Alcohol as friend or foe in autoimmune diseases: a role for gut microbiome?

[helvella]

Over the years, one commonly reported aspect of thyroid disorder has been changes in the impact of alcohol. Most often, that people who used to happily have a couple of glasses of wine, or even a bit more, can no longer tolerate that much. The descriptions often suggest feeling as bad after a small glass as after a whole evening of binge drinking!

I thought this paper just might be of interest - especially as it identifies effects in two directions.

Alcohol as friend or foe in autoimmune diseases: a role for gut microbiome?

Blaine Caslin

, Kailey Mohler, Shreya Thiagarajan & Esther Melamed

Article: 1916278 | Received 28 Aug 2020, Accepted 01 Apr 2021, Published online: 05 Jul 2021

• doi.org/10.1080/19490976.20...

ABSTRACT

Alcohol is well known for promoting systemic inflammation and aggravating multiple chronic health conditions. Thus, alcohol may also be expected to serve as a risk factor in autoimmune diseases. However, emerging data from human and animal studies suggest that alcohol may in fact be protective in autoimmune diseases. These studies point toward alcohol’s complex dose-dependent relationship in autoimmune diseases as well as potential modulation by duration and type of alcohol consumption, cultural background and sex. In this review, we will explore alcohol’s pro- and anti-inflammatory properties in human and animal autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune diabetes, thyroid disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis. We will also discuss potential mechanisms of alcohol’s anti-inflammatory effects mediated by the gut microbiome.

KEYWORDS:

Alcohol autoimmunity microbiome inflammation dysbiosis

Full paper freely accessible:

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10...

[knitwitty]

Thanks for posting helvella.I have never been a heavy drinker but in recent years even before I was diagnosed as hypothyroid my tolerance for alcohol became severely compromised.

I can only drink one glass of wine , any more and I get palpitations and feel really rough afterwards, it also seems to give me bad heartburn.

I tend to avoid alcohol most of the time and occasionally have a glass with a meal, I used to kid myself that drinking red wine would keep my cholesterol lower but I'd probably have to drink gallons of the stuff to get my cholesterol to a level my doctor would consider acceptable !!