As I climbed the steps leading up from my local beach, I had a sudden revelation: I wasn’t wheezing or short of breath. Normally, after a climb like that, I would feel it in my lungs, breathing heavily, with a tightness in my chest, but I was absolutely fine.
At first, I put it down to my strict adherence to my asthma nurse’s recent advice to vacuum more regularly, keep dust levels low, and change sheets every week without fail.
I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 30, but it was very mild (and came and went) until about five years ago.
Then, two years ago, the tightness in my chest and wheezing got even worse after I bought a charming but dusty period house on the Kent coast. Shortly after moving, I had to switch from the blue relief inhaler (salbutamol) I had used for decades to a new, stronger inhaler for moderate to severe asthma.
But despite literally doing a clean sweep of my house and purchasing an air purifier, my symptoms didn’t really improve much.
Lynne Wallis was diagnosed with asthma when she was 30, but it was very mild (and came and went) until about five years ago.
Then something else occurred to me. That unexpectedly easy climb came after I started 2024 by launching into dry January, and then I felt so much better that I kept pushing forward into February. In addition to the clarity and increased energy, was it possible that giving up my glass or two of wine every night had also helped my asthma?
After not having drunk wine for over a month, I decided to do some research.
Bingo! There it was in black and white on the Allergy UK website. Sulfites (chemicals added to wine to preserve it and prevent the growth of bacteria) can affect asthmatics and worsen symptoms. However, no doctor or nurse has ever pointed this out to me.
In addition to wine, sulfites are used to preserve some foods, usually sausages and nuts. It appears that when sulfites combine with stomach acid during digestion, they release sulfur dioxide, an irritating gas that can then return and cause inflammation in the airways and difficulty breathing.
“Asthma is a lung disease caused by inflammation of the airways and can be triggered by a number of factors, most commonly pollens, pollution and viruses,” explains Dr Andrew Wittamore, asthma specialist and clinical director at Asthma and Lung UK. He is also a GP in Portsmouth.
“But there are other triggers, such as dog and cat hair, exercise, smoke, and sulfites and histamines in alcohol.”
He adds that sulfites are most commonly found in wine and histamines in beer.
But, as Dr. Wittamore points out: “Unfortunately, awareness of how sulfites in alcohol can cause asthma is very low.”
Around 5.4 million people in the UK suffer from asthma and there may be a genetic link.
In addition to using preventative inhalers to reduce inflammation, avoiding asthma “triggers” is a key part of managing this condition, which has no cure.
It is widely accepted that sulphites in wine are one such trigger, according to renowned asthma and allergy specialist Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, from the University of Southampton.
“It’s more common than most people think,” he says. «Asthma that appears in adulthood can be triggered by sulfites in beer, but mainly in wine, which contains large amounts of sulfite to preserve it. Both are powerful asthma stimulants.
Sulfites, chemicals added to wine to preserve it and prevent the growth of bacteria, can affect asthmatics and worsen symptoms.
‘When the airways become inflamed, the muscle surrounding the bronchi [in the lungs] constricts and narrows the airways. Some asthmatics find that the sulfites and histamines in alcohol also make them more susceptible to other triggers, such as smoke or pollen.
And it is a common problem. One in three of 366 asthmatics who participated 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 sulfite additives in wine appears to play an important role in these reactions.”
Margaret Kelman, allergy nurse at Allergy UK, says there has been a significant increase in wine drinkers reporting a sulphite allergy in recent years, possibly because as a nation we now drink more wine.
“About two percent of the ‘normal’ population has a sulfite allergy, but about 15 percent of asthmatics find sulfites constrict their airways,” he says.
“It can be immediate, but more often than not, the airways begin to constrict after the wine reaches the stomach,” he explains.
“Anaphylactic shock (a very severe allergic reaction with symptoms including inability to swallow, difficulty breathing and even collapse) is extremely rare as a result of drinking wine with sulfites, but it can occur and can be fatal.”
The problem is that people often don’t make the link to sulfites. As Dr Whittamore points out: ‘Many people will have an asthma attack after being exposed to multiple triggers.
“For example, they may be sitting in a pub garden having a drink after walking through the countryside and have a reaction, but think it was something in their environment that triggered it.”
After my own eureka moment, I decided to put my theory to the test and drank two medium glasses of white wine. Sure enough, the next morning I was panting. So that was it.
Actually, and fortunately, I didn’t have to give up wine completely, just non-organic wine. Because it turns out that it’s not the wine itself that makes me breathe hard, but the way it is produced. All wine contains some natural sulfites as they are part of the fermentation process, but mass-produced wine contains additional sulfites to preserve it.
White wine contains higher levels than red wine, since the skins of the latter’s grapes act as a natural preservative, so fewer sulfites are needed.
Non-organic white wine has around 100 mg of sulfites per liter, red wine between 50 and 75 g. The wine with the lowest level of sulfites is supposed to be prosecco, but I found that it still made me breathe heavily the next day.
Both Dr. Wittamore and Margaret Kelman believe manufacturers should put a warning on wine bottles saying that sulfites can affect breathing.
The good news is that organic wine should not contain additional sulfites, although they can still be problematic for those with a severe sulfite allergy.
Better still is “sulfite-free” wine, which contains less than 10 parts sulfites per million parts alcohol. Sulphite-free wine is now available in supermarkets including Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.
Wine importer Jane Honeyman, 58, started selling sulphite-free wine online from her home near Colwyn Bay in Wales 15 years ago, after giving up alcohol because her reaction to sulphites became too acute.
As she remembers: “I had chest tightness and wheezing, my face was very red and my nose was itchy and runny. It made me feel terrible. Obviously it was the wine because the symptoms appeared shortly after drinking it.
Jane, who no longer needs to use her asthma inhaler, adds: ‘Sulfite-free wine costs a little more (ours is around £13 a bottle) because it is more expensive to produce. But it tastes different, better, because it is made only with natural ingredients.
‘Since I decided not to (knowingly) drink non-organic wine, I would say my asthma symptoms have reduced by about 75 per cent.
‘I now only need one puff of my Symbicort inhaler in the morning and another at night, instead of the usual two puffs of salbutamol twice a day, as was my routine for 20 years. And sometimes I forget it completely, something that would never have happened before.’
People with asthma who look at food and alcohol labels to avoid sulphites should look for preservatives E22-28, as these numbers indicate the presence of sulphites, according to Allergy UK.
And here’s some encouraging news: Alcoholic beverages that are distilled rather than fermented, like gin and vodka, do not contain sulfites.
