As I climbed the steps leading to my local beach, I had a sudden epiphany: I wasn’t wheezing or out of breath. Normally after such a climb I would feel it in my lungs, heavy breathing and tightness in the chest, but I was absolutely fine.
At first I put this down to strictly adhering to my asthma nurse’s recent advice to vacuum more regularly, keep dust levels down and change my bedding every week without fail.
I was diagnosed with asthma in my late 30s, but it was very mild – coming and going – until about five years ago.
Then, two years ago, the tightness in my chest and wheezing got worse after I bought a charming, but dusty, historic house on the Kent coast. Shortly after moving, I had to replace the blue (salbutamol) inhaler I had been using for decades with a new, more powerful inhaler for moderate to severe asthma.
But even though I literally cleaned out my house and bought an air purifier, my symptoms didn’t really improve much.
Lynne Wallis was diagnosed with asthma in her late 30s, but it was very mild – and came and went – until about five years ago
Then I noticed something else. That unexpectedly easy climb came after I started 2024 by throwing myself into Dry January – and then I felt so much better that I kept going until February. Was it possible that giving up my nightly glass of wine, in addition to the clarity and energy boost, had also helped my asthma?
Since I hadn’t drunk wine in 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 bacteria from growing – can affect asthmatics and worsen symptoms. Yet no doctor or nurse has ever told me this.
In addition to wine, sulfites are also used to preserve certain foods, most commonly cured meats and dried fruits. It appears that when sulfites combine with stomach acid during digestion, they release sulfur dioxide, an irritating gas that can then resurface and cause inflammation in the airways and breathing difficulties.
‘Asthma is a lung condition caused by inflammation of the airways and can be caused by a number of things, most commonly pollen, pollution and viruses,’ explains Dr Andrew Wittamore, asthma specialist and clinical lead of Asthma and Lung UK, who is also a general practitioner in Portsmouth.
‘But there are other triggers, including dog and cat hair, exercise, smoke and sulphites and histamine in alcohol.’
He adds that sulfites are most common in wine, and histamines in beer.
But as Dr Wittamore notes: ‘Awareness of how sulphites in alcohol can cause asthma is unfortunately very low.’
Around 5.4 million people in Britain have asthma, and there may be a genetic link.
As well as using preventative inhalers to reduce inflammation, avoiding asthma ‘triggers’ is an important part of how the condition, for which there is no cure, is managed.
It is widely accepted that sulphites in wine are such a trigger, according to renowned asthma and allergy specialist Professor Sir Stephen Holgate of the University of Southampton.
“It’s more common than most people realize,” he says. ‘Asthma in adults can be caused by sulphites in beer, but especially in wine, which contains large amounts of sulphite to preserve it. Both are powerful stimulants for asthma.
Sulfites – chemicals added to wine to preserve it and prevent bacteria from growing – can affect asthmatics and worsen symptoms
‘When the airways become inflamed, the muscle around the airways (in the lungs) contracts and narrows the airways. Some asthmatics find that the sulphites and histamines in alcohol also make them more sensitive to other triggers, such as smoke or pollen.’
And it is 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 caused at least two mild to moderate asthma attacks, and that wine was the most common was the culprit.
The researchers concluded that “sensitivity to sulfite additives in wine appears likely to play an important role in these responses.”
Margaret Kelman, a specialist allergy nurse at Allergy UK, says there has been a significant increase in the number of wine drinkers reporting a sulphite allergy in recent years, possibly because as a country we are now drinking more wine.
“About two percent of the ‘normal’ population has a sulfite allergy, but about 15 percent of asthmatics find that sulfites narrow the airways,” she says.
“It can be immediate, but usually the airways begin to constrict after the wine reaches the stomach,” she explains.
‘Anaphylactic shock – a very serious allergic reaction with symptoms including inability to swallow, difficulty breathing and even fainting – is extremely rare as a result of drinking wine containing sulphites, but it can happen and can be fatal.’
The problem is that people often do not make the link with sulphites. As Dr. Whittamore notes, “Many people will have an asthma attack after being exposed to multiple triggers.
‘For example, they may have a drink in a café garden after a walk in the countryside and have a reaction, but think it is something in their environment that has caused this.’
After my own eureka moment, I decided to test my theory and drank two medium glasses of white wine. Sure enough, the next morning I was wheezing. So that’s it.
Actually, and fortunately, I didn’t have to give up wine completely – just non-organic wine. Because it turns out it’s not the wine itself that makes me wheeze; it’s the way it’s produced. All wine contains some naturally occurring sulfites because they are part of the fermentation process, but mass-produced wine contains additional sulfites to preserve them.
White wine contains higher levels than red, because the grape skins in the latter act as a natural preservative, meaning fewer sulphites are needed.
Non-organic white wine contains about 100 mg sulphites per liter, red about 50-75 g. The wine with the lowest sulfite content is probably prosecco, but I noticed that it still bothered me the next day.
Both Dr. Wittamore and Margaret Kelman believe that manufacturers should put a warning on wine bottles that sulfites can affect your breathing.
The good news is that organic wine should not contain additional sulfites, although they can still be problematic for people with a severe sulfite allergy.
Even better is ‘sulfite-free’ wine, which contains less than 10 parts sulfites per million parts alcohol. Sulphite-free wine is now readily available from 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 previously giving up alcohol herself because her reaction to sulphites became so acute.
As she remembers, “I had a tight, wheezing chest, got very red in my face, and had an itchy, runny nose. It gave me a terrible feeling. It was very clearly the wine, because the symptoms came soon after I drank wine.’
Jane, who no longer needs to use her asthma inhaler, adds: ‘Sulphite-free wine costs a little more (ours starts at around £13 a bottle) because it is more expensive to produce. But it tastes different, better, because it is made from only natural ingredients.
‘Since I decided to (consciously) not drink non-organic wine, I would say my asthma symptoms have reduced by about 75 percent.
‘I now only need one puff of my Symbicort inhaler in the morning and one in the evening, instead of the usual two twice-daily puffs of salbutamol, which was my routine for 20 years. And sometimes I forget completely, which would never have happened before.’
People with asthma who look at food and alcohol labels to avoid sulphites should look for the preservative E22-28, as these numbers indicate sulphites are present, according to Allergy UK.
And here’s some encouraging news: alcoholic drinks that are distilled rather than fermented, such as gin and vodka, are sulfite-free.