going into February. Along with the clear-headedness and boost of energy, was it possible that giving up my nightly glass or two of wine had helped my asthma, too?

Having had no wine for well over a month, I decided to do some research.

Bingo! There it was in black and white on the Allergy UK website. Sulphites — chemicals that are added to wine to preserve it and prevent bacteria from growing — can affect asthmatics and make symptoms worse. Yet no doctor or nurse has ever flagged this to me.

Sulphites - chemicals that are added to wine to preserve it and prevent bacteria from growing -can affect asthmatics and make symptoms worse

As well as wine, sulphites are used to preserve some foods, typically cured meats and dried fruits. It seems that when sulphites combine with stomach acid during digestion, they release sulphur dioxide, an irritant gas that can then come back up and cause inflammation in the airways and difficulty breathing.

'Asthma is a lung condition caused by inflammation of the airways, and can be set off by a number of things, most commonly pollens, pollution and viruses,' explains Dr Andrew Wittamore, asthma specialist and clinical lead for Asthma and Lung UK, who is also a GP in Portsmouth.

'But there are other triggers, including dog and cat hair, exercise, smoke and sulphites and histamines in alcohol.'

He adds that sulphites are most commonly found in wine, and histamines in beer.

But as Dr Wittamore points out: 'Awareness of how sulphites in alcohol can cause asthma is sadly very low.'

Around 5.4 million people in the UK have asthma, and there can be a genetic link.

Along with using preventative inhalers to reduce inflammation, avoiding asthma 'triggers' is a key part of how the condition, which has no cure, is managed.

That sulphites in wine are one such trigger is widely accepted, according to renowned asthma and allergy specialist Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, of Southampton University.

'It is more common than most people appreciate,' he says. 'Adult-onset asthma can be triggered by sulphites in beer but mainly wine, which contains large amounts of sulphite to preserve it. Both are potent stimulants for asthma.

'When the airways become inflamed, the muscle around the bronchial tubes [in the lungs] contracts and narrows the airways. Some asthmatics find the sulphites and histamines in alcohol also make them more susceptible to other triggers, such as smoke or pollen.'

And it's a common problem. One in three of 366 asthmatics who took part in a 2000 study at the Asthma and Allergy Research Institute in Perth, Western Australia, reported that alcohol had triggered at least two mild to moderate asthma attacks, and that wine was the most common culprit.

The researchers concluded that 'sensitivity to sulphite additives in wine seems likely to play an important part in these reactions'.

Margaret Kelman, a specialist allergy nurse with Allergy UK, says there has been a significant increase in wine drinkers reporting sulphite allergy in recent years, possibly because as a nation we now drink more wine.

'Around two per cent of the 'normal' population have a sulphite allergy, but around 15 per cent of asthmatics find sulphites constrict their airways,' she says.

'It can be immediate, but most often the airways start to contract after the wine hits the stomach,' she explains.

'Anaphylactic shock — a very serious allergic reaction with symptoms including inability to swallow, difficulty breathing and even collapse — is extremely rare as a result of drinking wine with sulphites, but it can happen and it can be fatal.'

The problem is that people often don't make the link with sulphites. As Dr Whittamore points out: 'Many people will have an asthma attack after being exposed to multiple triggers.

'For instance, they may be sitting in a pub garden having a drink after walking in the countryside and have a reaction, but think it was something in their surroundings that triggered it.'

After my own eureka moment, I decided to test my theory and drank two medium-sized glasses of white wine. Sure enough, the next morning I was wheezing. So that was it.

Actually, and fortunately, I did not have to give up wine altogether — just non-organic wine. Because it turns out it's not wine itself that makes me wheeze — it's the way it's produced. All wine contains some naturally occurring sulphites as they are part of the fermentation process, but mass-produced wine contains additional sulphites to preserve it.

White wine contains higher levels than red, as the grape skins in the latter act as a natural preservative so fewer sulphites are needed.

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Non-organic white wine has around 100 mg of sulphites per litre, red around 50-75g. The wine with the lowest level of sulphites is supposedly prosecco, but I found it still made me wheeze the following day.

Both Dr Wittamore and Margaret Kelman believe that manufacturers should put a warning on wine bottles saying sulphites can affect your breathing.

The good news is that organic wine shouldn't contain any additional sulphites, though they can still be problematic for those with a severe sulphite allergy.

So better still is 'sulphite-free' wine, which contains less than 10 parts of sulphites per million parts of alcohol. Sulphite-free wine is now readily available from supermarkets, including Aldi, Sainsbury's and Waitrose.

Wine importer Jane Honeyman, 58, began selling sulphite-free wine online from her home near Colwyn Bay in Wales 15 years ago, after previously giving up alcohol herself because her reaction to sulphites became so acute.

As she recalls: 'I'd have a tight, wheezy chest, go very red in the face, and I had an itchy, runny nose. It made me feel awful. It was very obviously the wine because the symptoms came soon after I drank any.'

Jane, who no longer needs to use her asthma inhaler, adds: 'Sulphite-free wine costs a bit more — ours start at about £13 a bottle — as it is more expensive to produce. But it tastes different, better, because it is made from only natural ingredients.

'Since deciding not to (knowingly) drink non-organic wine, I'd say my asthma symptoms are about 75 per cent reduced.

'I now need only one puff of my Symbicort inhaler in the morning and one in the evening, instead of the usual two, twice-daily puffs of salbutamol, as was my routine for 20 years. And sometimes I forget it completely, which would never have happened before.'

People with asthma looking at the labels on food and alcohol to avoid sulphites need to look for the preservatives E22-28, as these numbers indicate sulphites are present, according to Allergy UK.

And here's some cheering news: alcoholic drinks that are distilled rather than fermented, such as gin and vodka, are sulphite-free.