Gut barrier damage can make the body more vulnerable to food poisoning, and epithelial cell damage can hinder the intestines’ ability to absorb nutrients. When the gut barrier cannot function properly, harmful bacteria can leak into the bloodstream, leading to further complications. Steatotic liver disease develops in about 90% of people who drink more than 1.5 to 2 ounces of alcohol per day. If a person is unvaccinated and exposed to a disease they haven’t encountered before, their immune cells are unprepared and must play catch-up to fight the pathogen. But your immune system needs more than just a healthy lifestyle to protect your body when vaccine-preventable diseases come knocking on the door. «Alcohol also destroys the protective lining inside your respiratory tract that your immune system uses to prevent upper respiratory tract infections like the common cold,» Dasgupta says.
Macrophages and Alcohol-Related Liver Inflammation
Alcohol’s impact on T cells and B cells increases the risk of infections (e.g., pneumonia, HIV infection, hepatitis C virus infection, and tuberculosis), impairs responses to vaccinations against such infections, exacerbates cancer risk, and interferes with delayed-type hypersensitivity. In contrast to these deleterious effects of heavy alcohol exposure, moderate alcohol consumption may have beneficial effects on the adaptive immune system, including improved responses to vaccination and infection. The molecular mechanisms underlying ethanol’s impact on the adaptive immune system remain poorly understood. symptoms of alcohol withdrawal Generally, women seem to be more susceptible to autoimmune or inflammatory diseases, although they have a lower risk of infections than men, especially during the pre-menopausal years. This can be attributed to women’s high levels of oestrogens that help to stimulate immunity and fight diseaseReference Wilder37–Reference Liu, Loo, Palaszynski, Ashouri, Lubahn and Voskuhl40. One mechanism by which oestrogens could modulate the immune reaction is by regulating cytokine expressionReference Ciesielska39 and reducing pro-inflammatory cytokinesReference Liu, Loo, Palaszynski, Ashouri, Lubahn and Voskuhl40.
Protective role of light-moderate dose of alcohol in autoimmune diseases
What’s more, a short period of binge drinking — let’s say a month — can cause a reduction in T cells. And this reduction is equal to that of someone who has been binge drinking for 6 months. Heavy drinking is more likely to affect a person’s immune system than moderate drinking. Women drinking fewer than two drinks at a time and men drinking fewer than three drinks at a time is considered moderate drinking.
Long-Term Effects of Alcohol on the Immune System
PMNs produce a host of bacteria-killing (i.e., bactericidal) molecules (e.g., myeloperoxidase, defensins, azurophil-derived bactericidal factors, bactericidal permeability-increasing protein, cationic proteins, gelatinase, and lactoferrin). In addition, PMNs participate in the regulation of the local defense response by releasing signaling molecules called cytokines and chemokines (e.g., tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α; interleukin [IL]-1β, IL-6, and IL-8; and macrophage inflammatory protein [MIP]-2). These molecules help recruit and activate additional PMNs as well as macrophages to the site of an injury or infection. The adaptive immune system can be subdivided into cell-mediated immunity, carried out by T cells, and humoral immunity, carried out by B cells.
- 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.
- Normal immune function hinges on bidirectional communication of immune cells with nonimmune cells at the local level, as well as crosstalk between the brain and the periphery.
- Alcohol–immune interactions also may affect the development and progression of certain cancers.
- Eventually, you can develop permanent and irreversible scarring in your liver, which is called cirrhosis.
- Each of these events is mediated by the activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB), which can be inhibited by alcohol consumption and thus prevent the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.
They may be able to give you prescriptions, provide referrals to therapists, or talk to you about treatment programs. It causes pus to accumulate in the respiratory system’s pleural cavity, the space between the chest cavity’s inner wall surface and the lungs. Since pneumonia is an infection inside the lung, a person can gradually cough it out. Empyema occurs outside of the lungs, so doctors must remove it via surgery or by draining it with a needle. Alcohol use can cause respiratory complications such as pneumonia, empyema, respiratory syncytial virus, tuberculosis, lung abscess, and adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Cancer Risk
In addition, production of IL-10 in response to TLR2/6 stimulation was increased (Pruett, Zheng et al. 2004). This same treatment also inhibited the in vitro production of IL-6 and IL-12 by peritoneal macrophages harvested 2 hours following injection of LPS (Pruett, Fan et al. 2005). This phenomenon was not observed in a TLR4 mutant mouse, indicating that the acute phase response is mediated by TLR4 (Pruett and Pruett 2006). Because alcoholics are at increased risk for hepatitis B (HepB) infections, immunization with a HepB vaccine is recommended. Another study (Rosman et al. 1997) demonstrated that the impaired antibody response in alcoholic patients (i.e., with consumption levels of 230 ± 16 g/day ethanol for 26.4 ± 1.8 years) can be improved by doubling the dose of HepB vaccine from 10 μg to 20 μg at 0, 1, and 6 months.
The gastrointestinal (GI) system is typically the first point of contact for alcohol as it passes through the body and is where alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream. One of the most significant immediate effects of alcohol is that it affects the structure and integrity of the GI tract. For example, alcohol alters the numbers and relative abundances of microbes in the gut microbiome (see the article by Engen and colleagues), an extensive community of microorganisms in the intestine that aid in normal gut function. Alcohol disrupts communication between these organisms and the intestinal immune system.
