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- Experts in Russia and UK have warned people should avoid drinking alcohol for a brief period before getting vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
- However, experts in the United States say that occasional or moderate alcohol consumption will not affect the immune response.
- Excessive alcohol consumption and excessive alcohol consumption should be avoided at the time of vaccination and for general health.
As the first wave of COVID-19 vaccines are administered in the United States and many other countries, questions have arisen as to whether alcohol consumption will affect people’s immune responses to the bite.
Experts in the UK recently warned that people should avoid drinking alcohol the days before and after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. “Your immune system needs to be functioning perfectly to have a good response to the vaccine, so if you drink it the day before or soon after, it won’t help you,” Sheena Cruickshank, PhD, immunologist at the University of Manchester, told UK Metro.
A Russian health official went even further last month and advised citizens vaccinated with the country’s Sputnik V vaccine to refrain from drinking alcohol for two months.
However, vaccine developer Alexander Gintsburg, PhD, later said this advice was too extreme. Through a tweet from Sputnik V accountGintsburg advised against drinking alcohol three days after each injection, guidelines he said apply to all vaccines.
Experts in the United States, however, say that for people who don’t drink excessively, this is probably unnecessary.
“It is not necessary to abstain from drinking alcohol after either dose of the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Dr. Sandro Cinti, infectious disease specialist at Michigan Medicine. “There is no evidence or guidance from the CDC suggesting this needs to be done.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. The two vaccines require two doses: the Pfizer vaccine given 21 days apart and the Moderna vaccine given 28 days apart.
Although excessive alcohol consumption is a problem for general health, people are not asked to refrain from drinking occasional or moderate amounts of alcohol before getting vaccinated, says Dr Hana El Sahly, associate professor of molecular virology and microbiology and medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and one of the national co-chairs of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial.
“Alcohol consumption was not assessed as a variable in the large Phase 3 clinical trial,” she told Healthline. “We do not expect that occasional or moderate alcohol ingestion will affect the response to the vaccine. And we are not asking subjects or the general public to refrain from consuming alcohol at the time of vaccination. “
But Christopher Thompson, PhD, associate professor in the biology department at Loyola University of Maryland, specializing in immunology and microbiology, warns that excessive alcohol consumption should be avoided at the time of vaccination.
He notes that although there are no specific data on alcohol and the COVID-19 vaccine yet, “most of the data available on the impact of alcohol on the immune system and vaccine responses suggests that, in general, people should avoid excessive alcohol consumption and excessive alcohol consumption. vaccination time, ”he said. “Ideally, this would be avoided for at least a week before the first dose and a month after the second dose.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines binge drinking as consuming five or more alcoholic drinks on occasion for men and four or more alcoholic drinks for women.
Drinking 15 or more drinks per week for men and eight or more drinks per week for women is considered heavy drinking.
“Especially with heavy alcohol consumption, the immune system doesn’t work as well as it should,” Thompson said. “We are seeing functional deregulation of many immune cells while also seeing increased inflammation and pro-inflammatory molecules throughout the body.”
Alcohol research
Excessive alcohol consumption is also associated with a number of other health problems, including an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, and liver disease.
On the other hand, in some studies, moderate alcohol consumption (up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men) has been shown to improve the response of a person. person to vaccines.
“Moderate drinkers tend to show better antibody production and cytotoxic T cell (CD8) responses,” Thompson said. “Additionally, moderate alcohol consumption can increase the amount of antiviral cytokines or small chemical messengers that help coordinate the immune response.”
However, he noted that researchers are uncertain whether these slight improvements are short-term or long-term.
The bottom line, Thompson said, is that for people who drink or drink infrequently in moderation, there is no need – from an immunological standpoint – to change much of what they are doing when they do. are receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
“A glass of wine or a beer here and there shouldn’t interfere with most responses to the vaccine and, in fact, may slightly improve the response,” he said. “That said, it’s probably best to be well hydrated on the day of the vaccine and for a few days afterward to help deal with the mild side effects most people experience.”
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