How Alcohol Can Affect Your Immune System

Significant differences between the immune system of the mouse—the primary model organism used in immune studies—and that of humans also complicate the translation of experimental results from these animals to humans. Moreover, the wide-ranging roles of the immune system present significant challenges for designing interventions that target immune pathways without producing undesirable side effects. Research has been slowly linking the puzzle pieces together in regard to immunity and depression. It is believed that depression causes a lot of stress on the brain, and as a result, the body is stressed, which can lower the immune system, inviting infections into the body.

Your stomach wants to get rid of the toxins and acid that alcohol churns up, which gives you nausea and vomiting. And because your liver was so busy processing your drinks, it didn’t release enough sugar into your blood, bringing on weakness and the shakes. Normally, this organ makes insulin and other chemicals that help your intestines break down food.

A glass of wine with dinner ‘could improve health’

The impact alcohol has on the body is mainly due to the way the body processes alcohol. 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. Alcohol’s effect on the immune system can also affect cancer recovery. Having a fully functioning immune system is crucial to successful chemotherapy treatment, so a person’s body may not handle or react to conventional chemotherapy as well if they drink alcohol. Alcohol also causes the body to metabolize toxic chemicals and increase hormone levels. For example, an increase in estrogen can lead the body to develop breast cancer.

Similarly, wine intake, especially red wine, has been identified as having a protective effect against the common coldReference Takkouche, Regueira-Mendez, Garcia-Closas, Figueiras, Gestal-Otero and Hernan29. However, the design of this study could be questioned since the duration may have been insufficient to affect the immune system; probably it would take up to six weeks to see changes and differences in the immune system. An inflammatory response is typically the body’s first line of defense against excessive alcohol consumption, but unfortunately, that inflammation often causes damage to the body’s immune cells. The regular consumption of alcohol can easily cause a case of chronic inflammation, and chronic inflammation is linked to impaired immune system function. Repeated triggering of the body’s inflammatory response will eventually modulate the immune system’s capabilities and lead to dysregulation of the immune system. When this happens, the immune system loses its ability to control its own immune responses, causing either an underreaction or overreaction when a new immune threat presents itself.

Innate lymphocytes: Role and function in immune homeostasis

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). It would be worth exploring the effects of https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/causes-of-alcoholism-why-are-people-alcoholics/ alcohol on these cells, both in their secretion of IL-10 and in their ability to repel infection. At the time of this review, we found little research discussing the effects of alcohol on innate-like B cells.

Gateway Foundation offers safe and effective treatment so you can get back to living a healthy life. Contact Gateway Foundation to learn more about how we can help you or your loved one pursue recovery. Alcohol can hinder the body’s ability to recover from tissue injury and heal infections. If a person regularly drinks alcohol, their injuries, cuts, and surgical site wounds may heal slower than someone who avoids alcohol. They are also more vulnerable to developing cellulitis and surgical site infections.

Immune System Disruption from Alcohol

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. The adaptive immune system can be further subdivided into cell-mediated immunity and humoral immunity. Whereas T-cells are primarily involved with cell-mediated immunity, B-cells play a major role in humoral immunity.

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 does alcohol weaken your immune system to travel throughout the body faster. With regard to cell-mediated immunity, a reduction in CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ cell numbers has been found after chronic alcohol administration in male ratsReference Boyadjieva, Dokur, Advis, Meadows and Sarkar19.

Alcohol use can lead to complications with depression, such as suicidal thoughts. Those experiencing depression may also turn to alcohol as a coping mechanism. Depression is not only a trigger for alcohol consumption, but can also be the effect of alcohol use disorder. Over time, this depression can worsen, spurring the need to consume more alcohol and perpetuating the cycle of depression and alcohol use disorder. In summary, alcohol decreases the function and abundance of MAIT cells.