“Anyone with chronic liver conditions should be avoiding alcohol, for example, people with hepatitis, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, liver inflammation, and any condition that could affect liver function would be a reason to avoid alcohol,” notes Favini. If you’re deficient in this sunshine vitamin — and many people are — a supplement could help to safeguard those adaptive immune cells that decline with age, says Dr. Lancaster. The recommended daily amount of vitamin D is 600 IU for people 70 and under, and 800 IU for people over 70. Once these antibodies and T and B cells have encountered a specific germ, they remember it. In the future, if you’re exposed to the same germ, your adaptive immune system will mount a more effective and swifter response. Gut microbiota are able to produce various of the aforementioned metabolites that act on enteroendocrine cells, the vagus nerve or by translocation throughout the gut epithelium into the systemic circulation and may have an impact on host physiology.

Several lines of evidence suggest that alcohol abuse significantly disrupts the GI and respiratory tract immune barriers. Recently, it was reported that a single episode of binge alcohol consumption in alcohol-experienced human volunteers (men and women) initially (within the first 20 min) increased total number of peripheral blood monocytes and LPS-induced TNF-α production when blood alcohol levels were ~130mg/dL. However, similarly to the in vitro studies described above, at 2 and 5 hours post-binge the numbers of circulating monocytes were reduced and levels of antiinflammatory IL-10 levels were increased (Afshar, Richards et al. 2014). Numerous sources of evidence gathered from experiments carried out in rodents show that modifications in the composition of gut microbiota impact in the brain functions and behavioral aspects [65], including the predisposition to high alcohol consumption [66]. Leclercq et al. [67] found a correlation between leaky gut and inflammation with modifications in scores of depression, anxiety and social interactions in alcohol craving. Along the same line, it has been shown that rats replicate several behavioral and biochemical alterations after stool transplantation from patients with depression and anxiety behaviors [68].

How Alcohol Affects the Immune System

These data underline not only the reduction of pro-inflammatory interleukins but an increase of anti-inflammatory cytokines in serum samples as well [129]. In line with these results, using the same binge drinking model, wild-type mice show decreased levels of IL-15, TNFα, IL-9, IL-1β & IL-1α, IL-13, IL-17, and IL-6, while IL-10 and MIP-2 are increased in the peritoneal lavage fluid [23]. However, this is not represented in each compartment of the body, as acute alcohol use may deter TNFα production in serum, but, on the other hand, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid TNFα levels in the mouse model were not altered at any time after infection [81]. Importantly, it adds another dimension to alcohol’s modulation of immunity, because the observed effects may be exclusive to the investigated location. In human monocytes treated with 25 mM alcohol, short term exposure (one to two days) reduces the LPS-induced TNFα release and gene expression.

The rest of the SCFAs reach the circulatory system via the superior or inferior mesenteric vein, reaching the brain and crossing the blood–brain barrier thanks to monocarboxylate transporters thus being able to act as signaling molecules between the gut and the brain [74]. Specifically, chronic alcohol consumption could reduce the SCFAs count through the reduction in some Firmicutes genera, such as Faecalibacterium and Ruminococcaceae, on which the production of SCFAs depends [75,76]. Furthermore, it has been described that alcohol consumption would also have effects on other microbiota derived metabolites, leading to increases in branched-chain amino acids [77] and peptidoglycans [78]. However, studies showing the effect of alcohol on these microbiota derived metabolites are scarce. In addition to these changes in cytokine function, investigators also have shown a contribution of barrier dysfunction to the postinjury increase in infections in intoxicated people (Choudhry et al. 2004). Thus, alcohol intoxication can suppress chemokine production and impair the expression of proteins that allow neutrophils to adhere to other cells at the site of infection, which also contributes to increased susceptibility to infection.

Brain

The spike in alcohol sales has alarmed health experts and officials around the world, who are concerned that increased drinking could make people even more vulnerable to the respiratory disease. The intestinal microbiota (IMB) is the set of microorganisms that inhabit our intestines. These microorganisms, among others, include bacteria, fungi, yeasts and viruses [42]. However, in most cases, when referring to IMB, one usually refers to the populations of bacteria that have colonized our large intestine.

• Their ability to serve as antigen presenting cells and produce cytokines in vivo has been controversial (Dong and Benveniste 2001).
• Additionally, disregarding the specificity of the innate immunity, the influence of alcohol-induced oxidative stress on cardiovascular system has to be considered as well.
• Your liver detoxifies and removes alcohol from your blood through a process known as oxidation.
• Cytokines are affected by alcohol on several levels as they are induced by certain pathways affected by alcohol, which again, in turn, can be modulated by other cytokines.
• Alcohol alters the makeup of your gut microbiome — home to trillions of microorganisms performing several crucial roles for your health — and affects those microorganisms’ ability to support your immune system.

4Similarly, chronic consumption of 18 percent ethanol in water for 31 weeks resulted in impaired antigen-specific CD8 T-cell responses following inoculation with Listeria monocytogenes (Gurung et al. 2009). The researchers emphasize that although their research suggests moderate alcohol consumption may benefit the immune system, they do not recommend that people with a history of alcohol abuse start to drink based on these findings. The first cells to respond to pathogens are usually those that also have the ability to directly and independently neutralize and kill the microbes by, for example, phagocytosis or ROS. This is the process of recognizing pathogens and swallowing them to digest and destroy [151].

1. Cellular Responses—Phagocytosis and Oxidative Burst

The authors suggest that E-selectin may play an important role in neutrophil migration [203]. Furthermore, another chronic alcohol consumption model underlines a decrease of PMNs chemotaxis after LPS stimulation in alcohol-fed mice does alcohol compromise your immune system [204]. A further publication shows that alcohol may not only affect the general chemotaxis and migratory behavior of PMNs, but can modulate different steps of neutrophil infiltration in even contrasting directions as well [205].