Nicotine from cigarettes, chewing tobacco, or any other source can weaken your body’s ability to fight germs. Other chemicals in e-liquids seem to suppress your immune response, especially when you inhale them through vaping. In the summer, just 5-15 minutes of rays on your hands, face, and arms 2-3 times a week usually is enough.

1. Women drinking fewer than two drinks at a time and men drinking fewer than three drinks at a time is considered moderate drinking.
2. Without healthy gut bacteria, viruses and infections can worsen and develop into more severe complications.
3. Without rapid hospital treatment, septicemia can lead to sepsis, which is life-threatening.
4. If you find it challenging to limit or stop your alcohol intake, it may be time to seek help for alcohol addiction.

This means that its functioning shifts to focus on breaking down the alcohol and takes its energy from other critical functions such as fighting diseases. While your body is metabolizing alcohol, it has a lower ability to fight off infections and viruses, making you more vulnerable to developing a cold or more serious condition. 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.

Treatment of a mouse cell line (i.e., A78-G/A7 hybridoma cells) with different concentrations of ethanol (25, 50, 100, and 200mM) for 48 hours resulted in a linear increase in IgM levels (Muhlbauer et al. 2001). Moreover, spontaneous IgA synthesis by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs)— a mixed population of various white blood cells that also includes B cells—was higher in PBMCs isolated from alcoholic patients with liver disease compared with controls (Wands et al. 1981). IgA concentrations also were increased in a layer (i.e., the lamina propria) of the mucous membranes lining the intestine of adult female Wistar rats after acute ethanol administration (4g/kg intraperitoneally) for 30 minutes (Budec et al. 2007). Recent studies suggest that the increase in IgA levels may be mediated by an ethanol-induced elevation of the enzyme neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in the animals’ intestine, because inhibition of nNOS before ethanol injection suppressed the IgA increase (Budec et al. 2013). However, additional studies are needed to fully uncover the mechanisms that underlie increased Ig production while B-cell numbers are reduced.

Frequent and heavy alcohol consumption can suppress the immune system, making the body vulnerable to viruses and infections. Alcohol misuse can cause short-term effects such as the common cold or gastrointestinal complications, but it can also lead to more serious conditions such as cancer, septicemia, or, liver disease. Often, the alcohol-provoked lung damage goes undetected until a second insult, such as a respiratory infection, leads to more severe lung diseases than those seen in nondrinkers. In addition to laboratory studies confirming the impact of alcohol consumption what drug causes foaming at the mouth on the innate immune system, several studies have looked at how heavy drinking can alter plasma cytokine levels. To this end, one study analyzed IL-10, IL-6, IL-18, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) levels in 25 non-treating seeking heavy drinkers after they had consumed an alcoholic drink. The researchers reported significant reductions in the TNF-α levels three and six hours after the alcohol consumption.

Gut health

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. 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.

Moderate alcohol consumption and the immune system: A review

Alcohol consumption also damages epithelial cells, T cells, and neutrophils in the GI system, disrupting gut barrier function and facilitating leakage of microbes into the circulation (see the article by Hammer and colleagues). Just overdoing it once slows your body’s ability to fight germs for up to 24 hours. That may be part of the reason you’re more likely to get illnesses like liver disease, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and certain cancers. If you use alcohol, try to keep it to one drink a day for women and two drinks for men.

How Much Alcohol Is a Problem For Your Immunity?

Those who have any of the known risk factors for COVID-19, like heart disease or diabetes, should drink even less. Drinking also makes it harder for your body to properly tend to its other critical functions, like fighting off a disease. Long-term alcohol use can change your brain’s wiring in much more significant ways. But when you ingest too much alcohol for your liver to process in a timely manner, a buildup of toxic substances begins to take a toll on your liver. Your liver detoxifies and removes alcohol from your blood through a process known as oxidation.

Alcohol use can damage the hippocampus, the part of your brain responsible for memory and learning. Some studies have found that even light or moderate drinking can lead to some deterioration of the hippocampus. According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 69.5% of people in the United States reported drinking within the last year.

Alcohol’s widespread effects on immune function also are underscored in the article by Gauthier, which examines how in utero alcohol exposure interferes with the developing immune system in the fetus. This exposure increases a newborn’s risk of infection and disease; additional evidence suggests that alcohol’s deleterious effects on immune development last into adulthood. Alcohol-related alterations of immune surveillance also have been implicated in the development of cancer (Poschl and Seitz 2004). Reduced cell-mediated immunity was proposed as a potential explanation for the high incidence of head and neck cancer observed in alcoholic patients (Lundy et al. 1975). However, these studies are difficult to interpret, because several factors affect antitumor immunity in human alcoholics, including malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, and liver cirrhosis.