Author: John Carter

Does Drinking Alcohol Cause Inflammation? What Experts Say

While often perceived as a harmless indulgence, alcohol consumption can have detrimental effects on our health. If you don’t already drink alcohol, you shouldn’t start drinking to lower your chances of developing an autoimmune condition. People who are living with an autoimmune condition should limit their alcohol intake to avoid triggering inflammation. But, when you drink more than 2 standard alcoholic drinks, the body shifts to the microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system (MEOS) to break down alcohol. This pathway produces free radicals as a by-product of breaking down alcohol. Free radicals cause inflammation and can also damage cells and tissue.

Inflammatory damage

These effects are wide-ranging, and may include asthma, arthritis, ulcers, periodontitis, Crohn’s disease, sinusitis, and hepatitis. Eventually, diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and other serious conditions may occur. The inflammation used to fight against sudden infection or injury can become chronic. Some people experience a constant low level of inflammation, which can have a severe negative impact on their overall health.

Alcoholic Hepatitis and Cirrhosis

Chronic inflammation can contribute to low white blood cell count–white blood cells are part of the body’s immune system that fight conditions like inflammation and infection. A low count may result in a variety of inflammatory diseases like cardiovascular and bowel disease, plus diabetes, arthritis, and cancer, according to a review published in Oncotarget (2). Your liver breaks down most of the alcohol so it can be removed from your body.

Manage stress

Normally, when your body faces an imbalance or a threat, you can count on your immune system to keep it in check. Unfortunately, alcohol negatively impacts your immune system as well. Ria Health offers several FDA-approved medications for alcohol use disorder.

Do certain alcoholic drinks cause more inflammation than others?

When you’re injured or attacked by harmful bacteria or viruses, inflammation is part of your body’s natural response. Eating causes an inflammatory response, while fasting reduces circulating levels of inflammatory mediators, notes Jandes. While we can’t quite knock that habit of eating—and honestly, who would want to? —intermittent fasting can help decrease the body’s overall inflammatory burden, she says.

The connection between alcohol consumption and your digestive system might not seem immediately clear. The side effects often only appear after the damage has happened. Slurred speech, a key sign of intoxication, happens because alcohol reduces communication between your brain and body.

Alcohol use can factor into mental health symptoms that closely resemble those of other mental health conditions. Unfortunately, there isn’t a specific type of alcoholic drink that doesn’t cause inflammation. However, reversing liver damage requires abstinence from alcohol. Continued drinking typically leads to progression and sometimes cirrhosis or liver failure. You can also eat anti-inflammatory foods like tomatoes, olive oil, nuts, fatty fish, leafy green vegetables, and fruits such as oranges, strawberries, blueberries, and cherries.

When combined with counseling, this approach is proven highly effective. Excessive drinking has numerous impacts on your body and mind, ranging from mild to severe. Learn which signs to look out for, and how to care for your well-being. With at-home tests from Everlywell, it’s never been easier to check for hidden signs of inflammation.

  1. Excessive or chronic alcohol consumption can trigger inflammation throughout the body, increasing your risk of chronic diseases.
  2. Alcohol disrupts the gut barrier, increasing its permeability and allowing harmful bacteria and their toxins to enter the bloodstream.
  3. This damage triggers an inflammatory response in the body,” says Diana Mesa, RDN, LDN, CDCES, founder of En La Mesa Nutrition.
  4. Excessive alcohol consumption may cause this barrier to become “leaky” or permeable.

If your pancreas and liver don’t function properly due to pancreatitis or liver disease, you could experience low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia. For example, fatty liver disease (steatosis) can be reversed with abstinence from alcohol. Even more serious issues, like fibrosis and cirrhosis, can be at least partially reversed in some cases. Although a full recovery from advanced cirrhosis is unlikely, healing is possible with cirrhosis involving only a portion of the liver. Therefore, not only does alcohol increase the production of endotoxins in the gut, but it also decreases the strength of the intestinal barrier that might block them. This allows these endotoxins—and the resulting inflammation—to spread throughout the body via the bloodstream.

Alcohol withdrawal can be difficult and, in some cases, life threatening. Depending on how often you drink and how much, you may need support from a healthcare professional if you want to stop drinking. With these conditions, you’ll only notice symptoms during alcohol intoxication or withdrawal.