A sober look at the negative effects of alcohol on intestinal flora and intestinal mucosa

One thing that often causes great resistance among our customers is the subject of alcohol. Or simply cutting out alcohol. What sounds harmless and just like enjoyment and pleasure can, however, have a considerable negative impact on your intestinal health. The fact is that the body classifies alcohol as poison. And whenever there is poison in circulation, getting it out of the body becomes a top priority. Other metabolic processes, such as recovery or fat breakdown, are stopped completely. I talk about these processes and other effects of alcohol on your gut health in today's episode.



In my consultations, I have seen time and again that people were willing to change their diet and take gut cleansing products, but when the conversation turned to alcohol, the barriers were immediately raised. "I simply don't want to do without a glass of red wine or a beer after work. It's quality of life and it's unthinkable that I would leave it out." That's what my customers say.

I've talked about this topic on the podcast before. But it's summer and barbecues and alcohol are a big topic again. That's why I'm bringing it up again. I've got some info that's in line with a previous podcast episode, but also some brand new stuff that hopefully rounds it out for you.

It's really funny that we as a society have such a different attitude to what alcohol does to the body than anything else we eat or drink. Alcohol is seen by most people as part of a pleasurable life. It is simply part of it. Questioning it is often vehemently rejected.

I myself come from a family where enjoyment, good food and a good bottle of wine are highly valued. You may know that I originally trained as a hotel manager, which of course included the subject of drinks and, above all, wine. We regularly tasted wine and in one of our school restaurants, where we regularly ate lunch, each of the three courses was accompanied by the right wine.

But that was a long time ago. Now I like to have a glass of wine now and then. Or an Aperol Spritz. But only occasionally. Often for weeks, sometimes nothing at all for months.

And it was only when I stopped drinking regularly that I noticed the strong effect of alcohol again. I can even feel a beer in my head these days. That's why it's especially important: no alcohol when I'm driving afterwards.

What alcohol does to your gut

Alcohol doesn't just make you tipsy, it can also have a huge impact on the functioning of your entire digestive system, even if you don't have a drink.

Even before the alcohol reaches the liver, it is absorbed by the upper digestive tract. While the liver does most of the work if you are only a casual drinker, with larger amounts or more frequent alcohol consumption, the bacteria in your gut will also help you metabolize the alcohol.

Too much alcohol can inhibit the production of digestive enzymes, which means that the ability to break down food can be severely impaired - this can leave you feeling bloated. you don't absorb all the nutrients well and that symptoms such as reflux and indigestion occur.

Incidentally, this is why I also recommended cutting out alcohol in my detailed blog article on flatulence if you suffer from bloating.

How alcohol passes through the gut: The path from absorption to excretion

To illustrate the whole thing a little differently, I will describe the path of alcohol through the body here. As soon as you consume alcohol, the body immediately begins to process it. Alcohol is mainly absorbed in the stomach and small intestine. Within a few minutes, it enters the bloodstream and is distributed throughout the body. About 20% of alcohol is absorbed directly in the stomach, while the remaining 80% is absorbed in the small intestine. From there it enters the bloodstream and finally reaches the liver, where it is broken down.

However, the liver can only process a certain amount of alcohol per hour - about 10 grams, which is roughly equivalent to a small beer or a glass of wine. The excess alcohol circulates in the body until the liver can break it down. During this time, the alcohol can also affect the intestines.

Acute effects of alcohol on gut health

Now we come to the acute effects of alcohol on the gut. Shortly after consuming alcohol, you can feel changes in your intestines. A common effect is irritation of the stomach and intestinal mucosa. This can lead to symptoms such as stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea.

Alcohol can increase the production of stomach acid, which irritates the mucous membrane in the stomach and intestines. This is one of the reasons why you feel unwell after a night of drinking. But that's not all.

