Alcohol and Leaky Gut Syndrome: A Friendly Guide of What Happens Inside Your Tummy
The Impact of Chronic Alcohol Use and How It Can Lead to Leaky Gut Syndrome
Let’s talk about something often overlooked regarding gut health – alcohol and its impact on your body.
Alcohol is one of the most widely consumed recreational substances in the United States, with 84% of all adults reporting they have drank alcohol in their lifetime.(1) It's so common that when you go out to dinner or a party, it feels weird not to drink.
Despite alcohol alleviating social pressures and anxiety, it’s wreaking havoc on your gut health. Even having a drink or two every day can eventually lead to leaky gut syndrome.
But what happens inside your tummy when you drink alcohol? And what is the connection between alcohol and leaky gut syndrome?
I’m Dr. Martina Sturm, a functional medicine doctor who integrates Eastern and Western practices to support your health. Today, we’re going to explore how alcohol affects your gut health and how you can help heal your gut naturally with functional medicine.
Let’s dive in.
Alcohol and Its Impact on Your Body
First, let’s discuss the chronic use of alcohol and its impact on your gut health. And by chronic use, I mean low to moderate use over a long period of time. This equates to 7 to 14 drinks per week. Yes, even 1 to 2 alcoholic drinks per day can impact your gut health.(2)
Alcohol is a food toxin, and toxins damage your cells. The moment you swallow alcohol, your body begins to absorb it, break it down, and do its best to get rid of it.(3)
So, what happens in your body when you drink alcohol?
Alcohol is mostly broken down (metabolized) in the liver and upper gastrointestinal tract (GI). This process is called oxidative conversion. Here, the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) converts alcohol into the toxin acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) then converts acetaldehyde into acetate.(4)
ADH ➡️ ALDH ➡️ Acetate
When acetate is oxidized (meaning it uses oxygen to break down in the body) it changes into carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2, in large amounts, is a harmful gas that can suppress your central nervous system, interrupt your sleep, and reduce your brain function.(5)(6)
With chronic alcohol use, acetate changes the fuel source your cells need to make energy. Instead of using glucose to power your cells, it uses acetate. In other words, you need to drink more alcohol to get the energy you need to function.(6)
For social drinkers, a small portion of alcohol is metabolized by another pathway called the microsomal ethanol–oxidizing system (MEOS). Although the majority of alcohol is metabolized in the liver, both the small and large intestines can be affected by alcohol.(4)
This creates an environment of chronic inflammation that:
Disrupts your gut microbiome
Damages the lining of your intestines
Damages the small intestine which leads to nutrient malabsorption and malnutrition
Disturbs your immune system inside your gut (4)(7)
At the same time, your liver releases pro-inflammatory cytokines. These cytokines travel up to the brain, causing more inflammation in your body. Too many pro-inflammatory cytokines and chronic inflammation inside your gut is the perfect storm for developing leaky gut syndrome and can eventually lead to autoimmunity.(2)
Let’s dive a little deeper into the connection between alcohol and leaky gut syndrome.
What Is Leaky Gut and How Does It Affect the Whole Body?
Normally, the lining of your gut acts as a barrier, preventing toxins from entering your bloodstream. A few examples of common toxins are:
Stress
Processed foods
Glyphosate (Roundup)
GMOs
Gluten (in those with intolerances)
Prescription medications
NSAIDS
Alcohol
All of these can disrupt the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut. This causes inflammation in the mucosal lining and leads to increased intestinal permeability or leaky gut syndrome.
Leaky gut syndrome allows harmful toxins and partially digested food to pass into your bloodstream to other organs and systems of the body.
This can lead to intestinal diseases like:
Ulcerative Colitis
Crohn’s Disease
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Leaky gut syndrome is also linked to:
Heart disease
Obesity
Type-1 diabetes
Celiac disease
Various autoimmune diseases (e.g rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s)
Respiratory issues (e.g.asthma, allergies)
Alcohol has been shown in both animal and human studies to disrupt the gut microbiome and increase intestinal permeability, causing leaky gut syndrome.(4)
And the two go hand-in-hand to create an environment that allows toxins to thrive in your body.
Alcohol and Leaky Gut Syndrome Are Like Toxic Dance Partners
There’s an undeniable link between alcohol, the gut, the liver, and the brain.
