Too much alcohol affects your breath in potentially deadly way
Excessive drinking lowers levels of nitric oxide which body uses to kill infectious bacteria. In other news: boomerang fathers can still protect against teenage depression
Drinking excessively does more than just tax the liver; a new study shows it can also lower the amount of nitric oxide in exhaled breath. The finding, published in the journal Chest, is significant because nitric oxide plays an important role in killing bacteria that cause respiratory infections, say researchers at Loyola Medicine and Loyola University Chicago.
Data from more than 12,000 adults in the US was examined and – after controlling for asthma, smoking, diet, demographics and other factors – it was found that exhaled nitric oxide levels were lower in excessive drinkers than in adults who never drink.
The more alcohol an excessive drinker consumed, the lower the level of nitric oxide. Excessive drinkers were defined as heavy drinkers (more than one drink per day on average for women and more than two drinks per day for men) and people who binge drink at least once per month (four or more drinks per occasion for women and five or more drinks for men).
“Alcohol appears to disrupt the healthy balance in the lungs,” says lead author Dr Majid Afshar. In an asthma patient, the amount of exhaled nitric oxide in a breath test provides a good indication of how well the patient’s medication is working. Excessive alcohol consumption might complicate the results of such tests. “Lung doctors may need to take this into consideration,” says Afshar.
