Symptoms of COPD typically include coughing, spitting up phlegm (mucus), difficulty breathing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and tiredness. In this post, we’ll explore what COPD is, how alcohol impacts people living with the condition, and offer tips on how to manage it. Many people who are successful ex-smokers or ex-drinkers had to try several times before they were able to quit in the long term. This combination increases your risk for several conditions and can aggravate symptoms of COPD. If you’re diagnosed with COPD and continue to drink or smoke, your symptoms will likely worsen.

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People with COPD may be able to safely consume small quantities of alcohol. MedicineNet does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Never downplay the potential harm that alcohol can cause when you have COPD.

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While the occasional alcoholic beverage may be safe, heavy drinking can make COPD symptoms worse and impair the health of our lungs. Many also fail to separate the effects of drinking and smoking, which makes it impossible to tell whether or not negative health effects are the result of alcohol or tobacco consumption. While the occasional drink may be safe, heavy drinking can make COPD symptoms worse and impair the health of our lungs. If you do drink, you should take special care of yourself to minimize any negative effects that alcohol might have on your lungs or your COPD symptoms. Heavy drinking can also cause nutritional deficiencies and even make your lungs more prone to being damaged by smoking. However, for people with chronic diseases like COPD, the mild toxic effects of alcohol may sometimes pose more of a risk.

• It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers.
• Melissa Carmona puts years of writing and editing experience to work helping people understand substance abuse, addiction and mental health disorders.
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that makes it difficult to breathe.
• Essentially, alcohol’s diuretic effects causes nutrients and electrolytes to be lost when you urinate, leading to deficiencies in sodium, potassium, chloride ions, and other substances.

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And if we’re already smokers and consume alcohol, our COPD flare ups will only be worse. Decreased levels of glutathione makes us more susceptible to breathing difficulties and can contribute to COPD flare ups. Similarly, alcohol often leads to inflammation throughout our body, which can impair our immune system. A buildup of mucus can lead to shortness of breath and make it harder to breathe. Furthermore, one study found that COPD patients who were discharged from the hospital and who struggled with alcohol misuse were more likely to require readmission within 30 days.

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It also makes it harder to fight off any sicknesses you already have, meaning you might stay sick longer and experience worse symptoms. Drinking too much alcohol can significantly reduce your immune system’s ability to stave off illnesses and infections. Pancreatitis causes a number of uncomfortable symptoms like nausea and diarrhea and can take weeks to recover from.

According to the American Lung Association, 85-90% of COPD cases result from smoking or from secondhand smoke. After three days without a cigarette or a drink, buy yourself a new book. People who use or misuse alcohol are more likely to smoke.

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We may have a harder time coughing after consuming alcohol, making it more difficult to clear our lungs — which is why we might feel like we have an “alcohol cough.” You’re exhausted — mentally and physically — from living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and just want to be able to relax. If you resume drinking or smoking, you can always quit again. If you’ve quit drinking or smoking, let your doctor know how long ago you quit and how much you used to drink or smoke in the past.

This interaction can reduce the effectiveness of these medications or increase their side effects, potentially complicating COPD management. These infections are known triggers for COPD exacerbations, periods of worsened symptoms requiring intensive medical care. Alcohol can weaken the immune system, making individuals with COPD more susceptible to respiratory infections like pneumonia and bronchitis. It acts as a central nervous system depressant, which may lead to shallower breathing and reduced oxygen intake. WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. They can give you advice specific to you and your treatment plan and can help find the best ways for you to keep your COPD in check.

• This is due to other individual factors like overall health, the regularity of drinking, and the progression or risk of the disease.
• It’s a good question to ask since alcohol can cause problems with a number of medications.
• The Recovery Village has services available to treat alcoholism, withlocations across the country.
• As a diuretic, alcohol flushes water out of your body, which in turn dries up your mucus, making it extra thick and sticky.
• This diminished clearance mechanism increases the risk of respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, which can trigger severe COPD exacerbations.

