NEW DELHI, India — Even a single episode of binge drinking can weaken the gut’s protective lining, increasing the risk of bacteria and toxins leaking into the bloodstream, according to a new study.
Researchers found that consuming roughly four drinks for women or five for men within about two hours can impair the gut’s barrier function, a condition commonly referred to as “leaky gut.” The findings were published in the journal Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research.
“We know that excessive drinking can disrupt the gut and expose the liver to harmful bacterial products, but surprisingly little was known about how the upper intestine responds in the earliest stages,” said Gyongyi Szabo, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the study’s corresponding author.
“Our study shows that even short bouts of binge drinking can trigger inflammation and weaken the gut barrier, highlighting a potential early step in alcohol-related gut and liver injury,” Szabo said.
The research was conducted by a team from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the United States. The scientists examined how brief, high-dose alcohol exposure affected different sections of the gastrointestinal tract.
The results showed that even short episodes of heavy drinking caused measurable injury to the gut lining. Such drinking triggered the recruitment of immune cells typically involved in fighting infections to the intestinal lining, where they contributed to tissue damage.
The researchers identified a key role for neutrophils, a type of immune cell that can release web-like structures known as neutrophil extracellular traps, or NETs. These NETs were found to directly damage the upper small intestine and weaken its barrier, allowing bacterial toxins to pass into the bloodstream and potentially fuel inflammation elsewhere in the body.
When the researchers blocked NETs using an enzyme that breaks them down, they observed fewer immune cells accumulating in the gut lining and significantly reduced bacterial leakage. This intervention effectively prevented much of the gut damage seen after binge drinking.
The findings suggest that even isolated episodes of heavy alcohol consumption may initiate biological processes that contribute to longer-term gut and liver problems, underscoring the potential health risks of binge drinking even in people who do not drink heavily on a regular basis. (Source: IANS)