As I mentioned, toxins that leak from the gut and pro-inflammatory cytokines released from the liver enter the bloodstream and travel to the brain using the gut-liver-brain axis.
Not only does this cause inflammation in the brain, but it also regulates communication within the central nervous system and in your immune system. It changes the on/off switch to important neurotransmitters that affect your mood and mental status.
Here’s the catch. These disrupted lines of communication also control your overall alcohol intake. This means the more you drink, the less likely you’re able to manage the amount of alcohol consumed, no matter what kind of alcohol you drink.
This evil waltz goes like this:
Alcohol damages the bacteria in your gut and causes inflammation.
This inflammation damages the mucosal lining of the gut, causing increased intestinal permeability or leaky gut syndrome.
Toxins and partially digested food leak into your bloodstream.
At the same time, your liver releases pro-inflammatory cytokines into your bloodstream.
Toxins and inflammation travel to your brain.
The inflammation causes changes in neuro and chemical signaling in your CNS.
Your mood and mental status are altered.
You can no longer regulate the amount of alcohol you drink and end up drinking more, repeating this process over and over again.
The good news: there are holistic methods to disrupt the never ending waltz between alcohol and leaky gut syndrome. There’s promising research to help you restore your gut microbiome and reverse some of the effects of alcohol.(2)(8)
Heal Your Gut Naturally From Alcohol
There are numerous ways to help replenish the good bacteria needed to heal your gut and decrease proinflammatory cytokines from drinking alcohol.
Alter Your Diet to Prioritize Vitamins and Minerals to Control Inflammation
FODMAP stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. These are sugars that can cause intestinal distress. Eating a diet low in FODMAPs can give your gut the break it needs to recover from chronic inflammation.(9)
Probiotics are good bacteria that help restore your microbiome. In turn, this helps decrease inflammation inside your gut and your CNS. By reinoculating the gut with good bacteria, these crowd out bad bacteria that promote inflammation and damage the gut lining. They also prevent harmful enzymes from reaching the liver and inflammation caused by alcohol.(10)
Vitamins B, C, D, and E help protect the liver from oxidative stress (toxins) and restore nutrient depletion caused by alcohol.(11)(12)
L-glutamine is an essential amino acid that helps decrease intestinal inflammation, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and maintain a healthy gut microbiome needed to heal and repair leaky gut syndrome.(13)
Arginine is an amino acid used to protect the liver from injury during the detoxification process.(14)
Edible mushrooms or mushroom polysaccharides help balance your gut microbiome, decreasing toxins and supporting the growth of beneficial bacteria inside your intestines.(15)
Holistic Treatments to Heal Your Gut
Traditional Chinese Medicine uses herbs to help restore your gut microbiome and protect the intestinal lining from the harmful effects of acetate.(16)
Acupuncture has been gaining traction as a treatment to aid in detoxification and recovery from alcoholism. It offers multiple benefits, including:
Reduced cravings for alcohol
Ease of withdrawal symptoms
Decreased stress and inflammation
Improved sleep quality
By stimulating specific acupuncture points, the body releases endorphins (feel-good chemicals) in your body. These chemicals help calm your nervous system, improve liver function, and promote better sleep, allowing your body to recover more quickly from the effects of alcohol.(17)
Red light therapy and near-infrared light therapy help reduce inflammation, repair tissue damage, and rebalance the gut microbiome. It’s a promising holistic treatment to support sleep during alcohol withdrawal and recovery from alcoholism.(18)
There are multiple ways you can heal your gut naturally from the harmful effects of alcohol. To find the most effective approach for your unique needs, it’s essential to partner with an expert in restoring gut health.
Why You Need a Gut Health Professional
Your gut is the key to your overall health and well-being. And when you consume alcohol, this highly complex environment is altered.
More importantly, the long-term effects of drinking alcohol and leaky gut syndrome leave you vulnerable to other illnesses and diseases.
At Denver Sports and Holistic Medicine, I’m committed to your well-being and helping you restore your gut health.
Let’s work together to craft a personalized plan that guides you toward a more balanced microbiome and a healthier gut. Sign up for a free 15-minute consultation to find out which method works best for your unique situation.
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