After many years of divergent research on the impacts on health due to alcohol, researchers have agreed upon one statement “No matter what amount of alcohol you consume, it will always have a bad or an ill effect on your body.” This means that after drinking alcohol, various body failures can occur depending upon the amount taken in or consumed. Inflammation is also a part of those body failures in which several diseases linked with inflammation affect the body and make it weaker.
Family History
Some inflammatory diseases, like diabetes, metabolic syndrome, etc., can also be generic. If a person, who is suffering from these diseases, although a heavy drinker, still if the family has diabetes and metabolic syndrome in genes as a disease, then it would be quite difficult to say that the person has inflammation due to drinking alcohol. Only in situations where the patient or drinker has a great causal link with alcoholic use can doctors say that the inflammation is due to alcoholic usage.
What really is Inflammation?
Before reading further, one should be aware of all the meanings that relate to the word inflammation. Some of us think that inflammation is just caused when there is a sprained ankle or your lips get burst, but only a very few know that it really has a great linkage with the human defense system, also known as the safeguard against diseases, the Human Immune System.
Cytokines
Cytokines are the special productions of the immune system that are also known as Inflammatory Cytokines, which work due to Inflammation and they have the ability to detect foreign materials or substances entering the body like bacteria, several viruses, many toxic substances, various food items (harmful for the body) and when a person is in trauma, the feels, and chills are from the cytokines.
Why Inflammatory Cytokines Sometimes Aren’t Able to Help the Body?
Well, it is a very good quality of inflammation that it can allow the body to work as a fire alarm against harmful diseases, but the real problem arrives when people start drinking alcohol or consuming it in massive amounts. The human immune system starts working more than needed and never gets a break or pause in its work. This becomes an alarming situation for the body because mostly, in such cases, there is an overdrive of inflammatory cytokines, which can lead to chronic inflammation.
Contribution of Alcohol towards Inflammation
The following table gives information about alcohol’s contribution to inflammation;
| Effect of Alcohol | Description |
| Increase of Gut’s Impermeability | When you consume alcohol, it directly reaches the bloodstream and possesses the ability to alter or transform the proteins’ behavior that are responsible for allowing the exiting of the substances through the walls of the intestine. As an outcome, various harmful and toxic, incompletely digested, and potentially inflammatory food particles can enter the bloodstream. |
| Messing with the Gut’s Microbiome | When you consume alcohol, it directly reaches the bloodstream and possesses the ability to alter or transform the proteins’ behavior that is responsible for allowing the exiting of the substances through the walls of the intestine. As an outcome, various harmful and toxic, incompletely digested, and potentially inflammatory food particles can enter the bloodstream. |
Various factors can also influence the damage that is made after drinking alcohol, the baseline is the inflammation, and it includes; how your body responds to the alcohol, how healthy is your gut or your liver, the status of your hydration, whether you are sleeping properly (have had enough sleep over the past few weeks), the type of alcohol you’re using (ethyl, isopropyl or methyl) and what amount is being consumed.
Chronic Inflammation
When you suffer from the acute, you will notice various symptoms like chronic and irresistible pain, redness of the skin, or swelling of various parts of the body. But the symptoms of chronic inflammation are more tenuous. They include; several fatigues, pain in the body, anxiety attacks, depressive feelings, complications in the gastro intestine, sudden loss or gain of weight, and many persistent infections. Following are some chronic inflammations that are triggered by consuming alcohol;
Diseases of Heart
Inflammation plays a very vital role in the field of cardiology or vascular system progression and development. As mentioned earlier, the consumption of alcohol results in the elevation of the level of inflammation; the elevation can lead to cardiac failure or heart attacks. The heart is the main organ that circulates blood around the body. If it stops for even a second, the conditions get worse. Patients of chronic inflammation have faced situations where the blood flow has been compromised from the heart and have suddenly died.
Disease through Alcoholic Fatty Liver
The liver is responsible for breaking the alcohol so that it can leave one’s body as soon as possible. Through this process, many harmful substances might get generated, promoting inflammation and damage to the organ and can also lead to the disease of the alcohol-fatty liver. This disease is researched to have stored excessive amounts of fats in the liver. If this disease shows off, you must have to eliminate the alcohol completely from your body or lose your liver for your whole life left.
Weakness of the Immune System
Once you start to face chronic inflammation, it would directly attack your immune system and can decrease the amount of White Blood Cells produced. The White Blood Cells, or the WBCs, are one of the main parts of the immune system that can fight against harmful diseases and inflammation along with several infections. Once the WBCs start to decrease in number, the body starts to form various inflammatory diseases like bowel and cardiovascular diseases, along with arthritis, cancer, and diabetes.
Conclusion
Alcohol can be a great reason to cause inflammation in the body. Many harmful diseases are waiting for the body to lose its WBCs so that they can get the ability to enter the body. The natural system of defense (Immune System) gets weakened when alcohol enters the body and causes inflammation. It’s better to live a healthy life than a life like a hollow man. So, one should stop drinking alcohol and should focus more on other aspects of life.
I am a passionate beer connoisseur with a deep appreciation for the art and science of brewing. With years of experience tasting and evaluating various beers, I love to share my opinions and insights with others and I am always eager to engage in lively discussions about my favorite beverage.
