Greetings in today’s story I will share with you what I learned about alcohol from my friend who is a nurse in the anti-alcohol ward.
Consumption of alcohol can weaken the immune system.
Your body's immune system protects against bacteria and viruses and prevents you from getting sick, but like muscles, the immune system can also weaken.
Healthy habits, such as being active, eating a variety of foods and getting enough sleep, can strengthen your immune system. On the other hand, unhealthy factors such as stress, smoking or alcohol can be bad for your immune system by making it harder for you to fight infections.
Excessive alcohol use weakens the immune system
According to the Mayo Clinic, when you drink too much alcohol, it weakens your immune system and makes you more susceptible to diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines alcohol abuse as: heavy drinking - eight or more alcoholic beverages per week for women and 15 or more for men and occasional drinking - four or more alcoholic beverages in two or three hours for women and five or more at the same time in men.
Alcohol alters the properties of the gut microbiome, which is home to trillions of microorganisms that play several key roles when it comes to your health, and impairs the ability of these microorganisms to support your immune system.
It seems that alcohol consumption can also damage immune cells that serve as the first line of defense against bacteria and viruses.
"Damage to these cells in your gut can make it easier for pathogens to enter the bloodstream," says Dr. Nate Favini.
For these reasons, when you drink too much alcohol, you reduce your body's defense mechanisms that fight bacterial and viral infections. And not only are you more susceptible to colds, but excessive drinking also leads to pneumonia and other lung diseases.
It can also lead to a number of other health problems, including high blood pressure and heart disease, liver disease and an increased risk of cancer.
"Drinking alcohol in large quantities and for a short period of time, like occasional drinking, can be bad for your immune system," says Dr. Favini.
A study published in the journal Alcohol found that occasional drinking can reduce the number of white blood cells that fight infection.
Moderate consumption does not harm immunity, but be careful
According to Dr. Favini, moderate alcohol consumption, one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men, is safe and generally does not leave bad consequences on your health.
Also, some people should not drink alcohol at all. This group includes pregnant women, those who are violent when they drink or those who take drugs that must not be combined with alcohol. Alcohol also makes certain health conditions problematic.
"Everyone who has a chronic liver condition should avoid alcohol. For example, people with hepatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver inflammation and any condition that affects liver function should avoid alcohol," says Dr. Favini.
All in all, avoid drinking more than moderate amounts of alcohol if you want to maintain your immune system, advises Dr. Favini.
And when you feel bad or sick, don't drink. Not only will alcohol weaken your immune system, but it will also lead to dehydration.
"When you feel faint or like you might be sick, then you should be well hydrated so that the cells in your body have enough fluid in them and can work well. You certainly don't want to become dehydrated when you are fighting an infection."
My friend really gave me a lot of information that I didn't know, I wrote it all down and now I'm sharing it with you, thank you for reading the post until next time.
Thank you for writing about alcohol. I used to write about prohibition a long time ago. Anyway, about alcohol is difficult to write. Someone who like will hate that writing, a someone who is cautious will encourage you to write to people see its bad influence.