Temporary abstinence from alcohol may have many positive health effects for those who were not addicted to it to begin with, but the long-term effects of abstaining from alcohol for a short period of time remain unknown.
Non-alcoholic cocktails and so-called mocktails are becoming increasingly popular on menus as more people embrace the “sober and curious” or completely sober lifestyle.
Many are familiar with the Dry January challenge, an initiative to abstain from alcohol for an entire month, but the trend of avoiding a nasty hangover hasn’t ended with New Year’s resolutions in recent years, especially among young people. The number of American students reporting abstaining from alcohol has increased by 8% over the past two decades, and in the UK, 16- to 24-year-olds were more likely to stay sober in 2019, with 26% saying they never drink.
People give up alcohol for a variety of reasons: for some, it’s because of the calories, for others, it’s because of the risks of liver damage, high blood pressure, and potential cancer. But what happens to the body when a regular drinker decides to stop drinking?
Given the many variables, it’s difficult to define who constitutes an “average” drinker. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes “moderate drinking” as no more than one drink per day for women and two for men on days when drinking occurs. However, two-thirds of adult drinkers report exceeding those levels at least once a month, according to a 2014 study.
The agency defines “binge drinking” as having four or more drinks in two to three hours for women and five or more drinks in two to three hours for men; “heavy drinking” means having eight or more drinks per week for women and 15 drinks per week for men. A standard drink is about 12 ounces (0.35 L) of 5% ABV beer or 5 ounces (0.14 L) of 12% ABV wine.
One way to think about the “average” drinker is to look at people who have no history of alcohol dependence. That’s what one study published in the British Medical Journal in 2018 did.
The researchers recruited 94 volunteers with an average age of 45 and asked them to abstain from alcohol for a month. Before the experiment, the participants were classified as “moderate to heavy drinkers,” who drank about 258 grams of alcohol per week, which is about 18 standard drinks. None of the participants had a known history of liver disease or alcohol dependence.
After a month, those who abstained from alcohol saw a number of health benefits that were not seen in a similar group who continued to drink. On average, the abstainers’ blood pressure dropped by 6%, they lost about 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg), and their insulin resistance, a measure of their risk of developing diabetes, decreased by 25%.
“We didn’t mention it in the report, but they also reported feeling better, more alert, and better quality of sleep,” Dr. Kevin Moore, the study’s author and a professor of hepatology at University College London, told Live Science. The team recorded these results after accounting for changes in diet, physical activity, and smoking, so the changes are likely due to the alcohol withdrawal.
They also noted that blood levels of proteins that promote cancer growth, such as epidermal growth factor (EGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), dropped by about 73% and 41%, respectively. Moore speculated that these findings may indicate that alcohol not only causes cancer, but also promotes its growth once it’s in the body. However, the team needs to conduct a long-term study in moderate drinkers to confirm this, the authors noted in their report.
It’s not yet known whether these beneficial effects of abstinence last longer than a month, but Moore speculated that it’s possible. “Alcohol obviously does things to the body, so I’d be surprised if all these effects just went away,” he said.
Does this mean that people should give up alcohol completely?
Sourse: www.livescience.com