They can explain all of the risks involved and help you properly manage your COPD symptoms so you can live a healthy life. Patients with severe COPD symptoms who don’t respond to treatment may need surgery to improve their breathing. If you have COPD and drink alcohol regularly, you will likely aggravate your existing symptoms by increasing how often and how severely you experience them. It refers to a group of respiratory illnesses that cause breathing problems and airflow blockages, including emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or asthma.

While alcohol isn’t exactly healthy for anyone, the question of whether it’s bad for your lungs or particularly dangerous for COPD isn’t a simple question to answer. Any decision to drink must be weighed against the potential for worsened symptoms, reduced medication effectiveness, and increased risk of respiratory complications. Given the heightened risks, individuals with COPD should prioritize discussing any alcohol consumption with their healthcare provider. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a progressive lung condition characterized by persistent respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation, making breathing difficult. If your respiratory system is damaged and you’re taking medication that could affect your ability to breathe, Han says adding alcohol could raise your risk for other problems. But there’s plenty of research showing that drinking too much can cause serious problems with your lungs.

Alcohol Can Interfere With Medications

This can trigger sleep apnea or worsen pre-existing sleep apnea symptoms, which can make it difficult for your body to get enough oxygen while you sleep. And since sleep apnea is very common in people with COPD (known as overlap syndrome), this is a concern that affects a large number of patients. Drinking alcohol at night can also affect your sleep in other ways—by affecting the muscles in your throat and worsening obstructive sleep apnea. As a result, your sleep quality is lower and you have an increased risk of waking up and not being able to sleep in the morning. In the most severe cases, mixing alcohol and antidepressants can slow your heart rate and breathing to dangerously low levels. Additionally, some corticosteroid medications used to treat lung inflammation in COPD patients can be dangerous if you mix them with alcohol.

But is there anything that makes alcohol particularly dangerous for people who suffer from chronic respiratory diseases? There are, of course, many proven health risks that come from drinking too much alcohol, especially if you’ve been doing it for a long time. This is due to other individual factors like overall health, the regularity of drinking, and the progression or risk of the disease. Research also suggests that alcohol could cause breathing problems by negatively impacting the healthy function of the lungs. After drinking alcohol, some people with COPD demonstrate allergic or allergic-like reactions that exacerbate breathing difficulties and discomfort.

Always talk to your doctor if you have questions about COPD and alcohol. Heavy smokers are much more likely to be alcohol dependent, Schachter says. If you have COPD and an alcohol addiction, it’s important to get help. It could potentially cause your heart rate and breathing to slow down. Alcohol can increase the effects of anxiety or pain medications. “With excessive use, it causes liver damage, which interferes with the metabolism of many drugs detoxified by the liver.”

But how does alcohol use connect to having COPD? There’s evidence that alcohol dependence and tobacco use are linked. People with COPD typically have blocked airways and experience breathing-related problems. This includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

But that’s not the case for many people with COPD. When you drink heavily, the system doesn’t work as effectively as it should. Your mucociliary transport system works continually to clear mucus and contaminants out of your airways. Drinking regularly may increase your risk of developing COPD.

Direct Respiratory Effects

The most common cause of COPD is cigarette smoking. “One or two drinks a week may reduce anxiety,” Schachter says. It’s important for those living with COPD to follow a treatment plan. “One or two drinks a day has not been shown to impact COPD,” says Neil Schachter, MD, a COPD specialist at Mount Sinai Health System. In general, having a few drinks in moderation is OK. When you have COPD, you might have a cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, or have trouble breathing.

Some studies suggest that does alcohol affect copd moderate alcohol use may be linked to a lower risk of COPD. People who tend to smoke heavily when they drink should also consider refraining from drinking. This rare genetic disorder reduces the body’s ability to protect the lungs, which makes a person more prone to develop COPD. In addition, people with COPD also have to consider how any medications they are taking to treat their condition may interact with alcohol.