Scientists are just beginning to explore the relationship between drinking and the good and bad bacteria in your gut.
A frothy beer or a glass of wine can enhance a meal and settle the mind. But what does alcohol do to the trillions of microbes living in your gut?
As with much of microbiome science, “there is a lot that we don’t know,” said Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, a physician-scientist who studies alcohol use and addiction at the National Institutes of Health.
That said, it’s clear that happy microbes are essential for proper digestion, immune function and intestinal health. And as scientists begin to explore how drinking may influence your gut, they’re learning that overdoing it could have some unhappy consequences.
And the answer to the question is an entirely expected “negatively, of course”
Ah yes, the poison I’m pouring into my gut is poisoning my gut. An amazing discovery.
Science is confirmation, not discovery per se.
Maybe a little from both columns.
To be fair, the article itself states that this is an area under evaluation. They appear to currently be focused on looking into “problematic drinking”. This isn’t simply drinking to excess, it’s drinking uncontrollably despite it causing problems.
I’d wonder how many of these subjects have this problem because of their dysfunctional microbiome.
The snozzberries taste like snozzberries!
And yet, some people live very happy and healthy lives despite alcohol abuse and/or use. Genetics plays a massive role in this, and so does overall lifestyle and diet.
I look forward to the day we can better analyze specific body composition of everyone individually, so doctors can give better recommendions based on unique physiological attributes.
Too much of anything is typically a bad idea, though. Alcohol is a particularly dangerous substance for those that don’t respect it.