(NEXSTAR) – Can’t handle alcohol the way you used to? Researchers at Stanford University say COVID-19 may be to blame.
A recently published paper by experts at Stanford University’s Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome Clinic provides evidence of a possible link between SARS-CoV-2 infection and increased alcohol sensitivity. Specifically, many patients at the Stanford clinic reported that their fatigue, headaches, and hangover symptoms were significantly worse after drinking alcohol, with one woman claiming that she felt “unable to move” after drinking a glass of wine. It is said that they are doing so. Peer-reviewed paper.
The authors were quick to point out that while a definitive link between the coronavirus and alcohol sensitivity cannot be established without further research, such a link is not unprecedented.
“We’ve already seen how prevalent this is in patients with chronic fatigue,” Dr. Hector Bonilla, administrator of Stanford University’s Post-COVID-19 Acute Clinic, told Nexstar.
A Stanford University article states that patients with chronic fatigue, or myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), experience symptoms similar to those experiencing the long-term effects of COVID-19. He pointed out that there are many things to do. British researchers write that, at least anecdotally, increased sensitivity to alcohol has also been observed in ME/CFS patients since the mid-19th century. Article from 2004 Cited by Stanford.
The cause of ME/CFS is not clearly identified, but a 2023 study published in the medical journal Frontiers in Medicine suggests that: Similar pathophysiology (Mechanisms related to the disease and its effects on the body) Regarding both the long-term novel coronavirus and ME/CFS.
The researchers also noted that both diseases have “considerable similarities” in terms of symptoms.
Although the causes of ME/CFS are largely unknown, ME/CFS patients later experienced worsening of their symptoms after being infected with the new coronavirus. And those symptoms often include increased sensitivity to alcohol, what ME/CFS associations in the U.S. and abroad call it. “Probability is high” and “It’s very distinctive.”
However, in four case studies published by Stanford University, some patients had no history of ME/CFS, and one patient had no prior medical problems. The patient, a 60-year-old man, reported several long-term coronavirus symptoms after infection, including alcohol “characterized by a feeling of tightness in the top of the head and the back of the head.” The symptoms included what appeared to be induced headaches, but he also had problems with drinking, which he had never had before. Another 40-year-old woman said she used to be able to drink seven cocktails a night without any serious effects, but after COVID-19, just one drink can worsen her hangover or cause her to get sick from COVID-19. He said he was experiencing “terrible” effects, including lingering symptoms.
“[We] When you meet patients in the clinic, they talk to you and tell you these things,” Bonilla said.
Researchers at Stanford University have outlined several mechanisms that may explain why such symptoms occur, most of which focus on how the immune system handles inflammation after a viral infection. was.
Bonilla said in an interview with Nexstar that viruses like the coronavirus can also weaken the blood-brain barrier (the lining of cells in the blood vessels of the brain that protects against pathogens), which can make people more susceptible to the effects of alcohol. He said there is.
“Exposing the brain barrier means the brain becomes more sensitive to what’s going on inside the body,” Bonilla says. “Therefore, the inflammatory response can be amplified. Alcohol, drugs…some [patients] They are also very sensitive to even small doses of the drug. ”
Of course, that’s just one possibility. Researchers also learned that the new coronavirus can cause health disparities in patients. intestinal microbiota, many important functions, and possibly the way the body processes alcohol. However, Dr. Robert Groisman of the Coronavirus Research Institute in Irving, Texas, told Nexstar that he believes increased alcohol sensitivity is due to damage to the liver’s mitochondria, which produce energy for the body.
“I think the liver just can’t process alcohol the same way it used to,” Groysman says. “These toxins are not metabolized properly.”
Mitochondria, which are responsible for supplying energy to cells, could be seriously damaged During the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, as noted by the National Institutes of Health. And when liver enzymes are unable to rely on mitochondria for fuel for the organ’s vital processes, their ability to metabolize toxins is inhibited.
“For these enzymes to work, they need to generate energy,” Groisman says. “And when the amount of energy available decreases, these enzymes don’t work as well.”
Unfortunately, the topic of alcohol sensitivity is probably ‘not a priority’ for organizations funding research into COVID-19 and ME/CFS, so it is difficult to know exactly what alcohol sensitivity is in long-term coronavirus patients. The cause is not something that many researchers have diligently studied. To Bonilla.
As it turns out, unlike certain treatments and therapies post-COVID-19, alcohol is not always necessary.
“[There’s] “There hasn’t been a lot of long-term research or follow-up on this kind of thing,” Bonilla said.
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