Drinking too much alcohol can harm your health Learn the facts

Your heart can’t pump blood as well, and that impacts every part of your body. Moderate alcohol use may have some benefits, but heavy or binge drinking has no health benefits. It’s defined as three drinks in a day or more than seven drinks a week for women and for men older than 65, and more than four drinks in a day or more than 14 drinks a week for men 65 and younger. When an adult consumes alcohol or uses drugs for an extended period of time, the effects of their addiction can affect them on a biological level. In many cases, as their bodies try to fight off the toxins in alcohol or drugs, a person’s immune system can suffer and be weakened in the process, leaving them vulnerable to other ailments.

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. While any alcoholic drink can have negative effects on the body, beers or wines that contain vitamins, antioxidants and polyphenols may cause less damage to the immune system than heavy liquors. These results could support a role, via an anti-inflammatory mechanism, for moderate alcohol intake in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. This outcome underscores the importance of taking into account the amount of alcohol consumption when evaluating the immune response. Therefore, further studies focused on drinking pattern are necessary to elucidate the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on the immune response.

Cellulitis, Post-Surgery Complications, and, Slow Healing of Wounds

Like other respiratory infections, this disease usually affects an individual’s lungs. Daily alcohol intake may turn an ordinary case of COVID-19 into a condition that requires hospitalization or that causes fatal results. It has been noted that when alcohol is consumed, it has a negative effect on a person’s immunity. As a result, it is difficult for a person to fight infectious diseases. Two of the most serious diseases that can strike an individual are HIV and hepatitis C.

Factors such as the amount of alcohol a person drinks, how often a person drinks, the type of alcohol they drink, and whether they are biologically male or female can increase or decrease how much it affects their immune system. For example, a 2015 study in the journal Alcohol found that binge drinking can reduce infection-fighting white blood cells known as monocytes in the hours after peak intoxication, essentially weakening your immune system. Alcohol–immune interactions also may affect the development and progression of certain cancers.

Recommended maximum intake

That can put you at risk for long-term disease, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Even a short bout of binge drinking leaves you at higher risk for infection for about 24 hours. Alcohol widens your blood vessels, making more blood flow to your skin. The heat from that extra blood passes right out of your body, causing your temperature to drop.

When alcohol damages the gastrointestinal tract’s barrier, bacteria and toxins can enter the bloodstream easily, potentially leading to septicemia and sepsis. “When you’re feeling run down or like you might get sick, you want to be well hydrated so that all the cells in your body have enough fluid alcohol weakens immune system in them and can work really well,” Favini says. “You don’t want to be dehydrated when you’re fighting off an infection.” Your liver detoxifies and removes alcohol from the blood through a process known as oxidation. Once the liver finishes the process, alcohol becomes water and carbon dioxide.

Impact on your health

Check out this fun and scientific video about many of the ways alcohol effects your brain. It’s the neurochemistry behind why people act the way they do when they drink. That’s why hard drinking can lead to diarrhea, which can turn into a long-term problem. It also makes heartburn more likely because it relaxes the muscle that keeps acid out of your esophagus, the tube that connects your mouth and stomach. Our staff are highly trained with dual mental health and substance use licensing. Our medical staff includes an ASAM certified addiction psychiatrist & an addiction-trained primary care physician.

According to the World Health Organization, alcohol brings both short-term and long-term effects on every part of the body, especially the immune system. Overall, drinking weakens the immune system, which lowers its ability to fight various diseases. Also, heavy consumption raises the likelihood of developing ARDS, a severe complication of COVID-19. These disruptions to the composition of the gut microbiota and to gut barrier function have important implications https://ecosoberhouse.com/ beyond the intestinal system. Infection with viral hepatitis accelerates the progression of ALD, and end-stage liver disease from viral hepatitis, together with ALD, is the main reason for liver transplantations in the United States. The article by Dolganiuc in this issue explores the synergistic effects of alcohol and hepatitis viruses on the progression of liver disease as well as alcohol consumption’s injurious effect on liver antiviral immunity.