Covid-19 & Health Update: FAQs about Alcohol Consumption

RVAchironeuro • March 7, 2022

Hello everyone:

I get this question a lot: can I still drink some wine or alcohol while on this food plan to reduce inflammation, heal my gut, detox my body etc.?

The short answer is…no. For some this is hard to hear, so I pulled together some links to share with you that you can check out for yourself…but research is now showing that literally no amount of alcohol is beneficial. Anyone who reads my blogs knows that inflammation causes, perpetuates, or aggravates ALL human ailments…every single one including immune suppression (not a good thing to have in a pandemic), aging, dementia, fatigue, fogginess, cancer, depression, anxiety, allergies, gut problems, stress, nutrient deficiencies, insomnia, arthritis, digestion problems, and especially leaky gut…etc., etc. It turns out that alcohol consumption, even the amount in only ½ of a beer will induce health damaging inflammation. Check out these links for yourself:

“Chronic alcohol use impairs not only gut and liver functions, but also multi-organ interactions, leading to persistent systemic inflammation and ultimately, to organ damage. (This starts at just ½ of a beer per day!) Alcohol metabolism directly leads to the production of reactive oxygen species, known for their ability to stimulate activation of a key inflammation transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB). Hypoxia, resulting from alcohol metabolism, is also known to induce the inflammatory response.”

  Bottom Line:

To be sure, you can find articles saying that some alcohol in some situations is Ok, and you can argue for consumption if you would like to. A better way to think about it is to acknowledge that it is a risky behavior, and if you are in the middle of working to overcome a chronic health problem, or if there is a family history of dementia or cancer or addiction etc., then you should consider just saying no. No amount of alcohol is safe for brain health, that has been proven. Remember that alcohol consumption is not the only thing assaulting your health, and that combining alcohol with other health destroying multipliers will just make things really a lot worse. For instance, the SAD food plan (Standard American Diet) with a side of alcohol will just increase your risk of bringing out some disease that you may be at risk of. You can think about what you may be at risk for developing by looking at your family tree simply because you may have a pre-disposition to those conditions that you can aggravate with alcohol, stress, the SAD foods, etc.

You may think that you can still consume alcohol but just a bit less…that is not what the literature says:

“Consistent with prior literature, we find negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure. Specifically, alcohol intake is negatively associated with global brain volume measures, regional gray matter volumes, and white matter microstructure. Here, we show that the negative associations between alcohol intake and brain macrostructure and microstructure are already apparent in individuals consuming an average of only one to two daily alcohol units and become stronger as alcohol intake increases.

  As drinking increased from one alcohol unit (about half a beer) a day to two units (a pint of beer or a glass of wine) in 50-year-olds, for example, brain changes were equivalent to the effect of aging 2 years. An increase from two alcohol units to three showed changes equivalent to aging 3.5 years. ”

PS: Not drinking all week and concentrating alcohol consumption on the weekends (binging) is just as bad. If you have any chronic health problems, it may be best to avoid all forms of alcohol all the time. After all, what are your goals in life? Whatever they are, you simply cannot be at your best consuming alcohol. The last link above, from riahealth.com, is really pretty good but newer research shows that damage comes from even light alcohol consumption, no just heavier drinking.

 

