According to several anecdotal reports, alcohol intolerance, which is characterized by reactions like nausea, low blood pressure, fatigue, and dizziness when consuming alcohol, may be a unique symptom of long COVID. Several anecdotal reports suggest that alcohol intolerance may be linked to long COVID, specifically the post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS) type. Compared with all other causes of death, which increased by 16%, alcohol-related deaths increased at a higher rate. “Those at increased risk should cut down or abstain from alcohol because every little thing an individual can do to improve the health and reduce risk is worth it at this point, even if the evidence is not entirely clear,” Mroszczyk-McDonald said. Soon after, the World Health Organization (WHO) also suggested that people cut back on drinking, since alcohol can increase the risk of experiencing complications from COVID-19.
How does drinking alcohol affect the body when you have an active COVID-19 infection?
The policy center has been tracking the American public’s knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors regarding vaccination, COVID-19, flu, RSV, and other consequential health issues through this survey panel over the past three-and-a-half years. The survey data come from the 21st wave of a nationally representative panel of 1,744 U.S. adults conducted for the Annenberg Public Policy Center by SSRS, an independent market research company. Though the researchers couldn’t answer exactly why alcohol consumption was so high among the US adults surveyed, Lee has a few hypotheses.
For example, getting regular exercise and practicing stress reduction techniques can help reduce symptoms. It is also important to prevent feelings of isolation by reaching out to friends and family alcohol storage ideas when possible. It can also increase the risk of certain infectious diseases, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis. Alcohol on the breath does not provide protection from the virus in the air.
In addition to Patrick E. Jamieson, APPC’s team on the survey includes research analysts Laura A. Gibson and Shawn Patterson Jr., Ken Winneg, managing director of survey research, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the policy center. This wave of the Annenberg Science and Public Health Knowledge (ASAPH) survey was fielded Sept. 13–22 and Sept. 26–30, 2024. The margin of sampling error (MOE) is ± 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not add to 100%.
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Consuming any alcohol poses health risks, but consuming high-strength ethyl alcohol (ethanol), particularly if it has been adulterated with methanol, can result in severe health consequences, including death. “Alcohol has diverse adverse effects throughout the body, including on all cells of the immune system, that lead to increased risk of serious infections,” said Dr. E. Jennifer Edelman, a Yale Medicine addiction medicine specialist. In fact, it is possible that excessive alcohol consumption can increase the risk of developing COVID-19-induced illness, as this can affect the immune system. We spoke with George F. Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), to learn about the pandemic’s effects on alcohol use and related harms.
- Koob is an expert on the biology of alcohol and drug addiction and has been studying the impact of alcohol on the brain for more than 50 years.
- “With COVID-19, alcohol is likely to interfere with an individual’s ability to clear SARS-CoV-2 and cause people to suffer worse outcomes, including ARDS, which commonly results in death,” Edelman said.
- The most recent replenishment, in September 2024, added 360 respondents to the sample.
- A 2021 study found that people who drink at least once a week are more likely to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) during COVID-19 hospitalization.
- While research on post-COVID alcohol intolerance is still limited, anecdotal evidence suggests that it’s a symptom experienced by many people following the virus.
Alcohol use increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. A new study shows that it’s still high
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines excessive alcohol use as binge drinking, heavy drinking, alcohol use by people under the minimum legal drinking age, and alcohol use by pregnant women. AUD is a clinical diagnosis that indicates someone’s drinking is causing distress and harm. AUD can range from mild to severe, depending on the severity of the symptoms.
The majority were female (84.4%), White (84.9%), between the ages of 26 and 49 (72.3%), and had a household income greater than $100,000 USD (67.0%) (Table 1). Fewer than half of the sample (45.1%) had children under the age of 18 currently living with them in the home. Because of substantial and unexpected social and economic changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many people turned to alcohol and other drugs to cope with those stressors. Unfortunately, the pandemic also made accessing substance use disorder treatment more difficult. This research suggests that these issues are reflected in deaths related to alcohol use.
What are some healthier options for coping with stressful events and avoiding risky drinking behaviors?
Moreover, nearly two-thirds of the participants reported that their drinking had increased compared to their consumption rates prior to COVID-19. Reasons for this increase were increased stress, increased alcohol availability, and boredom. To put the first aim in context, according to data from the 2018 NSDUH 19, U.S. adults in 2018 consumed alcohol on an average of 4.8 days and 12.0 alcohol drinks over the past 30 days. Almost a third (31.8%) reported engaging in binge drinking and 3.7% reported engaging in extreme binge drinking.
This research was funded by the Montgomery County, Maryland Alcohol Beverage Services. However, it should be noted that the content of this study is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Montgomery County, Maryland Alcohol Beverage Services. In a March 2021 blog post, neurologist Georgia Lea discussed the potential connection between long COVID, specifically the PVFS type, and alcohol intolerance. There’s growing evidence that it may be a unique symptom of long COVID, particularly the post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS) type. Those who have any of the known risk factors for COVID-19, like heart disease or diabetes, should drink even less. Alcohol can have a range of harmful effects on the body, which can diminish a person’s immune response and put them more at risk for COVID-19.
Women also were more likely to be heavy drinkers, with 6.45% reporting as such, compared with 6.1% of men. Additionally, the percentage of heavy drinkers rose to almost 6.3% of those surveyed in 2022, up from 6.13% in 2020 and 5.1% in 2018. Treatment for long COVID, including symptoms like alcohol intolerance, typically involves a multidisciplinary approach aimed at managing specific symptoms and improving overall well-being. Researchers compared the number of alcohol-related deaths in 2019 against the number of similar deaths in 2020. The incidence of alcohol-related death was then compared with all other causes of death during that period of time. But because of that increase during the first year, researchers from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) wanted to know whether there was a corresponding increase in alcohol-related deaths in 2020.