Every year, millions of people around the world abstain from alcohol for a month. This tradition began with Dry His January and has expanded to similar efforts such as Sober October. Whether it’s part of an organized campaign or simply a personal attempt to drink less, a growing number of us are sober and curious. It seems that.
In 2023, one in seven UK adults planned to take part in Dry January, while 35 per cent of US adults reported attempting to abstain from alcohol for a full month in 2022 . As the number of participants increases, this raises the question of what to do. The benefits of a month of abstinence from alcohol and whether one month is enough for him to start realizing the benefits.
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“It affects people differently, depending on how long they’ve been consuming alcohol,” says Shehzad Merwat, a gastroenterologist at UT Health Houston. As research is beginning to show, there are many benefits to abstaining from alcohol year-round, and initiatives like Dry His January can play an important role in moderating your drinking habits.
Effects of alcohol on the body
Alcohol harms our bodies in many ways. The most noticeable effects are on the liver, where alcohol is broken down, but there are secondary effects on other organs such as the heart, gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, and brain. These can range widely and often depend on how long the alcohol has been in your system and how much you have consumed.
“Blood alcohol concentration is a major factor in organ damage,” says Paul Tomes, a researcher at Auburn University who focuses on the mechanisms of alcohol-induced organ damage.
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The liver breaks down alcohol into less toxic forms so it can be removed from the body, Tomes explained. During this process, alcohol is first broken down to acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is highly toxic and a known carcinogen. Acetaldehyde usually breaks down very quickly. However, if this process is delayed or interrupted due to high blood alcohol levels or other underlying factors such as drugs that interfere with liver metabolism, alcohol can accumulate throughout the body and cause damage. there is.
“The extent of damage is determined by how long toxic molecules remain in cells and tissues,” Tomes says.
This damage can affect every organ in the body, resulting in a number of long-term health risks from chronic alcohol use., These include increased risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, and certain types of cancer. Chronic alcohol use can also weaken the immune system and impair the proper functioning of the brain.
How the body recovers from alcohol
Most research on the effects of quitting alcohol focuses on heavy drinkers. But even if you’re a light drinker, a month of abstinence can have noticeable health effects, says Carrie Mintz, a psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis. “He could see the change within a month at the earliest.”
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Once you stop drinking alcohol, you will begin to see changes within a few weeks. This also includes the liver, allowing those with alcohol-related liver disease to begin to repair the damage caused by most of the four stages. The liver starts with fat accumulation, progresses to chronic inflammation, leads to scarring, and ultimately results in: Cirrhosis of the liver. The liver can be cured except in the final stages.
“The liver has tremendous regenerative potential,” Tomes says. “The first three stages are [of liver damage] Recovery is possible while sober. ” Abstinence from alcohol has benefits for patients with cirrhosis by halting the progression of the disease and even prolonging patient survival, but it cannot reverse the condition.
In addition to the benefits for your liver, quitting alcohol can have many other health benefits. This is also believed to be due to lower levels of alcohol and acetaldehyde in the body.
In a study that followed 94 moderate to heavy drinkers who gave up alcohol for one month, participants experienced improvements in insulin resistance, blood pressure, and weight compared to their peers who did not abstain.
Other benefits of quitting alcohol include better sleep, improved mood such as reduced depression and anxiety, as well as healthier skin and a healthy gut. Alcohol has been shown to disrupt the microbial makeup of the gut, a condition called the gut microbiome, and damage the cells lining the intestines, which can cause intestinal contents to spill into the bloodstream. I am.
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“In the intestines, this dysbiosis can be reversed, but it’s not fully resolved even after three to five weeks,” Tomes says. “It takes longer to repair the damage caused to the gut microbiome and intestines.”
A month can give you some insight…
Abstaining from alcohol for a month also has the benefit of helping you understand how your alcohol consumption habits are affecting your general health and well-being.
“That’s very insightful,” says Steven Tate, a physician at Stanford University who specializes in addiction medicine. As Tate points out, alcohol can cause or worsen health problems such as poor sleep, depression, and anxiety. Consuming alcohol regularly may also be an attempt to self-medicate an underlying sleep or mood disorder. Abstaining from alcohol for a month gives you the opportunity to figure out whether alcohol is causing or hiding health problems.
In Tate’s experience, quitting alcohol can also help you better understand your relationship with alcohol, including whether your drinking has gotten out of control.
“Sometimes it’s hard to recognize when you’re addicted,” Tate says. “It’s sometimes hard to know where that line is, and sometimes people don’t realize it until they’ve already crossed it.”
…and change your drinking habits
One of the main concerns in efforts to abstain from drinking for a month is what happens after the month is over, with the fear that if you start drinking again your spending habits will become even more extreme. However, research suggests that for many Dry January participants, quitting alcohol may lead to less drinking in subsequent months.
In a study that followed 94 moderate to heavy drinkers who gave up alcohol for one month, when researchers followed up six months later, the participants were drinking significantly less than before, and on average reported that their alcohol use patterns were at “low risk.” Category of problematic drinking habits. Another study of 857 British adults who took part in Dry January also found that after one month of abstinence, participants reported drinking less alcohol over a six-month period.
As research is starting to show, consistently reducing your alcohol intake may have some important health benefits, and the benefits are sure to last long after the month is over. . Considering that alcohol can damage various organs in the body, especially if you have high blood alcohol levels, experts believe that reducing your drinking habits overall can have significant long-term health benefits. It is pointed out that it may lead to
“The less you drink, the lower your risk of suffering these damages,” Mintz says.
