How does drinking affect your gut health, and what can you do?

If you drink alcohol, it’s not just your head that can feel the effects of a hangover.

Alcohol also affects your gut in many ways, causing inflammation, interfering with the gut’s lining and changing the balance of the microbes that call your gut home.

Based on all research to date, the safest amount of alcohol to drink is zero, and a higher consumption is linked with a higher risk of health problems.

This isn’t to say that you can’t enjoy a tipple, but it's important to be mindful of how often you drink and how much. Keeping the amount low is recommended – and according to current UK guidelines, that means a maximum of 14 units per week.

While there’s no cure for a hangover once you have one, there are things you can do to help your recovery and support your gut health after the fog has lifted.

In this article, we’ll look at exactly how alcohol affects your gut, what’s good to eat and drink during a hangover, and how you can make your gut happier and healthier in the future.

How does alcohol affect your gut?

Alcohol has a number of harmful effects on your digestive system and the collection of microbes that live there – your gut microbiome.

Drinking alcohol can directly affect your gut muscles and lining, as well as your body’s production of stomach acid. And because alcohol impacts your sleep, it can indirectly influence what you eat and drink the next day. This can have a knock-on effect on your gut health.

Alcohol’s effects vary, depending on how much you consume and how often. Research in the lab and studies with participants show that alcohol changes the composition of the gut microbiome. Higher amounts of alcohol have more pronounced effects.

Meanwhile, when we think about hangovers, we tend to focus on what they do to our brains. Often, we’ll talk about having a sore head, and to be fair, this is a big aspect. One journal article describes a hangover as starting ‘once the blood alcohol concentration returns to zero and is characterised by a general feeling of misery lasting up to 24 hours’.

But it’s important not to downplay what happens to your gut – not only because there’s a wide range of effects, but because recognising them can help you handle a hangover.

So, here’s a more detailed list of ways that alcohol can affect your gut:

• Causing inflammation: Alcohol and its byproducts can cause inflammation, which in turn can lead to bloating, nausea and vomiting, as well as sped-up digestion. Alcohol may also decrease anti-inflammatory bacteria and increase pro-inflammatory bacteria in the gut.

• Relaxing the ring of muscle that protects your oesophagus from stomach acid: Alcohol can cause the the lower oesophageal sphincter to relax, allowing acid to rise up from your stomach into your food pipe.

• Stimulating stomach acid production: Alcoholic drinks can also prompt your body to change how much saliva it produces and interfere with the speed at which food and drink travel through your oesophagus. This, in turn, can lead to acid reflux (heartburn).

• Quickening contractions that push food through your gut: Alcohol influences the speed of the passage of food through your digestive system, which can contribute to diarrhoea or constipation.

• Interfering with nutrient absorption: Chronic alcohol use disrupts the absorption of important nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, glucose and amino acids. 

• Altering the permeability of the gut lining: Drinking alcohol can make the lining of your gut more ‘leaky’, which can allow more bacteria and harmful substances to get into your bloodstream. This can also affect your immune system.

• Changing the composition of your gut microbiome: Drinking a lot of alcohol can lead to dysbiosis, an imbalance in your gut microbiome. This can result in inflammation, increased gas production (which may lead to bloating), and the overgrowth of certain ‘bad’ gut bacteria.

Earlier, we mentioned that drinking alcohol can disrupt your sleep, and this is true for any amount of alcohol. It works as a sedative, but sedation isn’t sleep.

Drinking larger amounts is also associated with a reduction in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep – the sleep stage that supports your mood and mental functioning.

As well as contributing to you feeling tired and glum the next day, a lack of quality sleep is linked to craving foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar – like biscuits, crisps and sweets.

These types of foods contain little fibre and few nutrients, making them a less-than-ideal choice for supporting your gut health. Many are also ultra-processed.

For how long does alcohol affect my gut?

The length of time will depend on how often you drink. If heavy drinking is a one-off (binge), one study suggests that some effects can last for up to 24 hours.

If you’re regularly drinking, the effects of alcohol will last longer. One study in people with alcohol use disorder showed that signs of dysbiosis remained after the participants had stopped drinking for 3 weeks. 

Side note: Your liver will typically take 1 hour to remove 1 unit of alcohol from your body.

Aren’t some drinks supposed to have health properties?

You may have heard that red wine has some properties that can be good for your health. Now, there is something to this, but it’s important not to get carried away.

