Episode Transcript
Your gut is more than just a tube that digests your food. It’s a delicate, living ecosystem — full of bacteria, lining cells, and chemical signals that work together to keep you nourished and protected.
But when you drink alcohol, that system takes a hit. Sometimes in ways you feel right away — and sometimes in ways that quietly build up over time.
In this episode of Trust Your Health, we’re looking at what alcohol really does to your gut — from your microbiome to your intestinal lining — and why it matters more than you think.
Let’s start with your microbiome — the trillions of bacteria living in your intestines. These bacteria help you digest food, absorb nutrients, train your immune system, and even produce some vitamins. They also keep harmful bacteria and yeast under control.
Alcohol disrupts that balance. It kills off some of the beneficial bacteria, while letting harmful ones like Clostridium or Candida overgrow. That imbalance — called dysbiosis — can lead to bloating, diarrhea, constipation, and even contribute to inflammation throughout your body.
And it’s not just about bacteria. Alcohol also damages the cells lining your intestines — the barrier that keeps food, toxins, and bacteria safely inside your gut and out of your bloodstream.
When that barrier is weakened, it becomes what’s often called leaky gut. Tiny gaps open up, allowing harmful molecules to slip through into your blood. That triggers your immune system, raises inflammation, and can even contribute to conditions like fatty liver, autoimmune disease, and more.
Over time, heavy drinking can also lead to gastritis — inflammation of the stomach lining — which causes pain, nausea, and bleeding. And in severe cases, it can lead to ulcers.
Even social or moderate drinking has an effect. One study showed that even one night of binge drinking can measurably increase gut permeability the next day — and regular drinking can keep the gut in a constant state of low-level injury.
The good news? Your gut can recover. If you cut back or stop drinking, the microbiome can start to rebalance in just a few weeks. The gut lining also has a remarkable ability to repair itself when the damage stops.
So what can you do right now? Start by paying attention. If you’re noticing digestive symptoms — bloating, changes in bowel habits, or stomach pain — it might not just be what you ate. Alcohol could be playing a bigger role than you realize.
Cutting back, spacing out your drinks, and eating fiber-rich, whole foods can help your gut recover. Probiotic-rich foods like yogurt, kimchi, or kefir may also help restore balance.
Your gut is your foundation — it keeps you nourished, protected, and balanced. And every drink you take, your gut feels it first.
In our next episode, we’ll move on to the organ most people associate with alcohol — your brain — and why it affects more than just your judgment.
Thanks for listening to Trust Your Health. Because trusting your health begins by understanding your body.
Be sure to follow the podcast so whenever you need clear, honest advice about your body, we’ll be here to help you make sense of it.
