With less alcohol in your life, you’re likely to have clearer skin, better sleep, and you may see a boost in your overall mood. Some people also lose weight as they taper off their drinking. If you’re living with alcohol use disorder, treatment at a medical rehabilitation facility is your best option.

• You might have to learn new, healthier habits and develop new coping skills.
• Alcohol consumption can lead to alcohol dependence, or alcoholism, in predisposed individuals.
• Through therapy, support groups and medication, you’ll be supported on your path to recovery.
• If you feel comfortable doing so, discuss your challenges with your primary healthcare professional.
• In fact, your overall diabetes risk tends to drop with moderate alcohol consumption.
• Below are 25 reasons to give you the motivation to stop drinking alcohol.
• Drinking alcohol weakens that system, making you more vulnerable to infections and diseases.

Tips for cutting down or quitting alcohol

While moderate alcohol consumption may reduce your risk of heart disease, heavy drinking may increase it. After a month, those who refrained from drinking experienced a range of positive health benefits not seen in a similar group of people who continued to drink. going back to drinking after being sober On average, the abstainers’ blood pressure decreased by 6%, they lost around 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) and their insulin resistance, which reflects a person’s risk of developing diabetes, fell by 25%.

Symptoms

While many think drinking alcohol before bed will help them nod off and stay asleep, it’s quite the opposite. While alcohol is high in calories, and wine, beer, and mixed drinks add sugar to one’s diet, Kumar said that simply cutting it out may not always help you lose weight. For instance, Dasgupta cited research he conducted on the relationship between genetics and alcohol misuse. He noted that people of Chinese and Indian descent do not benefit from drinking alcohol due to a genetic reason that isn’t fully understood. If you’ve made it through the Dry January challenge or are giving up alcohol for Lent, you’ve likely noticed some significant changes to your body.

Harvard Health Ad Watch: Got side effects? There’s a medicine for that

Whether you’re sober curious, know for sure you’re ready to quit, or fall somewhere in between, Dr. Streem shares advice for how to stop drinking. If you’re living with alcohol use disorder (also known as alcoholism), you’ll likely benefit from additional medical interventions. Within just a month of not drinking, your body can begin to reap the benefits. Your liver can start to heal, your risks of heart disease and cancer go down, and you may begin to sleep better. If anyone close to you has ever commented on how much you drink or asked if you’ve considered quitting, they may be seeing warning signs of alcohol abuse that you’re missing. If you stop drinking alcohol, you’ll probably be less likely to feel agitated, more likely to remember things people tell you and have more time to spend with your family.

• Your doctor or substance abuse therapist can offer guidance and may prescribe medication like benzodiazepines or carbamazepine to help you get through it.
• If you suddenly stop drinking, you may experience withdrawal symptoms, which can sometimes be dangerous.
• More time to meet new people, catch up with old friends and try new things.
• The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism also suggests finding alternatives to drinking.

It’s also involved in four out of 10 fatal falls and traffic crashes, as well as suicides. Even cutting back your drinking by a third can lower the number of injuries and sick days. If you are physically addicted to alcohol, you should talk to a doctor before quitting cold turkey. Your University of Maryland Medical System provider can help assess if you need supervised detox.

Lower Cancer Risk

It was a while until I touched alcohol again after this, and when I did the cycle repeated itself, leading me to trim down the amount of times I drank over the next few years. By New Year’s day 2024, I was ready to try an entirely dry spell – here are five things I noticed when I stopped drinking. For this reason, I tended to lean on alcohol as a way of making myself seem more appealing during certain social settings. My one-month stint turned into two after I noticed a slew of positive changes.

Is It Best to Abstain or Cut Back?

Cutting out alcohol for 30 days can have benefits for those who drink more than the recommended limit of two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women. In addition to the health benefits, when you stop drinking for any amount of time it automatically saves you money. “I would suggest cutting back on several things rather than completely eliminating to avoid feeling deprived, which can lead to rebound eating/drinking and weight regain,” she said.

• Here are eight things that happen to your body when you teetotal for a month.
• If you try to cut down but find that you cannot stay within the limits that you set for yourself, it may be best to quit instead.
• This is exactly what one study, published in the British Medical Journal, did in 2018.
• Other medicines, counseling, and psychosocial support can also help to abstain or reduce unhealthy drinking.
• Ironically, the negative emotions you may have wanted to initially suppress when you drink may become heightened.

Want to Stop Drinking Alcohol? Here’s Where to Start.

It also reduces the white blood cells in your body, making it more difficult to fight off disease. In a month’s time, though, your immune system will have the ability to recover. Enjoying alcohol socially in reasonable amounts can boost your mood and help you bond with others.

This can make you feel energetic and even extremely happy (euphoric) shortly after you drink alcohol, but the effects don’t last. Drinking small amounts — especially of red wine — is linked to various health benefits. Simultaneously, alcohol abuse is the third main cause of preventable death in the US, as it’s a large factor in chronic diseases, accidents, traffic crashes and social problems (68). The cells lining your mouth and throat are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of alcohol. One of its main roles is to neutralize various toxic substances you consume. For this reason, your liver is particularly vulnerable to damage by alcohol intake (3).

When you stop drinking, your skin gets more elastic and the redness and discoloration on your face will slowly fade. As alcohol is broken down and metabolized by your body, toxins get released. Some will eventually get broken down into less harmful compounds, but your body’s ability to process these substances is limited. “There are no firefighters coming on their little fire truck up to the sky,” she said. Alcohol is a popular substance enjoyed by millions all over the world. Red wine appears to be particularly beneficial because it is very high in healthy antioxidants.