Medical experts warn that anyone intending to receive the COVID-19 vaccine should avoid drinking alcohol during the time of the shot, as alcohol can reduce the body’s immune response to the vaccine.
What are the details?
According to a report in the Daily Mail on Monday, emergency medicine specialist Dr. Ronx Ikhaira, who conducted a recent experiment, determined that after three glasses of an alcoholic beverage, the body’s lymphocyte cells researchers decreased by up to 50%.
“Alcohol modifies the composition of the billions of microorganisms that live in the gut, which play an important role in preventing the invasion of bacteria and viruses,” the media reported, noting that “it causes damage. of immune cells in the blood, known as white blood cells, including lymphocytes, which send antibodies to attack viruses. “
Professor Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist at the University of Manchester, said reducing lymphocytes “could reduce the effectiveness of the body’s immune response,” the Daily Mail noted.
Due to the drop in lymphocytes, Cruickshank has advised people intending to receive the vaccination to avoid alcohol in the immediate term that will lead to – and after – the shooting.
“You need your immune system to work well to have a good response to the vaccine, so if you drink it the night before or soon after, that won’t help you,” Cruickshank said.
According to a team of scientists from Wuhan, China, “Lymphocytes are of” fundamental importance “in the immune system because they determine the immune response to infectious microorganisms and other foreign substances, such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”
What else?
In December, Russian scientists urged citizens to look for a COVID-19 vaccine to avoid alcohol for at least two months.
Russia began issuing its own two-dose coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, which the country has claimed has a minimum effectiveness of 95%, in December, and delivered the injection with a warning to those citizens to whom likes to drink: no alcohol for two months during the immunization process.
Citizens were also urged not to take any immunosuppressive drugs during treatment.
Anna Popova, head of the national consumer safety watchdog, said those receiving the vaccine should avoid alcohol at least two weeks before the first shot and then an additional 42 days after the second shot, which is administered 21 days after the first shot.
“It’s an effort for the body,” Popova said. “If we want to stay healthy and have a strong immune response, we don’t drink alcohol.”