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Minor changes one day at a time can make a big difference in your health. Smoking is terrible for your immune system and is damaging to your lungs. It’s so toxic to our bodies that dietitians often recommend that smokers increase their intake of vitamin C.
Why do I drink everyday?
If you feel that you need a drink every night or to get through a social event, stressful situation or personal struggle, and you have a compulsion to drink or constantly crave alcohol, maybe even daily, this could be a sign of psychological dependency.
This can cause your immune system to be less effective at fighting infections. Antibiotics are so important as alcohol has essentially put a stop to any chance of the lungs to naturally rid themselves of bacteria. The accidental inhalation of other fluids such as drinks or vomit can increase the severity of pneumonia infections to often life-threatening levels. When you’re suffering from pneumonia, your body’s response is to send fluids with immune cells to the area of infection in order to isolate and remove it. The concern in these instances is that fluid can fill the lungs and cause you to drown if the infection is not properly treated with antibiotics.
How Does Alcohol Impact Your Immune System?
HIV attacks the immune system by destroying a type of T cell vital to fighting infections. The destruction of these cells leaves people with HIV vulnerable to other infections, diseases, and complications. Many people who binge drink do not struggle with alcohol dependence. However, that does not make them safer from alcohol use issues or the results of them, such as poor immune system health.
It’s important to know how much you are drinking and understand the risks. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, moderate alcohol consumption is defined as having up to 1 drink per day for women and up to 2 drinks per day for men. Heavy drinking is typically defined as consuming 15 drinks or more per week for men, and consuming 8 drinks or more per week for women. Substances like drugs and alcohol, each affect the immune system in different ways, but most work to weaken the immune system. This puts an addicted individual at higher risk of infection, contraction of diseases, and weaker organs which means a weakened filter system to fight the effects of substances.
How Alcohol Affects Your Immune System
The sudden volume of alcohol can shock the system and suppress the immune system function for some time. It weakens our bodies and makes it harder to combat stress, viruses, and diseases. Dietitians recommend sticking to one drink per day for women or two drinks per day for men. That being said, there is a big difference between moderate drinking and excessive drinking in terms of its effects on your body and its immune system. Moderate or infrequent drinking does not appear to pose the same risks to your overall health as excessive drinking, which is defined as 14 or more drinks per week.
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. They note, too, that a fully functioning immune system is vital to the success of conventional chemotherapy.
Alcohol consumption and immunity
Equally important, however, is the immune system’s ability to detect tissue damage and direct the body’s response, including removing damaged tissue and assisting in subsequent tissue repair and regeneration. To perform all of these tasks, the immune system relies on an elaborate network of highly specialized cells that interact in a tightly orchestrated way. The largest contributor to alcohol-induced suppression is binge drinking.
Similarly, alcohol can trigger inflammation in the gut and destroy the microorganisms that live in the intestine and maintain immune system health. A specific type of pneumonia, called aspiration pneumonia, occurs when someone accidentally breathes in food or fluid that contains bacteria. Alcohol makes people vomit, and it is very easy to accidentally inhale some of this vomit. When combined with a suppressed immune system, this can be the perfect storm for a bad case of pneumonia. If you or a loved one worries about the effects of heavy alcohol use, please contact us today to learn about our treatment options. Long-term sobriety provides health benefits that give the body time to heal and restore the different parts of the immune system.
But just like a muscle, the immune system can become weak and fail to protect you against infection as well. The first point of contact for alcohol after consumption is the gastrointestinal (GI) system before it is absorbed sober house into the bloodstream. Here, alcohol can damage the epithelial cells, T-cells, and neutrophils in the GI tract, all of which can alter the gut barrier function and allow intestinal microorganisms to leak into circulation.
Stress causes inflammation, which has a negative impact on your immune system. That could mean taking a few deep breaths when things start to feel heated or get outside and go for a walk. Getting more exercise in general is good for our blood sugar levels, our stress, and our overall health. Another way in which alcohol lowers your immunity is by promoting widespread inflammation throughout the body.