Heavy drinking may increase your risk of catching Covid, study warns

For TMPRSS2, meanwhile, exposure to alcohol led to an overall increase in levels of the enzyme, without any observed organ-specific effects.

This, the team noted, could mean that blood alcohol concentration has the potential to accelerate the rate at which Covid can infiltrate the body’s cells.

Ms Friske and her colleagues noted that brain tissue appeared, for the most part, to be less vulnerable to the virus-promoting effects of alcohol.

The exceptions, however, were the olfactory bulbs — the rounded masses of tissue that contain nerve cells involved in the sense of smell — where levels of the protective enzyme Mas were found to decrease.

This, they explained, might result in a lower anti-inflammatory response in the bulbs and “intensify the disease progression towards anosmia”, the scientific term for a loss of smell.

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Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1733400/heavy-drinking-chronic-alcohol-consumption-may-increase-risk-catching-covid