How does alcohol affect your gut microbiome?

If you enjoy alcoholic drinks, I’m not trying to dissuade you away from them by any means. But you should know what drinking does when consumed in a chronic pattern — which is just multiple times a week, for weeks on end, even if its 2–3 drinks each time.

I’m just talking factually about the impact of alcohol on the gut-liver-brain axis:

Your gut and your brain communicate by way of nerve cells and chemical signalling (hormones). Your gut similarly talks to your liver, and your liver to the brain.

The liver is the first place where alcohol is metabolized and broken down into its component parts.

When you consume alcohol, in any amount, you are inducing a disruption in the gut-microbiome, the trillions of little bacteria that take resident in your gut and that live inside you all the time and that help support your immune system.

The microbiome literally signals to your brain via hormones to increase the release of hormones like serotonin and dopamine, which regulate your mood in positive ways. Alcohol disrupts and kills those bacteria.

At the same time, the metabolism of alcohol in the liver, involves a pathway which is very pro-inflammatory, increasing the release of inflammatory cytokines (from your immune system).

This combination of microbiome disruption and inflammatory molecules together causes transient leaky gut — meaning the bad bacteria that’s in the gut can temporarily pass out from the gut directly into your bloodstream.

This is what happens from consuming alcohol –

1. Bad bacteria from partially broken-down food passes from the gut into your blood stream

2. The good bacteria gets killed

3. Inflammatory cytokines are released by the immune system & liver increasing systemic inflammation — which reaches the brain

The nett effects of this is to disrupt the neural circuits that control regulation of alcohol intake, meaning its actually making you crave and consume more alcohol. Further, it promotes the overconsumption of low-quality junk foods, while simultaneously reducing the quality of your sleep, and negatively affecting mood — causing stress and anxiety.