Quitting alcohol for short periods seems to bring health benefits – but it also changes your mindset about drinking, and that could be a bigger gain
GIVING up alcohol for January? For many people, in the UK at least, it has become a ritual in recent years. The assumption is that taking a break will help your liver to recover from the seasonal onslaught of alcohol and rich food.
Does it work? Upon investigation, we found little research on the effects of such “dryathlons”. We thought that was surprising. So a group of New Scientist volunteers took part in a ground-breaking study organised by medical researchers at University College London.
The preliminary results are striking, suggesting that abstinence significantly reduces levels of liver fat, cholesterol and blood glucose (see “Our liver vacation: Is a dry January really worth it?“). Intriguing, but we’ll have to wait for larger studies before we can be confident of how large or enduring those benefits really are.
But a period of abstinence may have consequences beyond the physiological. The health benefits of a one-month break may prove to be inconsequential when set against the detriments of drinking for the rest of the year – certainly if people take the break as licence to increase their alcohol intake at other times.
But a dry period may help with that, too. Alcohol is a drug: one that kills 2.5 million people each year globally
and which the World Health Organization ranks as the third largest risk factor for premature death. When, how and why we drink is strongly affected by personal and social factors.
Habitual drinkers can find it difficult to negotiate social events without alcohol. But get over the initial discomfort of drying out, and healthier habits may follow. Several New Scientist participants reported they found it easier to decline alcohol after the study had ended, or to start an evening off with low-alcohol drinks. But the lack of palatable, non-sugary choices proved frustrating: perhaps drinks manufacturers could make more effort to cater to the month-off market.
This is, of course, just the anecdotal experience of a handful of people. But the potential for people to rewrite their contract with alcohol may prove a stronger argument for dialling back on booze for a while every year than any health benefits. Worth considering as you decide whether to open another bottle of wine.
This article appeared in print under the headline “New year, new habits?”
