June Russell's Health Facts

Health Benefits of Alcohol Questioned — Specific Topics

Effect of Alcohol on Lungs

Alcohol makes the lung liable to injury and infection by producing a decrease in alveolar epithelial levels of glutathione, an antioxidant, as well as inhibiting the cytokine and chemokine response to bacterial infection. Of all alcoholic drinks, wine was the most frequent cause of asthmatic reactions (37.7%).
{"Lungs," AlcoholResearch.Isumc.edu, Aug. 2002}

Alcohol could reduce a person's defense against the pneumonia-causing organism, and smoking may exacerbate this effect. The trachea leads from the nasopharynx to the lungs is lined with cilia calls, which normally sweep mucus and harmful microorganisms upward to prevent their movement into the lungs. This does not occur in the presence of alcohol and/or tobacco.
{Alcohol and Clinical Experimental Research, 2005, as cited in "Alcohol increases pneumonia risk," Nutrition Hints #1834, e-mail from Betty Kamen, PhD (a leading authority on alternative health) and Michael Rosenbaum, MD, May 2005}

Wine and Lungs

The headlines reported: "Drinking wine, particularly white wine, may help keep lungs healthy, University at Buffalo study finds." Holger Schunemann, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Social and Preventive Medicine at the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, reported that drinking wine, particularly white wine, recently and over a lifetime was associated with better lung function. However, he also stated that the researchers, including himself, attributed the better lung health and function to the antioxidants in the wine, the flavonoids and phenols. He also noted that evidence suggests that alcohol may increase the oxidative burden.
{"Alcohol - Lungs," University at Buffalo, www.buffalo.edu, organtx.org, May 2002}   Editor's comment: This oxidative stress plays an important role in the chronic complications of insulin-dependent diabetes, which can lead to an increase in oxygen-derived free-radicals (according to the Journal of Diabetes Complications, 2002). While emphasizing the positive effects of alcohol on the lungs (although the researchers attributed the effects to the antioxidants) the media reports failed to include the problem of the wine increasing the oxidative burden . . . . which then increases free-radicals and complications of diabetes.
{Betty Kamen and Dr. Michael Rosenbaum, MD, "Nutrition Hints," Aug. 2002, Hint #943}

Alcohol makes the lung liable to injury and infection by producing a decrease in alveolar epithelial levels of glutathione, which is an antioxidant, as well as inhibiting the response to bacterial infection. In a recent study by Australian researchers of asthmatics, 42 percent had reactions to alcoholic drinks, wine being the most frequent cause. Asthmatic reactions generally appeared quickly and were of moderate intensity. Drinking alcohol dramatically boosts the risk of common gene mutation in smokers developing lung cancer.
{Alcohol Research Center, alcoholresearch.itsumc.edu, Aug. 2002}

Effect of the Metabisulfite Preservative

When wine reaches the stomach, the preservative metabisulfite is degraded in the stomach, resulting in the product sulfur dioxide. This sulfur dioxide gas is passed back through the esophagus and is inhaled into the lungs, which can cause an asthma episode. Also since wine is fermented, a person with a mold sensitivity could have a worsening of symptoms from drinking wine (or beer). There is an entity called red-wine headache that is not understood because it is only with red wine, however, alcohol can cause dilation of blood vessels, which can cause headaches.
{Thriveonline.com, Dr. Phillip Korenblat, Apr. 2001}