Alcohol as friend or foe in autoimmune diseases: a role for gut microbiome? PMC

This includes people who are pregnant, have alcohol abuse disorder, or are taking medications that interact with alcohol. Even drinking a little too much (binge drinking) on occasion can set off a chain reaction that affects your well-being. Lowered inhibitions can lead to poor choices with lasting repercussions — like the end of a relationship, an accident or legal woes. Each of those consequences can cause turmoil that can negatively affect your long-term emotional health. The morning after a night of over-imbibing can cause some temporary effects on your brain. Things like trouble concentration, slow reflexes and sensitivity to bright lights and loud sounds are standard signs of a hangover, and evidence of alcohol’s effects on your brain.

Autoimmune thyroid diseases

Monocytes express Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4, the PRR that is often responsible for recognizing LPS on the surface of Gram-negative bacteria. After binding to LPS, monocytes are activated and mature into macrophages that travel to the site of infection to secrete important cytokines for the inflammatory response. “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 in them and can work really well,” Favini says. Having a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at a party here and there isn’t going to destroy your gut.

In the following section, we will focus on alcohol’s effects on the gut, gut immune system and gut metabolism of fatty acids and how these effects may translate into pro-inflammatory vs protective effects in autoimmune diseases. Shortly after consumption, alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream from the stomach and small intestine, and subsequently diffuses to different body organs. LPS is a strong TLR agonist and leads to the activation and maturation of macrophages and other innate immune cells.21 Thus, the combination of increased gut permeability, LPS translocation and alcohol-mediated immune activation can predispose to a pro-inflammatory state (Figure 1). The ability of alcohol to alter both innate and adaptive immune defenses inevitably impacts how the immune system of even a moderate alcohol drinker can respond to infections. In fact, alcohol use has been shown to increase the susceptibility of drinkers to both bacterial and viral infections, as well as advance the progression of several chronic viral infections, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C.

1. Alcohol can either activate or suppress the immune system depending on, for example, how much is consumed and how concentrated it is in the various tissues and organs.
2. To this end, heavy drinkers have been shown to exhibit an increase in both IgA and IgM levels when compared to both moderate and light male drinkers.
3. Thus, alcohol may also be expected to serve as a risk factor in autoimmune diseases.
4. “By damaging those cells in your intestines, it can make it easier for pathogens to cross into your bloodstream,” says Nate Favini, MD, medical lead at Forward, a preventive primary care practice.

Past research shows alcohol consumption leads to more severe lung diseases, like adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and other pulmonary diseases, including pneumonia, tuberculosis, and respiratory syncytial virus. Alcohol–immune interactions also may affect the development and progression of certain cancers. Meadows and Zhang discuss specific mechanisms through which alcohol interferes with the body’s immune defense against cancer. They note, too, that a fully functioning immune system is vital to the success withdrawals from cymbalta of conventional chemotherapy. The clinical management of all of these conditions may be more challenging in individuals who misuse alcohol because of coexisting immune impairment.

Drinking impairs immune cells in key organs

Overall, avoid drinking more than moderate amounts if you want your immune system in good shape, says Favini. Not only will drinking alcohol reduce your immune system’s strength, but alcohol also has a dehydrating effect. “Drinking alcohol in large quantities even just for a short period of time — like binge drinking — can be bad for your health and your immune system,” says Favini. Steatotic kaiser drug treatment liver disease develops in about 90% of people who drink more than 1.5 to 2 ounces of alcohol per day.

A lack of sleep can also affect how long it takes for a person to recover if they do get sick, according to the Mayo Clinic. Drinking also makes it harder for your body to properly tend to its other critical functions, like fighting off a disease. When the body is unable to clear a pathogen, an infection can worsen and lead to more severe, life threatening complications. For more information about alcohol and cancer, please visit the National Cancer Institute’s webpage “Alcohol and Cancer Risk” (last accessed June 6, 2024). In this interview, NewsMedical talks to Cerba’s Lukasz Wulnikowski about the power of automation and how it has drastically changed the way the company approaches kit demi lovato age building lines. “Anything above that, regardless of time period, is exposing your body to more alcohol than is ideal,” says Favini.

Alcohol, other drugs, and health: Current Evidence

These disruptions to the composition of the gut microbiota and to gut barrier function have important implications beyond the intestinal system. For example, Nagy discusses how the leakage of bacterial products from the gut activate the innate immune system in the liver, triggering inflammation that underlies ALD, a condition that affects more than 2 million Americans and which eventually may lead to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. 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. Mandrekar and Ju contribute an article that homes in on the role of macrophages in ALD development, including recent insights into the origin, heterogeneity, and plasticity of macrophages in liver disease and the signaling mediators involved in their activation and accumulation.

Alcohol distracts the body from other functions

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. The Microsetta Initiative studies human microbiomes, analyzing diverse data to reveal links between microbes, diet, and health for improved public health. The immune system is how your body defends itself from infections — like harmful bacteria and viruses — and prevents you from getting sick. But just like a muscle, the immune system can become weak and fail to protect you against infection as well. “Excessive alcohol consumption can cause nerve damage and irreversible forms of dementia,” Dr. Sengupta warns.

But unhealthy factors, like stress, smoking, or drinking alcohol, can be taxing for your immune system and make it harder for it to fight off infection. The spike in alcohol sales has alarmed health experts and officials around the world, who are concerned that increased drinking could make people even more vulnerable to the respiratory disease. To this end, heavy drinkers have been shown to exhibit an increase in both IgA and IgM levels when compared to both moderate and light male drinkers.