Health - Stomach pain from alcohol?

[Paracelsus]

First a short introduction:

SWIM drinks rarely (maybe once in 2-3 months), only hard alcohol (usually vodka and rum, in the 40-60 %ABV range), usually not very large amounts (about the equivalent of ~150-200 ml pure ethanol at a time). He never got nausea nor hangovers from alcohol.

Lately, SWIM noticed stomach pain (not nausea) from amounts as few as a good-sized shot of rum (~80-100ml). It started almost instantly (about 1 minute after starting drinking). The pain didn't seem serious but was far from pleasant. It goes away after 30-60 minutes. SWIM first thought that the strong alcohol was just hard on his stomach, but when he tried first eating and then drinking, the pain was exactly the same.

SWIM will probably stop alcohol use (because of this pain and because he can't really enjoy the effects anymore), but he was wondering if anyone else had this. Could this be a sign of a stomach ulcer or similar?

PS: SWIM hasn't checked if this pain appears with beer/wine and isn't excited enough to try it.

[Nagognog2]

More commonly it could be alcoholic gastritis - which can lead to an ulcer or varicies. Neither of which one would want. Seeing a gastro-enterologist to find out what's going on would be the intelligent thing to do before continuing to drink any alcohol. One might have a very sensitive stomach that just can't "stomach" alcohol. Person I knew had such. After a night of rather casual drinking, he threw up his stomach-lining all over the side of a friend's car. It was refered to as fillinnamehere-Tripe and was a bitch to scrape off!

[Paracelsus]

I don't think it's an alcoholic gastritis. SWIM isn't a heavy drinker. He consumed about 100-200ml pure ethanol each time, about 15 times in his lifetime, with breaks of at least 2 months. He will probably go to a doc though, doesn't feel good about this. I don't think SWIM will drink anymore.

[Alicia]

IS Swip eating before drinking? It may ease it perhaps swia finds shes less sick now that she eats before drinking. or the the excessive amounts could be having a go at swip pancreas if its damaged say to goodbye pancreases and hello insulin syringes. Swia knows people who have managed to screw up there pancreases as a result from excessive drinking and some are now diabetic.

[IntrepidTraveler]

Is SWIY referring to the unpleasant burning pain that usually happens after pounding some hard liquor? I think that's rather common, perhaps even more so in more casual drinkers.

[Jatelka]

Even relatively small amounts of strong alcohol can cause gastric irritation. For some reason Ouzo seems to be particularly problematic for SWIJ

[Nagognog2]

Think Ouzo is fun? Try Grappa.

[Paracelsus]

Alicia:

Originally Posted by myself

SWIM first thought that the strong alcohol was just hard on his stomach, but when he tried first eating and then drinking, the pain was exactly the same.

IntrepidTraveler: I wasn't referring to the burning. SWIm got used to it.

Might be just a simple case of gastric irritation. I don't think SWIM will drink anymore from now on.