«It is well documented that drinking more than three drinks in one day on most days of the week or drinking more than five drinks on any day is damaging to the immune system,» says Amitava Dasgupta, PhD, a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at McGovern Medical School, UTHealth in Houston. It is no surprise that the key to boosting your immune system is a healthy lifestyle—which includes good nutrition, plenty of sleep, regular exercise, no smoking, and avoidance of stress.12 And if you drink alcohol, drinking in moderation is also on the list. Consuming alcohol likely slows your recovery since your immune system isn’t functioning at optimal levels when you are drinking. The bottom line is, it is best to avoid drinking during illness if you want to feel better quicker. Once you start drinking, your body has to work to metabolize the alcohol, since it considers ethanol a toxin.
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. Daily moderate consumption of alcohol (500 ml of a 12 % ethanol dilution), and 500 ml of red wine, red grape juice, and dealcoholised red wine for 2 weeks at doses which inversely correlate with CVD risk did not show any effects on human immune cell functionsReference Watzl, Bub, Pretzer, Roser, Barth and Rechkemmer30. 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.
When ALD reaches its final stage, known as alcoholic liver cirrhosis, the damage is irreversible and leads to complications. The damage is irreversible because scar tissues build up and replace the liver’s regenerative cells, preventing the organ from healing. If you drink every day, or almost every day, you might notice that you catch colds, flu or other illnesses more frequently than people who don’t drink.
For instance, genetically modified BALB/c mice that carried a TCR specific for the ovalbumin peptide and were fed a diet containing 30 percent ethanol-derived calories exhibited decreased antigen-specific Th1 responses (Waltenbaugh et al. 1998). Similarly, C57BL6 mice fed a liquid diet in which ethanol provided 27 percent of the total calories generated significantly decreased DTH responses to a T-cell–dependent antigen (i.e., sheep red blood cells) (Jayasinghe et al. 1992). The reduced DTH response and accompanying decrease in IL-12 and IFN-γ cytokine production are thought to result in part from ethanol-mediated depletion of the antioxidant glutathione in antigen-presenting cells (Peterson et al. 1998). Alcohol consumption also influences T-cell activation both in humans and in mouse models (Cook et al. 1991, 1995). Thus, C57BL/6 or BALB/c mice that consumed 20 percent ethanol in water for up to 6 months showed a greater frequency of activated T cells, increased rapid IFN-γ response, and heightened sensitivity to low levels of TCR stimulation, with no requirement for a second signal (Song et al. 2002; Zhang and Meadows 2005).
The body constantly is exposed to pathogens that penetrate either our external surface (i.e., the skin), through wounds or burns, or the internal surfaces (i.e., epithelia) lining the respiratory and gastrointestinal (GI) tracts. The first line of defense is called the innate immunity;1 it exists from birth, before the body is even exposed to a pathogen. It is an immediate and rapid response that is activated by any pathogen it encounters (i.e., is nonspecific); hypertension in addition, it plays a key role in the activation of the second level of the immune response, termed the adaptive or acquired immunity. This part of the immune response is specific to one particular pathogen and also creates an “immune memory” that allows the body to respond even faster and more effectively if a second infection with the same pathogen occurs. Both innate and adaptive immunity rely on a multitude of different cells and molecules.
Therefore, further studies focused on drinking pattern are necessary to elucidate the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on the immune response. Numerous studies have demonstrated alcohol-related impairment of T-cell responses to various challenges. For example, in rats that were administered the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae directly into the lungs, alcohol suppressed the IFN-γ response of Th1 cells; when the animals were genetically modified to express additional IFN-γ, however, their immune response was restored and they were able to clear the pathogen (Kolls et dual diagnosis treatment in california addiction treatment al. 1998). In other studies, chronic alcohol feeding impaired Th1 responses to a hepatitis C virus protein, a defect that was hypothesized to result from impaired secretion of IL-2 and GM–CSF by dendritic and T-cells (Geissler et al. 1997). This alcohol-induced defect in Th1 immunity correlates with suppression of IL-12 secretion by macrophages and dendritic cells (Waltenbaugh et al. 1998). Thus, it appears that alcohol inhibits Th1 immune responses and may predispose the organism to Th2 responses and that this shift is at least partly mediated by suppression of IL-12.
However, similarly to the in vitro studies described above, at 2 and 5 hours post-binge the numbers of circulating monocytes were reduced and levels of antiinflammatory IL-10 levels were increased (Afshar, Richards et al. 2014). 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. In contrast, in humans an increase in absolute values of the CD3+ lymphocytes has been recently found after 30 days of moderate beer consumptionReference Romeo, Warnberg, Nova, Díaz, González-Gross and Marcos11. Although the first study was made in animals, and the second in humans, the results suggest that the effect of alcohol intake on T lymphocyte subsets may depend on the amount consumed. Activated T cells normally undergo apoptosis if they receive a second activation stimulus within a short interval.
The alcohol-related decrease in peripheral B cells primarily seems to be mediated by a decrease in the frequency of the B-2 B cells. The number of B-1a cells also seems to decline, but this decrease is accompanied by a relative increase in the percentage of B-1b cells (Cook et al. 1996). The loss of B-2 cells may explain why alcoholics often cannot respond adequately to new antigens. The relative increase in B-1b cells also may lead to autoantibody production, especially of the IgM and IgA classes (which is discussed below). 5IgA is an antibody that plays a critical role in immune responses in the mucous membranes.