Red wine contains plant chemicals called polyphenols that the beneficial bacteria in your gut like to feed on. Other alcoholic drinks contain them too, but not as many as red wine.

While these polyphenols can provide some health benefits, red wine still (usually) contains alcohol, and so, it can produce all the negative effects we’ve listed above.

We still need more research to know whether a less welcome effect cancels out a potential benefit when people drink red wine in moderation. Still, it’s important to remember that you’ll be consuming alcohol along with the polyphenols.

Learn more about alcohol and gut health.

What’s best to eat and drink when you’re hungover?

During a hangover, the best foods and drinks will rehydrate you, be gentle on your stomach and help relieve any symptoms you might have.

If you’ve ever woken up with a hangover, chances are you’ve wanted to eat or drink something to make you feel better. Plenty of people have sung the praises of a big, greasy fry-up or the ‘hair of the dog’ to take the edge off. Unfortunately, these approaches could end up prolonging the misery.

Here are some options to consider instead:

• Water: Heavy drinking can leave you dehydrated, so it’s important to replenish your fluids the next day.

• Coconut water: Coconut water contains electrolytes. It’s a better option than sports drinks, as these contain lots of extra ingredients and added sugars.

• A fruit smoothie or glass of juice: These bring fluids and antioxidants from the fruit, which could help reduce inflammation.

• Miso soup: If you’re craving umami flavours, miso soup will provide hydration and electrolytes. Adding noodles and veg can offer more nutrients, antioxidants and fibre, though you might leave these out to keep the soup easy to digest.

• Ginger: This has anti-inflammatory properties, and there’s some evidence that it can help with nausea. You could try it in a tea or add it to a meal.

• Peppermint tea: Peppermint tea can relieve bloating and tummy pain.

• Eggs: These are easy on your stomach and provide healthy fats, protein and other nutrients. 

• Bland foods: Choosing foods without spice and grease gives your gut less work to do – ideal after the strain of handling a lot of alcohol.

For more ideas, check out our list of 10 easy-to-digest meals.

Hangover myths vs reality

But what about the fry-up and ‘hair of the dog’ we mentioned earlier?

A big cooked breakfast often contains a lot of greasy, fried foods, plus other high-fat items. Digesting these foods requires more work from your gut, and some can contribute to heartburn and stomach pain. It isn’t ideal when your gut needs a rest.

Meanwhile, drinking more alcohol will delay or prolong the effects of a hangover, which will hit home once the level of alcohol in your body returns to zero again.

Plus, taking this approach frequently can increase your alcohol tolerance. This means you’ll need to drink more in order to experience the same effect, which is a sign of alcohol use disorder.

While traditional hangover ‘cures’ might sound more enjoyable than the healthy options we’ve listed above, the idea that they can help is, unfortunately, a myth.

Other steps to support gut health after drinking

Your long-term gut health won’t be decided by a single session of drinking, nor will it depend on what you consume the following day.

The journey to good gut health involves healthy habits becoming routine.

Your diet is an important starting point. Here are five steps that can make a difference:

• Eat plenty of fibre to aid digestion and feed the microbes living in your gut. Aim to have 30 grams of fibre per day.

• Add fermented foods to your diet, as these can contain beneficial compounds and sometimes even live microbes, which can support your gut microbiome.

• ‘Eat the rainbow’ by including a variety of different-coloured plant foods, to get a range of fibre types and polyphenols on your plate.

• Limit ultra-processed foods, as they can potentially disrupt the balance of microbes in your gut. They’re often low in fibre and other helpful nutrients, too.

And it’s not just your diet that can help. Here are some other ways to support your gut health over time:

• Get a good amount of sleep every night. Aim for 7–9 hours.

• Do what you can to manage stress. The connection between your brain and gut means any stress could affect your gut microbes.

• Stay active. Exercise helps keep your digestive system working and could benefit your gut microbiome.

Looking for more tips? Here are eight simple ways to improve your gut health.

Summary

Alcohol isn’t great for your gut. It can have a range of negative effects on your digestive organs, the microbes living in your gut and the way your body processes food.

But just like the ‘feeling of misery’ that comes with a hangover, these gut health effects aren’t permanent. And there are plenty of steps you can take to get your gut happy and healthy again.

While alcohol is generally harmful, you can still have a healthy gut while enjoying a drink or two now and then.

The key is to develop a routine of healthy habits that support your digestive system and the microbes within it.

To learn more about other gut health topics, visit Symprove’s Gut Hub. 

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