Heavy drinking and chronic alcohol use can significantly impact the immune system and decrease immune function. Alcohol consumption also influences T-cell activation both in humans and in mouse models (Cook et al. 1991, 1995). T cells constitute a diverse population of lymphocytes that develop in the bone marrow and mature in the thymus.

How Alcohol Affects the Immune System

When your liver finishes that process, alcohol gets turned into water and carbon dioxide. Dr. Sengupta shares some of the not-so-obvious effects that alcohol has on your body. By Geralyn Dexter, PhD, LMHCDexter has a doctorate in psychology and is a licensed mental health counselor with a focus on suicidal ideation, self-harm, and mood disorders.

1. Alcohol can trigger inflammation in the gut, and destroy the microorganisms that live in the intestine and maintain immune system health.
2. Meadows and Zhang discuss specific mechanisms through which alcohol interferes with the body’s immune defense against cancer.
3. The first point of contact for alcohol after consumption is the gastrointestinal (GI) system before it is absorbed into the bloodstream.
4. Those studies showed decreased cytolytic activity of NK cells in C57BL/6 mice consuming 20 percent ethanol for 4 weeks; however, no differences existed in the metastasis of B16-BL6 melanoma cells in alcohol-consuming and control animals (Meadows et al. 1993).
5. This can lead to conditions like stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS).

There is evidence in a number of physiological systems that binge alcohol intake complicates recovery from physical trauma (see the article by Hammer and colleagues). Molina and colleagues review research showing that alcohol impairs recovery from three types of physical trauma—burn, hemorrhagic shock, and traumatic brain injury—by affecting immune homeostasis. Their article also highlights how the combined effect of alcohol and injury causes greater disruption to immune function than either challenge alone. In a clinical case study reviewed in this issue, Trevejo-Nunez and colleagues report on systemic and organ-specific immune pathologies often seen in chronic drinkers.

How Alcohol Can Affect Your Immune System

25.8% of people classified their recent consumption habits as binge drinking (excessive drinking in a defined amount of time). This article discusses the physiological and psychological effects of alcohol and how to change your drinking habits. Consuming alcohol likely slows your recovery since your immune system isn’t functioning at optimal levels when you are drinking. The bottom line is, it is best to avoid drinking during illness if you want to feel better quicker. Once you start drinking, your body has to work to metabolize the alcohol, since it considers ethanol a toxin.

These foods may help your body make more of the white blood cells you need to fight off infections. Fresh produce and nuts and seeds pack a lot of zinc, beta-carotene, vitamins A, C, and E, and other nutrients you need for a healthy body. Plant-based foods also fill you up with fiber, which helps lower your body fat percentage, which can strengthen your immune response.

With continued alcohol use, steatotic liver disease can lead to liver fibrosis. Eventually, you can develop permanent and irreversible scarring in your liver, which is called cirrhosis. Steatotic liver disease develops in about 90% of people who drink more than 1.5 to 2 ounces of alcohol per day. Heavy drinking can also lead to a host of health concerns, like brain damage, heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver and even certain kinds of cancer. Weekly intimacy seems to help boost your immune system compared to those who have it less often.

It is no surprise that the key to boosting your immune system is a healthy lifestyle—which includes good nutrition, plenty of sleep, regular molly drug wiki exercise, no smoking, and avoidance of stress. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines excessive drinking as eight or more drinks a week for women, and 15 or more drinks a week for men. The CDC also defines binge drinking as four or more drinks in two to three hours for women, or five or more drinks in that same time period for men. To date, there is little research on the impact alcohol has on COVID-19 recovery. However, common sense informs us not to drink when we have any active infection.

Effects of alcohol on adaptive immunity

Every person has their own reasons for drinking or wanting to reduce their alcohol consumption. Depending on how much you have been drinking, your body may experience physical and psychological changes as you reduce your intake, known as withdrawal. Your immune system works to keep you as healthy as possible by fighting off foreign invaders, such as viruses, bacteria, and toxins.

A urinary tract infection is an infection in the urethra, bladder, or kidneys. Alcohol does not directly cause UTIs, but it can increase a person’s risk of developing a UTI and worsen the symptoms of an existing UTI. When alcohol hinders the body’s immune system, it also hinders its ability to fight UTIs because it allows bacteria to travel throughout the body faster. As soon as you drink a sip of alcohol, your body begins to prioritize breaking down alcohol.

Thus, studies in C57BL/6 mice demonstrated that chronic ethanol consumption (20 percent ethanol in water for up to 6 months) decreased the frequency of naïve T cells and increased the percentage of memory T cells (Song et al. 2002; Zhang and Meadows 2005). This loss of naïve T cells could result from decreased T-cell production in the thymus; increased cell death (i.e., apoptosis) of naïve T cells; or increased homeostatic proliferation. Additional analyses detected evidence that T-cell proliferation in the spleen was increased in alcohol-consuming mice (Zhang and Meadows 2005). Together, these observations suggest that chronic alcohol consumption results in lymphopenia, which can increase homeostatic proliferation and accelerate conversion of naïve T cells into memory T cells (Cho et al. 2000). It is important to highlight other components like polyphenols, antioxidants and vitamins present in beer or wineReference González-Gross, Lebrón and Marcos26, Reference Percival and Sims27, when studying the health effects of these beverages. Ethanol may be detrimental to immune cells due to the generation of free radicals during clearance; however, alcoholic beverages containing antioxidants should be protective against immune cell damageReference Percival and Sims27, Reference Fenech, Stockley and Aitken28.

Some alcoholic beverages contain components that combat ethanol’s damaging effects. The ethanol in alcohol damages immune cells because it generates free radicals. Alcoholic drinks containing antioxidants may cause less damage than other drinks because they help protect against some of the free radicals in ethanol.