On the dry for January: The health benefits of giving up alcohol for a month

Those considering giving up alcohol for a month can look forward to many benefits, including weight loss, brighter skin and sharper memory. Also, you will likely feel more positive and energetic without its depressant effects

We may like alcohol, but alcohol does not like us.

There's a great TikTok of a guy trying to explain alcohol to a Martian. The bemused Martian learns that humans pay money to pour a toxic liquid into themselves that can disinhibit them to the point of doing stupid things, leave them feeling physically and emotionally terrible the next day, and damage their health in the long term. And that humans do this for fun.

The problem is that as we get older, this fun liquid — from a physiological and psychological perspective — becomes less fun. The morning after can last for three days, but that’s the least of it — alcohol has been classified as a Class 1 carcinogen since 1988 and is particularly linked to cancers of the mouth, oesophagus, breast, stomach, and colon. This doesn’t mean you’ll get cancer if you drink, but it does mean that your risk increases. And we don’t like to think about it because it’s a buzzkill — we may like alcohol, but alcohol does not like us.

“The idea of a glass of wine at home has become more prevalent, especially since the pandemic,” says Maire Finn, a GP and women’s health expert. “Women are more likely to offer each other a glass of wine than a cup of tea, compared with a generation ago.”

Hormone changes mean midlife women are particularly affected by alcohol.

“For perimenopausal women, alcohol can exacerbate symptoms like poor sleep, hot flushes, palpitations,” says Finn. “Using alcohol to manage anxiety can make the anxiety worse, has a deleterious effect on mood, and longer-term it increases low-grade depression and anxiety.”

While socially enjoyable, it may not be great for our health, but because 70% of Irish adults drink alcohol, it’s highly normalised behaviour.

“Ireland continues to have a complex relationship with alcohol — it’s a societal issue, something we have to approach non-judgmentally,” says Finn. “The HSE guidelines are less than 11 standard units a week for women and less than 17 units for men — a standard unit is a half pint of beer or a small glass of wine — with a minimum of two alcohol-free days. But if you binge this amount — bearing in mind that a binge is defined as six units — this is much more harmful to your liver.”

Dr Máire Finn: Using alcohol to manage anxiety can make it worse. Picture: Ray Ryan

If we want to see exactly how much we’re drinking, the HSE has an online alcohol calculator, which can be useful to monitor our unit intake. Finn says this can help us be more self-aware of our consumption and nudge us towards healthier habits. By 2026, Ireland will also have the most comprehensive health warning labels on alcohol products in the world, which should make things clearer and easier when working out our units.

Damaging our health

We used to think that alcohol was good for us — Guinness used to advertise itself almost as a health tonic, while red wine was supposedly good for heart health. This is not the case. Anne Doyle, alcohol researcher at the Health Research Board (HRB), reminds us that the World Health Organisation advises that any level of alcohol use is harmful to health — that from a purely health perspective, there is no ‘safe’ level. In Canada, national guidelines recommend two drinks a week.

It impacts brain function, which is why we like it so much, but we can go from thinking we are both hilarious and great dancers to having our balance, memory, speech, and decision-making affected — which can result in staggering, blacking out, slurring, and doing things we would never do sober.

Any level of alcohol use is harmful to health — from a purely health perspective, there is no ‘safe’ level.

But because we have been socialised to think of drinking alcohol as enjoyable and desirable, we tend to joke about these effects, provided they are not ongoing symptoms of alcohol addiction — which is not what we are talking about here. This is more about non-problematic, non-addicted drinking, which can still be problematic for health, especially as we age.

HRB research found that we are still drinking more than the government recommends, although fewer of us are drinking overall, and the amounts of alcohol consumed per capita have fallen slightly. The government health target is maximum 9.1 litres of pure alcohol per person per year, but in 2023 we were still putting away 9.9 litres (equivalent to 37 bottles of vodka, or 104 bottles of wine each, per year), which is down from 2019 (when we drank 10.8 litres per person per year — 40 bottles of vodka 113 bottles of wine).

Given that 30% of us don’t drink at all, that’s a lot of booze for those who do. In relation to the rest of the world, Ireland ranks ninth among OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries in terms of how much we drink.

The problem with binge drinking is our perception of what constitutes a binge, compared with the official classification of what a binge entails — seasoned boozers may not regard six small glasses of wine or three pints as much of a binge. Three pints seems positively moderate — but it’s not.

The Healthy Ireland Survey 2024 asked 7,400 people over the age of 15 about their drinking habits and found that 28% of people binge drink on a typical night out, up from 24% last year. For men, this figure is 42% — up from 37% last year — while for women, it is a rise from 12% to 14%.

It’s not possible to biohack your way out of the harmful effects of alcohol. You might be able to ease the symptoms of a hangover, but no amount of tweaking is going to make your liver immune to the impact of drinking.

Dietitian Sarah Keogh: Eating before drinking alcohol doesn’t stop its effect on the body.

“Eating before you drink just means you’re less likely to feel nauseous, and drinking water alongside alcohol can help with dehydration headache, but you are not stopping the effect of alcohol on the body,” says specialist dietitian Sarah Keogh of eatwell.ie. “Nor is milk thistle going to make the liver immune to the effects of alcohol. Normal healthy eating doesn’t offset it either.”

Men are under more pressure to drink than women, she says, because of the rounds system: “But thanks to 0% beers, people can still be part of the round without having to drink more than they want to. Social pressure is lessening. In the past, for women to not drink, they had to be either pregnant or on antibiotics — this is not the case so much anymore.

“While there are binge drinkers of all ages, in general, people want to feel good the next day. Young people want to go to the gym on a Sunday morning instead of writing the day off. People don’t want to waste a day feeling the after-effects of alcohol.”

Benefits of staying off the sauce

Within the first month of not drinking, you can expect to see weight loss, improved hydration, and improvement in complexion.

Doyle shares some facts about what happens to your body and mind when you stop drinking. (A person addicted to alcohol may need medical supervision.)

“For those not dependent on alcohol who wish to stop drinking, the results are quickly noticeable,” she notes.

Within the first month, you can expect to see weight loss, improved hydration, and improvement in complexion. “As hydration improves, the skin will look brighter, less puffy, and dark circles fade; this helps reduce the appearance of wrinkles.”

We can also look forward to improved memory, and our sense of taste will improve. As will our emotional health — alcohol is a depressant, so “once we stop drinking, we are likely to feel more positive and energetic.”

It gets better. Within three to six months, Doyle describes how the liver doesn’t have to work overtime anymore, processing and breaking down alcohol, which means internal inflammation decreases. Sleep will also improve — alcohol plays havoc with our sleep, which seems counterintuitive, but it leaves us less rested and exhausted the day after.

Beyond six months, she says to expect improvements in heart health and the immune system, lowered blood pressure and reduced risk of stroke and heart disease. She also reminds us that our bank balance will be much healthier.

“Benefits are immediate and long-lasting. For younger [people], the focus on money-saving, clear skin, and ‘wellness’ — mental health — is often a priority. For middle-aged, health concerns are often the key concern.

“Overall health harms are reduced when you stop drinking, but it is important to discuss smaller ‘wins’ too, like not feeling sluggish bringing the kids to football on a Saturday morning.

“Plenty of support and tips are available to help cut back, from apps to smaller glass sizes to lower-strength alcohol.”

If you don’t want to go cold turkey, stock your fridge with cold 0.0% beers instead or 0.0% fizz — these products are game-changers. You get all the social buzz of sharing a drink without giving a Martian reason to scratch its head in bafflement.

Happy January!