Giving up alcohol for just 1 month has lasting benefits

Log in with your Medical News Today account to create or edit your custom homepage, catch-up on your opinions notifications and set your newsletter preferences.Sign up for a free Medical News Today account to customize your medical and health news experiences.Dry January is an initiative of the charity organization Alcohol Change United Kingdom, which encourages people to try giving up alcohol for 1 month at the start of the year.Although the charity that promotes this effort is UK-based, thousands of people around the world pledge to take part in this campaign each year.It is fairly logical to assume that giving up alcohol for 31 days can only benefit health, since drinking regularly is a major risk factor for cancer, liver disease, and cardiovascular diseases, among other issues.Now, a study by researchers from the University of Sussex in Falmer, UK, shows just how much skipping alcohol for 1 month can improve your life and concludes that these benefits are long-lasting.The research, which Dr. Richard de Visser from the University of Sussex led, found that people who took part in Dry January in 2018 reported higher energy levels and healthier body weight. They went from consuming an average of 8.6 units of alcohol per drinking day at baseline to 7.1 units of alcohol per drinking day later on."The simple act of taking a month off alcohol helps people drink less in the long term; by August, people are reporting one extra dry day per week," notes Dr. de Visser."There are also considerable immediate benefits: nine in 10 people save money, seven in 10 sleep better, and three in five lose weight," he adds.Important benefits, however, are also available to those who give up alcohol for shorter periods. Being alcohol-free for 31 days shows us that we don't need alcohol to have fun, to relax, to socialize," says Dr. Richard Piper, the CEO of Alcohol Change UK."That means that for the rest of the year, we are better able to make decisions about our drinking and to avoid slipping into drinking more than we really want to," Dr. Piper notes."Many of us know about the health risks of alcohol — seven forms of cancer, liver disease, mental health problems — but we are often unaware that drinking less has more immediate benefits too.