Change in the intestinal flora

One of the most important and perhaps least known effects of alcohol is the change in your gut flora, the community of trillions of microorganisms that colonize your gut. These microbes are crucial to your digestion, immune system and overall health.

Studies have shown that alcohol can disrupt the balance of these microbes. Even moderate alcohol consumption can lead to a decrease in beneficial bacteria and an increase in harmful bacteria. This can promote inflammation and increase the risk of various health problems. You can find the links to the studies below.

Increase in the permeability of the intestinal wall (leaky gut syndrome)

Another problem caused by alcohol consumption is an increase in the permeability of the intestinal wall, also known as leaky gut syndrome. Normally, the intestinal wall serves as a barrier that only allows certain substances to enter the bloodstream. However, alcohol can damage the so-called tight junctions - the connections between the cells of the intestinal wall. This allows unwanted substances such as toxins and undigested food particles to enter the bloodstream.

This can trigger a systemic inflammatory response and contribute to various health problems, including autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammation.

Long-term consequences of regular alcohol consumption

What happens if you consume alcohol regularly? Long-term alcohol consumption can lead to serious and permanent damage to your gut and your health. Chronic alcohol consumption is associated with a variety of gastrointestinal conditions, including gastritis, stomach ulcers, liver disease and Pancreatitis.

Long-term changes in the intestinal flora and a constant increase in the permeability of the intestinal wall can increase the risk of chronic diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and even bowel cancer. In addition, the negative effects on the immune system can make you more susceptible to infections and other health problems.

Summary

So alcohol changes the composition of your gut bacteria, the way your gut works and increases gut permeability (leaky gut).

And what are the consequences of all this?

• More inflammation in your gut and the rest of your body
• Impairment of the immune system (70-80% of your immune cells are in your gut)
• Effects on mood via the gut-brain axis

The so-called gut-liver axis is now also being discussed. If you drink excessively, this inflammation in your gut can increase the inflammation and damage in your liver.

Special case of histamine and alcohol

Another issue to consider in this context is histamine. Alcohol promotes the release of the body's own histamine. Alcohol also inhibits the enzyme DAO, which is responsible for breaking down histamine. As a result, histamine is broken down more poorly and more of it enters the bloodstream.

As already mentioned, alcohol makes the intestinal wall more permeable, which increases the absorption of histamine in the intestine. In addition, alcohol dilates the blood vessels, which further intensifies the symptoms.

This is the reason why even histamine-free or low-histamine alcohol has an intensifying effect and is therefore problematic for people with histamine intolerance.

I therefore recommend that you avoid alcoholic beverages completely if you have a severe histamine intolerance, problems such as hay fever and allergies, and always consume them with the utmost caution, even in the case of milder symptoms. In addition, histamine is absorbed more easily and quickly by the body in liquids than in solid foods.

If you would like to find out more about histamine, I recommend my blog article on histamine intolerance, or more correctly, histaminosis, or my podcast episodes 114 and 125.

Alcohol slows you down when losing weight and regenerating

Another disadvantage of alcohol is that your body classifies it as poison. And whenever poison is in circulation, the body's first priority is to remove it from the body. In the meantime, the body pauses other important metabolic processes because they are not a priority.

This is why fat burning is interrupted after alcohol consumption. In other words, if you want to lose weight, I recommend that you avoid alcohol during this time. Not mainly because of the calories, but because of this inhibiting effect on fat burning.

For the same reason, alcohol also slows down the body's regeneration after physical exertion or sport. That's why a beer or drink after exercise is not a good idea. On days when you train because you want to achieve a goal, because you want to build muscle or achieve better performance, I recommend that you don't drink alcohol, otherwise the training effect will be lost. Then you might as well have left it alone.

How you can improve your How you can better protect your gut with occasional alcohol consumption

The fact is: alcohol is never healthy. Not even in small quantities. However, it can also be said that alcohol that is not consumed regularly and only in small quantities, with long breaks in between, is not good for your health either, but at least it doesn't make you ill.