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By Mark Smith • August 25, 2025
Hello everyone: I think I have mentioned inflammaging before but never really focused on it. So, let’s dig into this interesting topic. Inflammaging is when chronic, low-grade inflammation develops with age as dietary and environmental stress accumulates, contributing to the development of all of the various age-related diseases and health issues. It results from a loss of control over systemic inflammation, which tends to come from an unbalanced and dysregulated immune system. One of the key drivers of inflammaging is diet…which means that one of the key tools to slow and reduce aging is our what we eat as well as what we don’t eat. In this paper, the authors reveal that the typical Western Diet (what science calls the Standard American Diet or S.A.D.) is the best example of a pro-inflammatory diet pattern. “ Conclusion: Inflammation is a key physiological process in immunity and tissue repair. However, during aging it becomes increasingly more chronic. In addition, we found that certain foods such as saturated fats have pro-inflammatory activity. Taking this into account, in this review we have proposed some dietary guidelines as well as a list of compounds present in foods with anti-inflammatory activity. It must be taken into account that the amounts used in the studies that detect anti-inflammatory activity of these compounds are very high, and the intake of a single food to achieve its anti-inflammatory power is not feasible. (My Comment: what this means is that it is the overall dietary pattern that matters the most.) However, the combination of foods rich in compounds with anti-inflammatory activity could exert beneficial effects during aging and in pathologies associated with inflammation and in reducing the detrimental effects of foods with pro-inflammatory activity. Therefore, we can conclude that the compounds in our diet with anti-inflammatory activity could help alleviate the inflammatory processes derived from diseases and unhealthy diets and thereby promote healthy aging. Thus, we can use diet not only for nourishment, but also as medicine.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8389628/ anti-inflammatory diet and health aging https://www.healthline.com/health/5-minute-guide-to-inflamm-aging Bottom Line: We all must age, and how we do so is largely under our own control. To create an anti-inflammatory lifestyle is not that difficult, especially if you put it all together in stages. Start with a clean, whole-food, unprocessed plant-based food plan. And to begin, first focus on what you can add into your menus and use those additions to sort of crowd out the things that are more inflammatory…sugar, refined grains, processed and pre-packaged things. Set realistic goals such as going plant based one or two days a week, or even one meal…just start and gradually work up. It has to be doable so don’t stress. Next, start moving and doing regular exercise at least three times a week…and find what you enjoy doing and focus on that. Then add activities that de-stress you, whether that is socializing, church, meditation, prayer, yoga, etc. Overall, shift your attention to giving love to things that love you back. Sugar, drive-thru and processed food like thingies do not love you back but apples or kiwis or berries or veggies do. Sitting around does not love you back but going for a short walk after a meal does love you back. Hang out and give love to the people you really like to be with, they will most always love you back. Create a love you back lifestyle and see how you feel.

Health News Update: Blocking Internet on Smartphones Improves Mental Health

By Mark Smith • August 18, 2025
Hello everyone: I frequently hear about mental health issues with the people in our practice. They could be experiencing depression, or anxiety, feel flat, can’t focus or sustain attention, or may not feel well in general. These comments can come from anyone of any age…I can hear from parents about their kids, or it may be themselves experiencing these feeling. So, when I read this paper, it felt important to share it because we all seem to have mobile phones. Here is how the paper is summarized: “Concern about how smartphones affect users is widespread: half of American smartphone users—and 80% of those under age 30—worry that they use their device too much, and correlational research suggests that smartphone use is negatively related to mental health and cognitive functioning. However, few large-scale experiments have tested for causal effects. We report such an experiment, finding that blocking mobile internet for 2 weeks reduces smartphone use and improves subjective well-being (SWB) (including life satisfaction and positive affect), mental health (more than antidepressants), and sustained attention (as much as being 10 years younger). Despite the many benefits mobile internet offers, reducing the constant connection to the digital world can have large positive effects.” https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/2/pgaf017/8016017?utm_source=klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%28Email%20-%20Chris%20Kresser%20General%20News%29%20Chris%27s%20Friday%20Favorites&utm_term=randomized%20controlled%20trial&utm_content=randomized%20controlled%20trial&_kx=fARhTo_gi8X3B_2-MaeO_RyzUl9tvT3tr4re-Dy7cNQ.my75y6 Bottom Line: It seems like a smartphone ‘timeout’ can be very beneficial for mental, emotional, physical health and can be an important part of stress reduction. The world today, with nearly instant communications, the almost constant bad and anxiety promoting news, and the fast pace of data consumption can add up to significantly stress us out and pull us down…or just simple keep us distracted. From what I can see, a ‘timeout’ may be just what the doctor ordered.

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By Mark Smith • August 11, 2025
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