It is no surprise to anyone that has drank alcohol in their life that the stuff can make a person feel a little sick. But new research has found that beyond causing sickly hangovers, drinking in excess might be able to lower the immune system in its entirety.

The study was done at Loyola University’s School of Medicine, and required brave participants with an average of 27 to take four or five shots of vodka. When they reached their peak intoxication point, the participants bodies showed an increase in activity in the immune system, which included three different types of white blood cells.

But these activity levels were checked again at two and five hour increments, at which point the immune system activity was lower than it was when the participants had no alcohol in their system at all.

The time choices of twenty minutes, two hours, and five hours were not chosen randomly, but interestingly because those are the times that patients generally are brought into trauma centers when they have been drinking. It is widely found that binge drinkers are more likely to die of traumatic injuries under the influence than people who abstain or drink within moderate levels. One third of patients who are treated for trauma have alcohol in their system at the time.

To follow up on the study and look at how drinking affects recovery, a second study will be done on burn victims to compare the recovery times between people who were drinking during their accident and those who were not. This should paint a more clear picture about the relationship between long term implications of drinking and the immune system.

Binge drinking is generally classified as four drinks for men and five for women over a two hour period. For people who drink socially and are celebrating throughout the holiday season, those numbers may be commonly hit.

The average binge drinker is between the age of 18 and 34, and one out of six adults binge drinks about four times a month. When adults do binge drink, the average amounts of drinks consumed is eight.

Other studies have found that binge drinking may increase hypertension later in life, create issues with insomnia, lead to heart disease, and lead to a decline in cognitive ability.

In an effort to cut down on the amount of drinks had in a session, it is suggested that drinkers alternate each alcoholic beverage with a glass of water to slow things down.

Moderate drinking is considered up to two to three units per day for women, and three to four for men. Units however are not the same as drinks, one glass of wine generally is counted as two units. This varies by type of alcohol.

The calculated average of acceptable drinks per day is less for women because of their average size difference, but also because women produce less of the chemical alcohol dehydrogenase that helps to break down alcohol in the liver, and also for hormonal differences.

There is of course some research that suggests that drinking in moderation might actually have health benefits, such as lowering the risk of stroke, dementia, depression, cardiovascular issues, and a variety of cancers.