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When thinking about the common causes of lower back pain, issues like poor posture, lack of exercise, or an injury usually come to mind. However, there’s another potential factor that many people overlook: alcohol consumption.
Could your after-work beer, evening glass of wine, weekend cocktails, or recent ‘Big Night Out’ be contributing to those nagging lower back symptoms?
While the relationship between alcohol and back pain is complex, it’s worth exploring if your drinking habits could play a role. In this blog, we explore further the relationship between alcohol and back pain.
While the relationship between drinking and back pain is often complicated (Does Drinking Alcohol Cause Lower Back Pain?), certain alcohol-related effects on the human body have been shown to exacerbate back pain.
For example, excessive alcohol intake promotes the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines (important signalling molecules) that aggravate the body’s inflammatory responses.
Moreover, alcohol can impair the gut barrier, allowing toxins to enter the bloodstream and subsequently trigger systemic inflammation. These processes can aggravate a range of conditions, including chronic back pain.
While moderate alcohol consumption does not necessarily cause back pain on its own, drinking alcohol can worsen symptoms in individuals who have a pre-existing back condition. Moreover, higher alcohol consumption can also interfere with your body’s natural healing process.
It’s also important to consider lifestyle factors. If you’re frequently overindulging in alcohol, you are more likely to neglect your posture and skip out on exercise. Both of these factors can contribute to lower back pain.
Alcohol-related dehydration is also known to affect muscle function and recovery, leading to discomfort and tension in the back.
When discussing whether excessive drinking may be causing or worsening back pain, it is important to understand what constitutes ‘moderate drinking’ and ‘heavy drinking’. Many people have only a loose understanding of moderation, and they may be surprised by the medical definition.
According to health guidelines, an individual should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, spread across 3 (or more) days. While there is no guaranteed safe level of drinking, you can minimise the risk of harming your health by sticking to these guidelines.
To understand what this means in practice, we need to define the Unit (also known as a Standard drink), and understand its relevance (Calculating Alcohol Units). A Standard drink in the UK contains 10 mL of pure alcohol (8 g). This is approximately equivalent to:
While moderate drinking may be part of a balanced lifestyle for many, regularly exceeding the health guidelines, even by small margins, can lead to long-term issues with your overall health, including back pain.
If you think you may need to cut back on your alcohol consumption, visit the NHS Better Health web page (Drink Less).
It should be remembered that everyone’s body will respond differently to alcohol, depending on their lifestyle habits, body mass index, health status, and even genetic background. For some individuals already suffering from back pain, even moderate drinking may not be advisable.
Additionally, moderate drinking can interfere with any pain management medications taken. Next time you have a few drinks, pay extra attention to how your symptoms change with alcohol consumption.
If you are currently managing lower back pain with pain medication, you should be aware of how alcohol can interact with your prescribed drugs. Mixing alcohol with pain medications, even seemingly harmless over-the-counter ones, can have serious implications.
Indeed, alcohol significantly increases the risks associated with a range of pain drugs taken to help manage the symptoms of back pain.
For instance:
If you’re already on medication for your back pain, the sensible approach is to avoid drinking altogether unless you’ve specifically discussed your drinking habits with your doctor. Moreover, alcohol can lessen the effectiveness of pain medication and exacerbate the symptoms you’re trying to alleviate.
While drinking in moderation may not cause noticeable harm (in most cases), binge drinking can cause a sudden onset of lower back pain. The main reasons for this are outlined below.
First, overconsumption of alcohol can lead to dehydration, which affects your body’s ability to maintain muscle and joint function. If the muscles and intervertebral discs of your back lose their water, you may experience stiffness, spasms, and discomfort in your lower back.
Additionally, alcohol affects coordination and balance, which means you’re more likely to suffer from falls, injuries, or awkward movements after a night of heavy drinking. These types of accidents can strain muscles, sprain ligaments, or lead to more serious injuries, all of which contribute to back pain.
Binge drinking can also lead to poor posture issues—whether you’re slouching on the couch after a few too many drinks or spending hours at a bar in uncomfortable seating. Poor posture, especially when held for long periods, is a common trigger for lower back pain and discomfort.
Finally, excessive alcohol consumption can also suppress your body’s natural pain signals, delaying your awareness of injury until the damage is done. This explains why people wake up the next morning with stiffness or soreness that wasn’t noticeable the night before.
While alcohol may not be the root cause of your back pain, it can certainly play a role in worsening your symptoms or hindering your recovery. If you suspect that your drinking habits are contributing to your discomfort, it may be worthwhile taking stock of your alcohol consumption.
Start by cutting back or eliminating alcohol for a few weeks and monitor any changes in your back pain symptoms.
It’s also important to consider the broader impacts of alcohol on your health. Moderate drinking is part of many individuals’ balanced lifestyle, but overindulging can have consequences that extend far beyond a hangover.
If you’re struggling with alcohol-related back pain, getting help from a healthcare professional is a smart first step.
Your chiropractor can help you explore other causes of your pain and offer advice on safe alcohol consumption based on your individual health needs. If drinking is interfering with your life or your pain management, don’t hesitate to seek help. Your spine—and your overall health—will thank you for it.
By adopting a balanced approach to alcohol consumption and being mindful of how it interacts with your body, you can make choices that support both your spinal health and your lifestyle.
