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99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer – take one down, pass it around, and BOOM – the next day you’re coughing, sneezing, and coming down with an ugly case of something that’s not just a hangover. What exactly happened inside your body between 6 P.M. the night before, and 6 P.M. the day after? It turns out that those 99 beers weren’t only affecting your inhibitions – they were taking shots at your immune system, as well.
Let’s go back to Beer #1…
I’ve decided to use beer as my drink of choice, but all alcoholic drinks contain ethanol (aka alcohol) – the compound that is responsible for that warm, fuzzy feeling some of you may be familiar with. As you sip, gulp, or chug your first beer, the liver immediately gets to work metabolizing ethanol into mainly water and carbon dioxide. Given about an hour’s time, your liver can successfully clear the amount of ethanol in one alcoholic drink (12 oz beer, 5 oz wine, or 1 oz liquor) from your system. What the liver didn’t plan on, was Beer #1 turning into Beer #2 before 60 minutes was up.
Beer #2 and beyond…
Stressed, overwhelmed, and ticked off, your liver starts to back-up – unable to handle the amount of alcohol absorbed through your stomach and GI tract. While you begin to feel sensations of relaxation, sociability, euphoria, hunger, and lethargy (possibly in that order), the ethanol molecules that bypassed liver metabolism take a free ride via the bloodstream to take jabs at some innocent bystanders.
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Your Immune System gets sucker punched…
Unassuming and unexpecting, your immune system may be taking a temporary hit here. A couple of uber motivated individuals, Stephen Pruett and Ruping Fan, constructed a binge drinking mouse model to test the effect of acute alcohol abuse (as opposed to chronic excessive alcohol consumption) on the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines known to be associated with immune function. The mice were instructed to bong four beers prior to the study – kidding. In reality, they were administered 6g/kg of ethanol at time increments of 0.5, 2, or 24 hours before they were given lipopolysaccharide, a molecule which induces the production of certain cytokines. Pruett and Fan found that selective cytokine production was inhibited at each of these time intervals, indicating that even 24 hours after the last drop of alcohol is consumed, the immune system is still in a state that could increase the risk of infection.
In English, please…
The study is basically telling us that when we drink enough alcohol in one sitting to overwhelm our livers (more than one drink an hour), the ethanol in our system may be temporarily strangling the life out of our immune systems. Even 24 hours after you had your last sip, the little guys that work so hard to keep you healthy, are still trying to catch their breath. You might be wondering how this really applies to you, since Pruett and Fan experimented with mice, not humans. This is a noteworthy concern, but since mice and men do have some comparable immune characteristics, we also should be concerned with the fact that what’s happening to our furry friends when they’ve had a few too many, could be happening to us, as well.
I’ll be fine. I sweat out the alcohol with a killer workout “sesh”…
Maybe. Maybe not. How “killer” is your workout? Sweating is definitely a way to get rid of ethanol (and to reek of booze), but vigorous exercise is also a way to give your immune system another kick in the gut. As exercise intensity and duration increases, the number of certain immune cells (T cells & B cells) drops proportionally and may take 24 hours to return to pre-”sweat sesh” levels. Under normal, healthy circumstances, a fit individual will usually make a healthy recovery from this fleeting immunosuppression. For an already immunocompromised person, this might up your chances of contracting the nasty cold that the sneezing gym rat on the treadmill next to you is dealing with. Do not take this as an excuse to lie horizontal all day. As I said before, the more intense the workout, the greater the punch to your immune system. Stick with some light to moderate exercise that won’t have such a “knock you on your butt” effect – leisure bike ride, long walk on the beach, light skip to the supermarket – you get the point.
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Show yourself some nutritious love…
Give yourself some of the TLC that Mom would have if you were sick at home – substituting the ice cream and Vernor’s, for veggies and H2O. After the havoc alcohol wreaked on your insides, your body will be crying for water, begging for immune boosting nutrients, and craving carbs to settle your stomach and stabilize your blood sugar. So do yourself a favor and pass the french fries and Coke. Load up on the food and drink that will actually make you feel better: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and water, my friend. The Mayo Clinic staff identified 10 of earth’s edibles that contain Vitamin C and other cold-combating warriors: spinach, apples, blueberries, sweet potatoes, almonds, beans, salmon, broccoli, wheat germ, and tomatoes. Pair some of these super foods with your favorite whole grains and plenty of H2O to give your body the extra help it needs to recover.
Disclaimers…
100% of the time I will recommend AGAINST drinking 99 beers. The reference to the song was used purely as a joke.
99% of the time I WILL recommend exercise, but there are those specific situations when taking a day off (or at least taking it easy) could be to your benefit.
You should show yourself some nutritious love EVERYDAY – not just when you’re feeling down and out.
