The nutritionist explains, “Pets bring in mud and mess from outside, bringing home a plethora of microbes that can strengthen the immune system as children and later on in life.” It’s important to be aware of any imbalances in your body, as they could be affecting your gut. This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article. The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author. Briefly, the random-effect IVW pools estimate from each IV and provide causal estimation, assuming that all IVs are valid or are invalid in a way that the overall pleiotropy is balanced to be zero (Burgess et al., 2015). When there is considerable imprecision in the estimates, causal effect estimates from the IVW are overprecise, whereas the likelihood method gives appropriately sized confidence intervals (Burgess et al., 2013).
Alcohol’s Effects on Lung Health and Immunity
Some of this discrepancy likely is related to differences in the bacterial pathogens studied. Thus, Jareo and colleagues (1995) noted impaired neutrophil killing of selected strains of S. Pneumoniae in vitro and a complete absence of killing of other bacterial strains in alcohol-exposed animals.
Impaired immunoglobulin M production by incubation of hybridoma cells with ethanol
But there’s plenty of research to back up the notion that alcohol does lead to weight gain in general. Eventually, you can develop permanent and irreversible scarring in your liver, which is called cirrhosis. If alcohol continues to accumulate in your system, it can destroy cells and, eventually, damage your organs. One study found that people who got less than 7 hours of sleep were nearly three times more likely to develop a cold compared with those who got 8 or more hours of sleep. Drinking also makes it harder for your body to properly tend to its other critical functions, like fighting off a disease. Spending time with animals can help reduce stress and stimulate the gut microbiome, which helps keep your gut healthy.
Short-term effects of alcohol on the immune system
While antibiotics do not prevent the induction of TLR mRNA production, inhibition of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase (NADPH oxidase) is effective in limiting hepatic TNFα levels 29. These data indicate that reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in inflammation, which is induced by chronic alcohol consumption 29. Nevertheless, TLR3 examined in a binge-drinking mouse model with TLR3-/- and IL-10-/- knockout mice seemed to have an antagonistic effect to TLR4. Treatment with polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid, a TLR3 ligand, decreases TNFα, IL-6, MCP-1, and FAS gene expression, and enhances IL-10 gene expression in the qRT-PCR analysis in isolated Kupffer cells as well as in hepatic stellate cells 30. Alcohol-fed animals showed that reduced T cell proliferation and altered CD4 and CD8 T cell counts were major reasons for pulmonary tuberculosis in infected animals 60. Animal studies reported that alcohol intoxication leads to suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-12 and interferon‐gamma (IFN‐γ); however, this pro-inflammatory suppression due to alcohol mediated the increase in anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 61,62.
The effect of moderate alcohol consumption on fat distribution and adipocytokines
Within the GI tract, alcohol exposure can also alter the number and abundance of microorganisms present within the microbiome, all of which play an important role in normal GI function. In addition to its adverse effects on GI functioning, the impact of alcohol on the GI microbiome can also alter the maturation and functions of the immune system. HIV infection progression depends on CD4 T cell counts, and anti-retroviral treatment reportedly depends on the use or withdrawal of alcohol consumption 58. An animal model of simian immunodeficiency virus infection showed that alcohol impairs the nutritional status and increases TNF-α in muscles to cause muscle wasting 59.
“Over time, this repeated damage can result in cirrhosis, where the liver becomes so scarred that it loses functionality,” she explains. Here’s how the long-term consequences of excessive drinking can gradually take a toll on your health. In conclusion, alcohol influences the various components of the innate immunity in different directions depending on its dose and the duration of exposure.
“Alcohol intake can kill normal healthy gut bacteria, which help to promote health and reduce risk of infection,” Mroszczyk-McDonald said. Worldwide, men consume more alcohol than women, and American men are much more likely than women to use alcohol, binge drink, and report heavy drinking. Among racial and ethnic groups in the United States, White individuals report the highest overall alcohol use, with alarming trends in alcohol misuse observed among both genders and various ethnicities over the past decade 2. According to Favini, a moderate amount of drinking — one drink per day for women, and two drinks per day for men per the United States Dietary Guidelines for Americans — is generally safe for people in good health and unlikely to have a negative effect on their immune systems. When you are stressed, your body releases hormones and neurotransmitters that can affect your gut in a number of ways, including slowing down digestion and upsetting the balance of bacteria in your gut.
Attenuated cortisol response to alcohol in heavy social drinkers
The World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. surgeon general have warned people to avoid drinking too much alcohol during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Those at increased risk should cut down or abstain from alcohol because every little thing an individual can do to improve the health and reduce risk is worth it at this point, even if the evidence is not entirely clear,” Mroszczyk-McDonald said. According to the Cleveland Clinic, once you take a sip of alcohol, your body prioritizes breaking down alcohol over several other bodily functions. The body doesn’t have a way to store alcohol like it does with carbohydrates and fats, so it has to immediately send it to the liver, where it’s metabolized. Similarly, alcohol can trigger inflammation in the gut and destroy the microorganisms that live in the intestine and maintain immune system health.
- In patients admitted to hospital with acute alcoholic hepatitis, serum levels of IL-8, IL-4, and IFNγ are higher than age- and sex-matched control patients 132.
- Consider however that IL-10 signaling is also heavily utilized by innate-like B cells, a group important for IgM and as the first line of defense against infection (98).
- A further publication shows that alcohol may not only affect the general chemotaxis and migratory behavior of PMNs, but can modulate different steps of neutrophil infiltration in even contrasting directions as well 205.
- Of interest, chronic ethanol exposure increased the migratory capacity of hepatic DC compared with DC from water control mice.
Cytokines are affected by alcohol on several levels as they are induced by certain pathways affected by alcohol, which again, in turn, can be how does alcohol affect the immune system modulated by other cytokines. Summarized, this makes it difficult to differentiate between altered cytokine actions and altered cytokine release. In an in vitro model of acute inflammation, pretreatment of human lung epithelial cells with alcohol (85 or 170 mM) for 24 or 72 hours reduces IL-8 release upon their stimulation with IL-6.
These talks covered a range of topics exploring dysfunction in innate and adaptive immunity after ethanol exposure. The first session was chaired by Dr. Elizabeth Kovacs and was led off by Dr. Kevin Legge from the University of Iowa. Dr. Legge presented work examining the ability of mice to respond to infection with influenza A after long term ethanol intake. Whereas low dose (0.01LD50) intranasal challenge with influenza virus minimally affected control mice, infection of animals after 4 or 8 weeks of alcohol intake (ethanol in water regimen) resulted in significant morbidity (weight loss) and mortality (up to 50%). Examination of the pulmonary immune system revealed lower numbers of influenza-specific CD8+ T cells, as measured by either tetramer or intracellular IFN-γ staining, as well as compromised migration of respiratory dendritic cells to the draining lymph nodes after infection. These results clearly indicate that chronic ethanol exposure weakens the pulmonary immune system and predisposes towards severe disease after influenza infection.