If you have a high enough blood alcohol level will that help to fight off an infection?

[astro]

Just curious. Would maintaining a high level of inebriation help you fight off an infection due to the germ killing properties of the alcohol?

[thelurkinghorror]

I’m sure the chemistry buffs will know best, but considering that a BAC of 0.4 or 0.5 usually means death, I don’t think that’s a high enough concentration to harm germs. It may provide a topical effect, though.

If a constant state of drunkenness did have a positive effect, it would be offset by many more deleterious effects. It would help your boxing skills, however.

[UltraVires]

I think that we’ve had a thread on this before and the general consensus is as **thelurkinghorror **said: In order to have an antibiotic effect, you would need enough alcohol in your bloodstream to kill you several times over.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

No. The level of ethanol needed to lyse bacteria and viruses is also sufficient to lyse a lot of human tissue, particularly red blood cells, bone marrow cells, and various neuronal complexes.

That level of ethanol would also be lethal for other reasons, mainly by disrupting the CNS.

[purplehorseshoe]

Serious question, QtheM: if a person died of acute alcohol overdose (say, one of those vodka enemas that spike your BAC to sky-high levels) would their body take any longer to decay?

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@purplehorseshoe

Serious question, QtheM: if a person died of acute alcohol overdose (say, one of those vodka enemas that spike your BAC to sky-high levels) would their body take any longer to decay?

No. The amount in the body would be trivial for that purpose. The ethanol would just be more food for the worms.

[njtt]

What?! You mean the germs won’t get drunk and start fighting each other?

[thelurkinghorror]

@njtt

What?! You mean the germs won’t get drunk and start fighting each other?

Every time I get drunk I get smarter, because the alcohol kills off the slow brain cells, just like a slow gazelle slows down the herd.

[Una_Persson]

The Straight Dope: A prescription for death: Does doctors’ illegible handwriting kill more than 7,000 patients annually? Is drinking alcohol a good cold cure?

[WhyNot]

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

No. The level of ethanol needed to lyse bacteria and viruses is also sufficient to lyse a lot of human tissue, particularly red blood cells, bone marrow cells, and various neuronal complexes.

That level of ethanol would also be lethal for other reasons, mainly by disrupting the CNS.

How about indirectly? Is an alcoholic patient with acidosis acidic enough to retard bacteria growth? How pickled do they actually get?

[DSeid]

Believe it or not there is a whole body of work on this. It is well established that chronic and/or heavy alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for serious infections, such as bacterial pneumonia:

Host defense mechanisms are operant from the nasopharynx to the alveolus, many of which are adversely affected by excessive alcohol intake. Although the increased risk of oropharyngeal aspiration has been recognized for centuries, only recently have detailed studies of the mechanical, innate, and adaptive immune systems identified specific mechanisms throughout the aerodigestive tract whereby ethanol exposure renders the individual more susceptible to infection. In addition to directly inhibiting the ability of resident lung immune cells to kill bacteria, excessive ethanol use suppresses the normally protective acute inflammatory response to infection, resulting in the defective recruitment of additional innate immune cells. Additionally, ethanol disrupts the intricate interface that exists between innate and adaptive pulmonary immunity, further hindering the alcoholic host’s ability efficiently to eliminate invading pathogens

OTOH more moderate consumption is not associated with higher risks of serious pneumonia.

And as noted in the SD bit linked to by Una, moderate consumption of wine, especially red wine, may be slightly protective, but not due to the alcohol.

Alcohol consumption has been shown to modulate the immune response and therefore could conceivably influence the risk of developing an episode of common cold. An inverse association between alcohol intake and peripheral blood leukocyte count has also been described (2). Chronic and even acute moderate alcohol intake may increase host susceptibility to infections and alter the inflammatory response through impaired cytokine production (3). In fact, it has been suggested that the beneficial effect of red wine intake on other diseases may partially be due to downregulation of the production of cytokines (4). Furthermore, animal studies have shown that the anti-inflammatory activity of some non-alcohol-related wine products, especially resveratrol, is strong (5).

Despite alcohol’s immunosuppressive properties, moderate intake was unexpectedly associated with a decreased risk of common cold among nonsmokers in the only available epidemiologic study known (6). However, this study was conducted on volunteers artificially challenged with rhinovirus; therefore, no prospective data are available on the effect of alcohol consumption on the natural occurrence of common cold. …

… The findings from this prospective study support the existence of a strong inverse relation between the consumption of wine, but not other alcoholic beverages, and the incidence of common cold. This inverse association persisted after adjustment for total alcohol intake, smoking, and known risk factors for common cold. Among those participants consuming both red and white wine, the association was even stronger among those consuming red wine exclusively … Total alcohol intake was not related to the risk of common cold. … Further research may help clarify whether the inverse association between wine intake and common cold can be partially explained by unmeasured variables (e.g., lifestyle habits, drinking patterns). …