Does Drinking Alcohol Kill Your Gut Bacteria?
Alcohols are used to disinfect things all the time, which makes drinking them sound bad for the helpful critters in your gut. But, turns out, drinking in moderation could actually be good for...
==========
From the hand sanitizer at your favorite food truck to those single-use wipes at the doctor’s office, alcohols are used to disinfect things all the time. So every time you have an alcoholic drink, it’s basically like microbe-killing juice… which doesn’t sound so great for the helpful critters in your gut. But, turns out, drinking in moderation could actually kill the microbes that cause food poisoning and diarrhea, while helping the bacteria that help you. It’s been known for centuries that alcohols can kill microscopic germs—the Greek physician Galen used wine to clean gladiatorial wounds way back in 150 CE. But the ethanol in beer and wine is just one type of alcohol. Chemically, alcohols are compounds with at least one hydroxyl group, which ...
==========
From the hand sanitizer at your favorite food truck to those single-use wipes at the doctor’s office, alcohols are used to disinfect things all the time. So every time you have an alcoholic drink, it’s basically like microbe-killing juice… which doesn’t sound so great for the helpful critters in your gut. But, turns out, drinking in moderation could actually kill the microbes that cause food poisoning and diarrhea, while helping the bacteria that help you. It’s been known for centuries that alcohols can kill microscopic germs—the Greek physician Galen used wine to clean gladiatorial wounds way back in 150 CE. But the ethanol in beer and wine is just one type of alcohol. Chemically, alcohols are compounds with at least one hydroxyl group, which ...