So if you want to have a glass now and then, I have a few tips for you here:

• In general, before you drink any alcohol at all: regularly nourish your gut with good, natural, gut-friendly, anti-inflammatory food. You can also regularly take a probiotic such as our Select.
• Don't use alcohol to quench your thirst. Make sure you have drunk enough water before having an alcoholic drink, enjoy it and drink responsibly.
• For me, enjoyment also means that you only drink alcohol if you like it. In other words, choose good quality. And a lot of pesticides are used in wine in particular, so it's highly advisable to choose organic wines.
• Alternate between a glass of water and an alcoholic drink.
• Make sure that you don't drink on an empty stomach, but eat a balanced meal beforehand.
• Eat especially bowel-friendly the day after drinking alcohol. This can be challenging if you're only craving something fatty, but try to feed your body easily digestible, nutritious foods.
• Drink a gastrointestinal tea the day after to support your digestive system and liver. Bitter drops likeour Bitter Elixir can also be very helpful! Or enzymes like our Cleave.
• Homemade bouillon isalso something you can drink to soothe your stomach and intestinal lining.

If you have a phase where you drink a little more often because you are invited to several parties, consider taking a probiotic like our Arktibiotic Select and acacia fiber to protect the intestinal mucosa.

A few tips if you want to give up alcohol completely

The general perception in society is that everything is easier with a drink because alcohol relieves anxiety and tension and has a disinhibiting and euphoric effect. At the same time, events, parties and social gatherings with family and friends are unimaginable for many people without alcohol.

We once had a politician as a customer who sits on the National Council, and he told us that he couldn't do without white wine under any circumstances, because toasting during the sessions is simply part of it.

If you see it that way, then of course it's difficult to give up alcohol. Because it triggers one of our primal human fears: not belonging. Or worse still: being abandoned because you're different.

That's why my first tip. Stand up for being different. For your own wishes. But without proselytizing. No is a complete sentence and doesn't need to be justified. Don't you drink alcohol? No.

By the way, it's also important that you like your reason for not drinking. That you are convinced that you don't want to.

My next tip is, if you don't want to stand out quite so much, drink a non-alcoholic beer or a non-alcoholic cocktail. Then you're one of them. That might make the transition a little easier.

You can also drink sparkling mineral water. I know someone who has her mineral water served in a large wine glass with a few ice cubes and lemon. It's more fun for her to drink it that way and it looks good too.

And my last tip is that you can have fun and be funny without alcohol. Relax. Have a conversation. Enjoy the company. Just be you.

LINKS

Studies on alcohol and the gut

These studies show that even moderate alcohol consumption can have a negative impact on gut health by disrupting the balance of the microbiota and promoting inflammatory processes in the body. This underlines the importance of a conscious and moderate approach to alcohol in order to maintain gut health.

Study by Leclercq et al. (2014)

This study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigated the effects of alcohol on the gut barrier and microbiota. The researchers found that alcohol consumption increases intestinal permeability and leads to dysbiosis, i.e. an imbalance in the composition of the intestinal microbiota. This promotes inflammation and can cause long-term health problems

Study by the University of California, San Diego (2022)

This research showed that alcohol consumption disrupts the balance of gut microbes. Alcohol changes the composition of the intestinal flora, reducing beneficial bacteria and increasing harmful bacteria. This can lead to inflammation and increased intestinal permeability, which is known as leaky gut syndrome

Podcast episodes

The histamine fallacy - Interview with Kyra Kauffmann
Combating histaminosis- Interview with Dr. Florian Bilz

Blog article

Flatulence - everyone knows it
Make your own vegetable stock
Histamine intolerance- what it is and how to get it under control
Gut-brain axis

Products

Bitter elixir
Select
Grow acacia fibers
Cleave

Follow us on Instagram, where we regularly publish inspiring content about gut health. This will help you to stay up to date!

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