Dry January: How a month with no alcohol can improve your mood, sleep and prevent illness
Dry January can be a month off the booze to let your body recover and reset
Christmas is the season of good cheer. But clinking glasses of bubbly and saying cheers once too often has left you feeling less than sparkling. Dry January beckons — a month off the booze to let your body recover and reset.
The month-long ‘alco-holiday’ at the start of the year has grown in popularity since the campaign was introduced in 2013 in Britain. Two years ago, a Behaviour & Attitudes Dry January Research study found one in four Irish adults were planning to quit the booze for a month. But can 31 days on the dry really make much of a health difference?
In Ireland, at any time of year, we drink in a particularly harmful way, says liver consultant Prof Frank Murray, chair of Alcohol Action Ireland. “Many cultures are far less tolerant of alcohol [excess intake] — people drink one or two, they don’t have ‘a session’. Here we tend to binge drink, which means drinking three pints — or six units — in one sitting. And we see that as only the appetiser.”
Statistics show that 75% of alcohol in Ireland is consumed in a binge-drinking manner — and 25% of us are considered binge drinkers. Dr Jo-Hanna Ivers, associate professor in addiction at the School of Medicine, Trinity College, says people tend to discount their drinking in any assessment of harmful alcohol intake. “We compare ourselves [favourably] to others, saying ‘I drink wine but she drinks vodka’, or ‘he drinks four bottles….I drink less’, or ‘I only drink on Friday and Saturday.”
But are we adhering to baseline low-risk guidelines of no more than 17 standard drinks weekly for a man — and no more than 11 for a woman? Most likely not, says Ivers. “We should be thinking in terms of ‘modest’ drinking rather than ‘moderate’ — because ‘moderate’ in Ireland is a moveable feast.”
Over the Christmas season — with its emphasis on sociability, holidays and kick-back time — many of us gave ourselves licence to loosen the reins, saying ‘yes’ to ‘just one more’ multiple times. Paula Leonard, CEO of Alcohol Forum Ireland, says we tend to drink above the low-risk guidelines at Christmas. She warns that ‘low-risk’ does not mean ‘no risk’.
“Low-risk guidelines tell us how to limit risk. They are not ‘no risk’. When we think about liver and brain damage, we tend to think about very high-risk drinking. We shouldn’t – all alcohol changes the function of the brain, and even at lowest [intake] levels we increase the risk of developing seven cancers. This isn’t just for those drinking heavily, but for those who consider themselves responsible, sensible drinkers.”
When we drink a lot over days/weeks — as tends to happen around Christmas – health deteriorates quicker than we might expect, says Ivers. “The big common denominator is inflammation. Alcohol causes a lot of it in the body. The liver, where alcohol is processed, takes the biggest hit. If you drink more than the recommended guidelines, there’s a cumulative effect. During the metabolism of alcohol, the body produces a toxin which causes inflammation of the liver, slowing it down. And more quickly than people think, it leads to problems like fatty liver.”
Alcohol, says Ivers, can also wipe out bacteria in a moment — good bacteria included. “Inflammation in the gut can lead to increases in gastroenteritis or stomach ulcers in the short-term.”
Drinking a lot on consecutive days can also push up blood pressure – again more rapidly than is generally realised — and have an immediate effect on our brain. “Alcohol is a depressant. It slows down judgement and movement. Most people won’t feel their best the day after a night’s drinking. There’s a slowness to recover. People talk about being a bit dopey the next day, they’re more likely to put off going to the gym. They’re not moving at the same rate, their cognition isn’t working on all cylinders. There’s a dulling down.”
It’s a fairly sure bet that – at least at one Christmas gathering this year — a friend/family member lamented: ‘I can’t drink the way I used’. And this is another issue – alcohol becomes more difficult to process as we age. “The liver isn’t firing, or regenerating itself, as it used to. The older you get, the enzymes responsible for processing of alcohol decrease. And there’s decreased blood flow to various organs, including the liver,” explains Ivers, adding that age also brings altered sensitivity to alcohol. “Older adults can experience increased drunkenness. The effects of alcohol are heightened.”
The body’s holistic system is under pressure from ageing, she says. “Add in that older people may have other morbidities and be on medication and you’re just layering up the pressure. You’re straining the system.”
So, surely then, banning the booze for four weeks plus has to reap dividends? Leonard warns that an “immediate stop and jumping into dry January” is not good for anyone who “drinks fairly heavily”. They should instead seek medical advice around reducing/quitting. “If you drink up to five or six units a day, don’t go cold turkey. A sharp detox can increase chances of alcohol-related brain injury and seizure.”
But for most people dry January is a good idea, with many benefits. Drinking more alcohol than we should has a pretty rapid effect on immunity, says Leonard. “In the 12 to 24 hours after drinking, risk of developing infection increases. Going off it in January – cold and flu season – means you’re less likely to develop infections.”