And after all that, I bet I know just what you’re thinking – TGIF.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Heh. Excellent timing on this post, Alokuta. You do a great job of explaining (in plain English!) the effects that ethanol have on your system, and why exercise complicates matters. One question, though – what is Vernor’s? Is that a tasty regional treat? You’ll want to be careful of using references that might be unknown to a significant portion of your audience. If your primary audience is local, though, then that same reference can actually boost your ethos as a writer.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you for the tips Ashley – I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Very good point with Vernor’s and you’re spot on – it’s a Detroit made soft drink that my Mom believes can cure any sickness. I’ll definitely work on better explaining such references in future posts!
Have a great Friday,
Ann
Ann, thanks for your response (and many apologies for mistaking your username for your name in my earlier comment!). I adore regional soft drinks – I grew up with Buffalo Rock ginger ale, which my grandfather swore was a magical cure as well
Next time I’m near Detroit, I will check out Vernor’s!
That’s okay – my fault for having it as my display name!
Love this! And Vernors.
Thanks Molly!
Great article Ann! A great read to start out my morning.
Let me start by saying i’m a craft beer drinker who drinks craft beer and runs my own blog, and now i am more aware of the effects of ethanol on the immune system. It’s no joke that people don’t quite understand how excessive drinking can not only cause you to get sick (hangover), but also be more susceptible to catching a bug/virus going around.
That’s why i chose to work out and not get whats known as an “inactivity belly” or commonly reffered to as a beer belly. I understand that eating healthy, and limiting intake of alcohol to 2 beers a day and maybe only a few more on some weekends and special occasions. C’mon i’m only in my mid-twenties
I enjoy reading about the beer runner, who writes for DRAFT magazine. Who has also been on a beer running streak for over a year. Which is having a beer and running a mile everyday.
Great writing and information from all of this. Thank you!
Glad it got your Friday off to a good start! I have heard the theory that ONE beer is a good post-exercise carb source – I’ll look into more information on that (possibly for a future post?!). I haven’t heard of beer running streaks, though! I’ll have to check out this beer runner/writer that you speak of.
Thanks for reading!
Ann
Ann,
This was a very approachable article. It was easy to follow and very informative. I was wondering, what exactly is a cytokine? You said that they are associated with immune function. Anyway, great first post! Happy Friday.
Margaret
Hi Margaret,
A cytokine is the general name for a large number of proteins mostly associated with signaling and communication between cells. Specific cytokines associated with immune function include lymphokines, monokines, and many others (usually named after the type of cell that secretes them). This article was really helpful in explaining their role in more detail:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2785020/
Hope this helps and thank you for your comments!
Ann
My sister, nephew and I were speculating a few months ago why pho is such a great hangover remedy, and now we may know — all the water and veggies. Nice article, easy-ish to understand to a lay person, and well written and accessible.
I’ll have to be honest – I wasn’t entirely sure what “pho” was when I read your comment so I had to do a little research and I think you’re exactly right. Hot broth loaded up with veggies – sounds like a pretty perfect combo to replenish water and nutrients!
Nice job Annie, I’ll have to pass the post to all my friends so they understand what we are doing some times.
Thank you, Dad! Pass the word on so all of you guys stay healthy after those Michigan tailgates…
I was curious about the alcohol dose given to the mice, and an equivalent human dosage. I am a male human, weighing approximately 100 kilos. If my math is correct, then I would have to drink 600g of pure ethanol, something on the order of 1.5 liters of 80 proof whiskey, in order to receive the equivalent dose as the mice. That’s about 50 shots. The state of my immune system would be the least of my worries, as acute alcohol poisoning would likely killing me instead!
Thanks for your comment, Artie! The actual study goes into further detail on the specifics of the ethanol administration: the 6g/kg gavage was with a 32% ethanol solution, which the study reported as an amount that yielded blood ethanol concentrations similar to those reported in binge drinkers. Although this study used 6g/kg dosage, another study reported cytokine inhibition at ethanol doses as low as 3g/kg.
Here is a link to the abstract for the first study that determined a dose to mimic binge drinkers blood ethanol concentration: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8651442
Here is a link to the second study that found effects at 3g/kg: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1764540/
Hopefully, that helps clear things up a bit – please let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks again for being a concerned reader, it was a great point to clarify!
Ann,
Nice job on the article very informative!
You convinced me ! The next Michigan tailgate I’m bringing a bushel of apples and lite beer!
I’m holding you to that, Sonny – thanks for reading!
Ha! Thanks for the post. A great thing to send to friends who claim that alcohol acts as an internal disinfectant towards illness.
It’s definitely a myth buster – pass on the word!
obviously like your website however you need to take a look at the spelling on several of your posts.
Several of them are rife with spelling issues and I
find it very bothersome to inform the truth then again I’ll surely come back again.