Herbal tinctures made with alcohol
 

I just realized that the iodine drops I take every day have alcohol in them. I've been taking three drops per day for quite awhile. Do you think this small amount is harmful because I'll toss the bottle if it is. Haven't struggled thru withrdrawal the last three weeks for nothing! :gaah

Opinions vary. It is usually possible to get similar things water or PG-based. My personal opinion is that this small of an amount is insignificant. There are tiny amounts of alcohol in MANY things we ingest.

A lot of it is a mental thing. The body recovers from physical addiction, the brain....wellllll maybe not so much.

It's simple really. If it in the least bit bothers you, why agonize? Just don't do it.

Hi Chane, for me any alcohol is bad. Why risk sobriety? Not me.

True, three drops isn't much alcohol. Just don't won't send my brain the wrong signals at this point, it's confused enough as it is. I may err on the side of caution and stop taking it, there are other ways to get iodine.

I've had a mouth ulcer and the best way to relieve and calm the inflammation is an alcohol based mouthwash. To me this doesn't bother me or trigger anything in the slightest. But I agree if it does bother you stop taking it. But only you'll know if it makes you run to get drink.

You can get a different supplement if you think that the alcohol in the drops will cause you distress. I think this is up to you to decide:)

I don't put anything in my mouth that has alcohol in it--nonalcoholic beer or cider, cold meds, herbal tinctures, etc. would a couple of drops of "rescue remedy" send me on a bender? Well, probably not. But for me, it's a zero tolerance thing. I know how my sneaky alcoholic voice works. If a nonalcoholic beer with 0.5% alcohol is ok, then why wouldn't a little taste of champagne be ok? Surely it's fine to put a little splash of beer into some Sprite to make a nice refreshing shandy drink. Then it's back to full on alcoholic drinking in no time. That's how it would be for me, anyway. So While it's unlikely that a teeny amount of alcohol would really do any harm, why risk it?
PS once I accidentally drank a swig of nonalcoholic cider that I had purchased thinking it was totally without alcohol, like a fizzy juice rink. Immediately I could tell it was the kind that was 0.5% alcohol. I spit it out in the sink and rinsed my mouth out with water. Haha a little paranoid I think. But I have to treat alcohol like the poison that it is to me.

Yeah, I'm kind of the zero tolerance type also. I either do something or I don't (that's probably what got my into alcoholic trouble in the first place!)
It's getting tossed in the trash.

You guys have great points. Such a thing wouldn't affect me mentally, I know this from experience, but if you have doubts, ditch it\find an alternative.

Not all alcohol are equal. Taking medication with alcohol is different to drinking a beer. Its also impossible to go through life in taking a small amount of alcohol, case and point, Coke and Pepsi content 0.001% per liter. No where in hell anyone can get drunk on that but it has alcohol in it.

I think this is between you and your higher power (or your conscience, if you don't do the higher power stuff). And it's great that you're checking it out here. Just be sure that checking it out here doesn't mean giving yourself an excuse to take it because someone else in recovery takes something that has alcohol in it - I've done that and the results were predictably bad.

There are lots of alcohol-based or alcohol-including things I would never put in my mouth, let alone swallow, including non-alcoholic beer. I do take a tincture every day for a condition for which I have not found another preparation that works (and I have looked and looked!). However, I have not had a drink in a number of years and I know that I do not relapse over this tincture, or at least I haven't yet. Additionally, I am forthcoming about my tincture use with my recovery counselor (30+ years sober, with sobriety I want) and my neurologist, who helps me manage the condition for which I take the tincture, and knows I am in recovery. Putting any alcohol into my body is a risk. However, given the severity of the condition, given that I haven't gotten drunk (or "had a drink") because of the tincture yet, and given that I am able to be honest with myself and others in recovery about my use, it's a risk I'm willing to take.

There are almost as many perspectives on this topic as there are people in recovery. Some of us will drink because of those choices, and some of us won't. Like I recently told my 16-year-old nephew as he left for prep school, the only way to be 100% certain you never end up with an active addiction is to never drink or use any other drug, and that includes alcohol in food and medicine.

Oh gee now I gotta give up cola too? I totally get your point, ACT, and I know recovered alcoholics that drink NA beer with no issues, or take cold meds, or use Scope mouthwash. For me, at least, it's a symbolic gesture of sorts. If any product has alcohol listed as an ingredient, I avoid it, although I doubt there would be any physical effects. But I'd for sure eat cookies made with vanilla, although not a rum cake. Actually the only time this was a problem was when everyone at work was eating some liqueur-filled chocolates. I didn't care about the liqueur, I just wanted the chocolate! I abstained.

My wife and I have been sober for over ten months. She uses an alcohol-based, topical, homeopathic pain remedy. She has tried a water-based lotion, but she says it doesn't work. In fact, I believe that the alcohol in the gel is what gives her pain relief. This is one of the conundrums of homeopathic medicine--is it the herbal tincture that is active or the alcohol? But as far as I know, alcohol is not an essential ingredient of iodine therapy.

Yes, maybe she is addicted to the stuff (it is not cheap). But does it change her behavior? No. Does it make life unmanageable? No. Do we fight about it? No.

Vinegar based tinctures work better than alcohol and is healthy for you.

Now we are talking about abstaining from alcohol gels? We don't get drunk or addicted to alcohol from using hand sanitizer. Drinking this stuff is another issue I'm sure.

The alcohol based iodine tincture I've been taking is called Magnascent iodine and it's taken with water. I guess you could use it on the skin too, some people do. I'm going to switch over to SSKI that is water based, it's more potent so just one drop every few days in water will do me.

I was taking an expensive Valerian tincture and found out it had alcohol. I didn't think much of it, for the reasons stated before...there are traces of alcohol in so many things. I stopped using it though...it was the most vile stuff I've ever tasted and I was glad to have a reason to toss it.

Hi Chane, I knew a woman who ate one piece of rum candy. She was right back to where she had been months before. Instantly. Why risk it? Very best wishes.