Ear pain from wine? Does anybody else get this?

Best thing to do is never drink alcohol like me, then you will not have the problem in the first place.

reply to post by andy1033

Perhaps, but some people report the same effect from vinegar.
Not sure if it's connected.

reply to post by halfoldman


Can I ask what brand of wine it was? I'm really interested in this now. If you don't want to give a specific brand name, just the region it was produced would be fine.

reply to post by shamus78

Well, I guess it's produced here in the Cape Wine-lands and the Wine Route.
But in my link and some response here it is occurring outside SA too.
I like house wines per glass - probably Drosdy Hof, Santa Anna, or Bon Vino dry white.
But it happened on various types, and often not at all.
At first it was just annoying, but it became progressively more painful.
This makes me think it could be some allergy, since that's one reaction that grows worse over a long exposure.

However, in the link it mentioned vitamin C drinks or tablets for effective relief. So I got this tip from the link. It implies that some doctors (but not most) have known about it, but it provides no explanation.
Most of these pills also have sugar, glucose and other vitamins, so Vitamin C could be co-incidental.
I also take antihistamine now since it's allergy season anyway (Loratadine), so maybe that's why I also haven't had it in a long time. But I could swear the Vit C tablets help.

reply to post by halfoldman


The only thing I can think of is the sour part of the wine. I did a quick google search and this is what I turned up. Note, this may not be the same but I assume that it is close:

When you eat something sour your mouth waters. This is saliva being pumped into your mouth by the salivary glands. Two of the main salivary glands, the parotids, are on your cheeks, near the jaw.

The pain is caused by the inability of the glands to discharge the saliva they are producing quickly enough.

This is most likely to be due to over production of saliva or by slight narrowing of the salivary ducts. It can also be caused by parotitis, which is a low level inflammation of the gland which usually resolves with no treatment.
YEHOO ANSWERS

Credit goes to STEVE S.

reply to post by Equinox99

Those are good possible explanations.

Got the pain again this afternoon from a local wine called "Umfifki" (isiXhosa for newcomer).
It took a while to develop, but it was hugely painful.
I had two Vitamin C sweets, and it was gone.
I took my multi-vitamins before that.
And they are good vitamins (never had the flu all 2010 despite being HIV-positive and everybody else getting sick).
How curious.

I drinks a bottle of wine almost every day-- no ear pain (only chest pains).

It may be an allergic reaction to the tannins in red wine. I've experienced the same thing, like my jaw is tightening and pain radiates toward my ear. I've noticed this happens when I drink more expensive red wines.