The worst effects of alcohol extend far beyond that last dizzying, heartbreaking hangover you had that you’d rather forget.
Dehydration is part of it, but drinking alcohol also inflames the gut, leaving the body with a slew of toxic byproducts to deal with — which, over time, can lead to serious health problems.
Aiming to ease the burden of alcoholism, a team of Chinese researchers have been testing a modified probiotic dietary supplement they say may protect mice – and maybe one day humans – from the acute effects of drinking too much alcohol.
Given its widespread use, alcohol remains one of the Major cause of death and disease worldwide, responsible for some 5 percent of annual mortality and about the same share of the global burden of disease and injury.
“Alcohol consumption has been shown to be associated with a variety of diseases, including fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, and Cancer,” explained Medical researcher Xiaoxiao Jiang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and colleagues in their published article.
“Therefore, the development of effective products to reduce alcohol consumption is receiving increasing attention.”
Most of the alcohol we consume is processed in the liver using two enzymes. A process called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) kicks in relatively quickly, breaking down ethanol into the less harmful compound acetaldehyde. However, if you consume too much alcohol, the gut will take a beating while ADH kicks in.
This new therapy — which has yet to be tested in humans — uses a naturally occurring variant of ADH (called ADH1B) that is found primarily in East Asian and Polynesian populations and shows greater activity than other forms of ADH. In other words, it breaks down ethanol faster.
But how do you deliver it safely? The researchers worked on it Lactococcus lactis, a bacterium used to make buttermilk and cheese. Slipping an extra genetic instruction into its tiny genome, L.lactis was designed to produce the human ADH1B enzyme. It was then tested on mice exposed to different concentrations of alcohol.
Mice treated with the modified probiotic recovered from alcohol exposure faster than untreated mice, who showed signs of intoxication two hours after drinking and had rising blood alcohol levels.
The researchers hypothesize that the oral probiotic metabolizes alcohol in the gut, thereby reducing the amount of alcohol absorbed into the bloodstream.
Further experiments showed that mice treated with the probiotic showed fewer signs of acute liver damage and less intestinal inflammation, such as that caused by excessive alcohol consumption.
“Our results showed that this recombinant probiotic can reduce alcohol absorption and protect the body from alcohol damage, including hangovers, liver and intestinal damage,” the researchers said write.
The allure of a pill that can alleviate the worst effects of alcohol is evidently enormous – and this isn’t the first time such a therapy has been tried.
In 2022, an anti-hangover probiotic containing two gut-friendly bacteria went on sale in the UK and is said to break down alcohol quickly in the gut before it reaches the liver.
However, with limited data available to assess the impact, Experts asked how well it would work for different people as weight, gender, age, physical activity and diet can affect alcohol absorption. The same would be true of this latest therapeutic candidate if it were ever tested in humans.
hormone injections reverse drunkenness and a prototype ventilator to help the body eliminate alcohol have also been tested to counteract excessive alcohol consumption. Ideally, with more testing, treatments like these could help sober up people who fail a night of heavy drinking.
However, assemble evidence even hints at it moderate drinking has harmful effects Therefore, the general health advice remains the same: limit the number of drinks you consume to lessen the strain on your health.
That’s easier said than done for some people struggling with addiction and substance abuse — people who need health care that’s much more holistic than a probiotic pill.
The study was published in Microbiological Spectrum.