Alcohol is a diuretic, it causes dehydration, quickly leading to dry flaky skin, says Ivers. “It can lead to increased risk of psoriasis and rosacea. But if you drink every day and then stop, your skin bounces back. You see improved brightness within a week, which is basically hydration. There’s a double hit because you’re also more likely to be drinking other fluids that aren’t alcohol.”
University of Sussex research on Dry January found, after a month of going alcohol-free, 62% of study participants had better sleep – and more energy, while 49% lost weight. Ivers isn’t surprised. “Within 48-71 hours of quitting, you’ll notice improved, more restful sleep, and more energy.” And she elaborates on the weight loss effect of binning the booze.
“Drinking on consecutive days causes inflammation — people look more bloated. So when they stop, the perception is they aren’t as big as they were. There’s also genuine weight loss — alcohol is calorific-heavy. When we drink at Christmas in other people’s homes, and in our own, we pour bigger. And when we drink we tend to graze. We take in more calories. And next day, we comfort-eat.”
The benefits go deeper. Quitting, even for a short period of a month, alleviates pressure on the liver and reduces accumulated fat there, says Ivers. A 2018-published study in looked at the effects of short-term abstinence in ‘healthy’ individuals, who drank alcohol above national guidelines. Researchers saw improvements in insulin resistance, blood pressure, body weight and a decrease in circulating concentrations of cancer-related growth factors after a month of abstinence from alcohol.
Quitters often notice an improvement in their mood. “People don’t make the connection between drinking heavily on a Friday and the Wednesday dip,” says Ivers. “Alcohol is a depressant. The more you drink on a night, the more your body has to work to process it. And people play it all back — there are regrets, post mortems. So there’s psychological pressure on the system. If you lift that, you feel better.”
She also warns that for those with existing anxiety or depressive disorders “drinking alcohol is like pouring petrol on the fire”.
“There’s loads to love about giving up alcohol,” says Murray. In the course of his work he meets many who drink heavily. “I regularly recommend they reduce or cut it out. Most come back and say ‘I can’t believe how much better I feel. I’m sleeping better. I’m enjoying life more. I’m more pleasant to be around’. The subjective benefits are huge. People ask ‘If I feel this good, should I stay off it indefinitely?’”
GP Hugh Gallagher specialises in alcohol addiction treatment and works in the HSE Integrated Alcohol Service. He highlights another major finding of the University of Sussex research: those who take on dry January subsequently drink less — six months after their month on the dry, study participants were drinking less, drinking less often and not getting drunk as much.
Interviewed at the start and end of Dry January 2014 and again that summer to evaluate any long-term effects of the campaign, the results showed that 72% of participants had maintained lower levels of harmful drinking. And 4% were still not drinking after six months. They were also more likely to say no to a drink in social situations, when feeling worried or upset, and in situations where they would normally have had a drink.
Dr Richard de Visser, who conducted the research, reported even further good news: “These changes in alcohol consumption were also seen in participants who didn’t complete the whole month alcohol-free. Even if [they] took part but didn’t successfully complete the 31 days, it generally led to a significant decrease across all the measures of alcohol intake.”
Gallagher says people who do dry January are obviously thinking about their alcohol consumption. “They may wish to reset their mind and their body and, in the process, reset their relationship with alcohol. People have a thing about ‘how do you tell people’ you’re not drinking alcohol. Dry January allows them to get practised at saying ‘no’.
The reset afforded by Dry January can prompt people to ask an important question, Gallagher says. Which is: Do I need alcohol as much as I previously thought to relax, unwind, socialise and de-stress? The answer may well be: ‘No, actually.’
Ali Conan, registered dietitian at Dublin Nutrition Centre, highlights some dietary considerations around festive alcohol consumption:
- Drinking alcohol leads to dips in blood glucose levels, so we crave high-sugar foods and large carbohydrate portions — it’s why we need that chipper at the end of a heavy night. If we drink multiple times per week over the Christmas season it can push out higher-quality foods: fruit, vegetables. wholegrains. This can lead to lower intake of fibre, vitamins and minerals.
- Drinking alcohol disturbs sleep. People feel a nightcap can help them drift off — unfortunately research shows sleep quality is poor. Not getting enough sleep increases our hunger hormone, ghrelin, and reduces leptin, the hormone responsible for making us feel satisfied. This leads to increased calorie consumption next day. Research shows when we’re tired we crave foods higher in fat and sugar, meaning poorer nutritional choices.
- Drinking too much alcohol leaves us dehydrated, leading to reduced cognitive function, fatigue, dizziness and dry skin. An electrolyte drink can help to rehydrate.
- Increasing fruit, vegetable and water intake rehydrates and boosts our body with vitamins and minerals depleted over the Christmas season.
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