Moderate Alcohol Consumption may Boost the Body's Immune System

You know the saying that anything in moderation is ok? Well, the same holds true for alcohol.

A recent study by scientists from the University of California, Riverside, looks at how moderate consumption of alcohol is ok for you. And add to that, it may help improve the immune system's ability to actually fight off infections.

"It has been known for a long time that moderate alcohol consumption is associated with lower mortality," said Ilhem Messaoudi, an associate professor of biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine in a press release.

"Our study, conducted on non-human primates, shows for the first time that voluntary moderate alcohol consumption boosts immune responses to vaccination," Messaoudi said.

Study authors trained 12 rhesus macaques to self-control alcohol on their own records in a study on the impact of the drink. First, they vaccinated the animals and then allowed them to access 4 percent ethanol or calorically matched sugar water.

The process for the vaccination was then repeated after a seven month period from the starting date of the experiment. Researchers concluded that over nine months of animals' ethanol self-administartion, average daily-ethanol intake varied among them.

"Like humans, rhesus macaques showed highly variable drinking behaviour. Some animals drank large volumes of ethanol, while others drank in moderation.Prior to consuming alcohol, all the animals showed comparable responses to vaccination. Following exposure to ethanol, however, the animals showed markedly different responses after receiving the booster vaccine," Messaoudi added in the press release.

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Vaccine.