Do hangovers suddenly get worse? This could be the cause | Top Vip News

(NEXSTAR) – Can’t handle alcohol like you used to? According to researchers at Stanford University, COVID-19 may be to blame.

A recently published article by specialists at the Stanford COVID-19 Post-Acute Syndrome Clinic presented evidence of a possible relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and increased sensitivity to alcohol. Specifically, several patients at the Stanford clinic reported feeling significantly worse symptoms of fatigue, headaches, and hangovers after drinking; One woman claimed she “couldn’t move” after a glass of wine, according to the peer-reviewed article.

The authors were quick to point out that a definitive link between COVID and alcohol sensitivity cannot be established without further study, but such a relationship would not be unheard of, according to the researchers.

“There have already been cases reported on how prevalent this is in patients with chronic fatigue,” Dr. Hector Bonilla, administrator of Stanford’s Post-Acute COVID-19 Clinic, told Nexstar.

Patients with chronic fatigue, or myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), often experience symptoms similar to those experiencing the effects of long COVID, the Stanford paper noted. Increased sensitivity to alcohol in ME/CFS patients has also been observed, at least anecdotally, since the mid-19th century, UK researchers wrote in an article from 2004 cited by Stanford.

The causes of ME/CFS have not been clearly identified, although a 2023 study published in the medical journal Frontiers in Medicine suggested similar pathophysiologies (the mechanisms associated with diseases and their effects on the body) for both long COVID and ME/CFS.

Both diseases also share “considerable similarities” when it comes to symptoms, the researchers noted.

While the causes of ME/CFS are largely unknown, patients with ME/CFS subsequently experienced worsening symptoms after being infected by COVID. And these symptoms can often include increased sensitivity to alcohol, a symptom that ME/CFS associations in the US and abroad call “more like” and “very characteristic.”

However, in the four case studies presented by Stanford, some patients had no history of ME/CFS and one patient had no prior medical problems. That patient, a man in his 60s, reported several long COVID symptoms after infection, including what he believed were alcohol-induced headaches “characterized by a feeling of tightness in the top and back of the head.” , when he had never done it before. I had problems drinking alcohol. Another woman, 40, said she used to be able to drink seven cocktails in one night without serious repercussions, but that after COVID she experiences “terrible” effects after just one drink, including a worsening hangover and prolonged hangover symptoms. COVID.

“[We] You see the patients in the clinic and they talk to you, they tell you these things,” Bonilla said.

The Stanford researchers described several mechanisms that could explain why such symptoms might occur, and most focused on the way the immune system processes inflammation after a virus.

Bonilla, speaking with Nexstar, said viruses like COVID can also weaken the blood-brain barrier (a lining of cells in the brain’s blood vessels that helps keep pathogens out), making you more susceptible to the effects of alcohol.

“When the brain barrier is exposed, it means the brain is more susceptible to things that happen in the body,” Bonilla said. “Therefore, any inflammatory response can be amplified. Alcohol, drugs… some [patients] “They are also very susceptible to medications, even in small doses.”

That’s just one possibility, of course. Researchers have also learned that COVID can cause imbalances in patient health. gut microbiomes, which can interfere with a number of important functions and possibly with the way the body processes alcohol. But Dr. Robert Groysman, of the COVID Institute in Irving, Texas, told Nexstar that he believes increased sensitivity to alcohol is due to damage to the liver’s mitochondria that produce energy in the body.

“I think it’s just that the liver is not able to process alcohol the same way it did before,” Groysman said. “These toxins are not metabolized properly.”

Mitochondria, which are responsible for providing energy to cells, can take a serious hit during and long after a COVID infection, as noted by the National Institutes of Health. And if liver enzymes cannot rely on mitochondria to fuel the organ’s important processes, the ability to metabolize toxins is inhibited.

“Energy needs to be generated for these enzymes to work,” Groysman said. “And if there is a decrease in the amount of energy available, these enzymes don’t work well.”

Unfortunately, the exact causes of alcohol sensitivity in long COVID patients are not something that many researchers have studied intensively, as the topic of alcohol sensitivity is probably “not a priority” for the groups that fund COVID research. and ME/CFS, according to Bonilla.

After all, alcohol, unlike certain treatments or therapies for post-COVID illnesses, isn’t exactly a necessity.

“[There’s] There aren’t many long-term or follow-up studies for things like that,” Bonilla said.