Use Goldilocks rule as your alcohol guide
Are you worried that your alcohol consumption is creeping up during the coronavirus lockdown?
Well, you’re not alone. It probably says a lot about the British nation’s method for dealing with the situation that the Great British Off Licence has been deemed an essential business. People may not be drinking to excess, but with everyone stuck at home, it seems the lure of a cheeky glass of wine or beer is hitting many of us earlier — and harder — each day than normal.
At what price? We’ve all heard the usual (scientifically backed) stories about the damage booze does; you don’t need me to repeat them here. But beyond that, there’s a new worry that’s being articulated among the wine-o-clockers: does alcohol weaken the immune system?
That question is a rising search term on Google at the moment, and you can see why. During coronavirus, we all naturally want our immune systems to be in tip-top condition. So, what does science say about the effect of booze on our systems?
To answer that question, the starting point is to say that we know that long-term alcohol misuse causes damage to the immune system. Post-mortem studies of chronic drinkers have found that they tend to have fewer immune cells in their blood than non-drinkers.
There are several mechanisms by which alcohol misuse can damage the immune system. The first is that it can relax the gut barrier, allowing more bacteria to pass into the blood. This causes a depletion of immune cells including macrophages, T and C cells, which work together to identify and destroy pathogens in your system. With less macrophages in the blood, the immune response is less pronounced.
Alcohol can also affect the upper respiratory system, impairing the function of immune cells in the lungs. This can often remain undetected until a more serious respiratory problem occurs, then frequent drinkers get it worse than those who don’t drink.
A 2004 study found that extensive drinking reduced the function of monocytes. These are the white blood cells on the front line of immune defence, which detect viruses and bacteria and produce a chemical called type-1 interferon to summon other immune cells to fight the infection. The study found that monocytes exposed to the level of blood alcohol found from drinking four or five drinks a day for a week only produced a quarter of the chemical as those that were not exposed to alcohol.
Which all suggests you shouldn’t be drinking extensively during the pandemic (nor should you be drinking heavily after the virus has subsided, for that matter).
However, the landscape changes slightly when you start to look at moderate levels of drinking. Some studies have suggested that moderate alcohol consumption is good for us.
A 2016 study trained a group of monkeys to consume alcohol in water. One group drank a lot of the alcoholic water, one group drank less, one group drank none at all. The immune response in the group who drank a lot of alcohol was the worst, followed by the teetotal group, and the best immune response was recorded in the moderate drinking monkeys.
A scientific literature review from the University of Cambridge noted “moderate alcohol consumption (up to three to four drinks a day) has been associated with either no risk or a decreased risk for upper respiratory infections”. (We should add here that three or four drinks a day puts you well over the UK government’s alcohol consumption guideline and leaves you at increased risk of a slew of diseases, from cancer to heart disease).
The Cambridge review suggested that moderate alcohol consumption might help the immune system due to the same anti-inflammatory effects that we often hear about associated with red wine.
In short, inflammation is part of the body’s immune response. The body releases cytokines to cause inflammation; this is meant to help isolate the infected part of the body. The trouble is that too many cytokines can damage healthy cells. Alcohol is known to disrupt the release of cytokines, which may help regulate the levels of inflammation. Therefore, too much alcohol prevents any inflammation, harming immune response. However, a moderate amount may help prevent inflammation.
It remains up for debate as to whether it is the ethanol content of alcohol or some other part of a drink’s chemical make-up that produces its anti-inflammatory effects. Some studies have looked into whether the type of alcohol makes a difference. One found that wine is more likely to have an anti-inflammatory effect than gin, for example.
The Cambridge review of the evidence concludes there “is enough evidence to suggest that there are some compounds in polyphenolic-rich alcoholic beverages such as wine or beer that prevent suppression of the immune system or could trigger a protective effect”.
But before you pour yourself a big glass of wine, it’s worth noting that the review continues by saying “though the moderate consumption of beer or wine seems to exert some benefits on the immune response in healthy adults, given the serious health risks associated with exceeding two drinks per day, increased alcohol consumption cannot be recommended”.
In summary then: excessive alcohol is bad for your immune system; moderate drinking could be good for it, but either way you probably shouldn’t be drinking more than usual anyway. /©