While alcohol is high in calories, and wine, beer, and mixed drinks add sugar to one’s diet, cutting it out may or may not help you lose weight depending on how much alcohol you consume regularly. 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. By the end of your first month of sobriety, the benefits of better sleep, improved hydration, spending less and decreased calorie intake will be growing.
Cognitive Benefits of Quitting Alcohol
As you continue to commit to long-term recovery, support group meetings like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or online support communities might be helpful. You’ll likely begin to feel better between five to seven days after you stop drinking, though some symptoms—like changes in sleep patterns, fatigue, and mood swings—can last for weeks or months. Not all people progress through all of the stages of alcohol withdrawal. So even if you are still struggling with cravings and the psychological battles of quitting alcohol, rest assured you are experiencing the physical health benefits.
What happens to your body when you stop drinking alcohol?
Drinking alcohol can contribute to a variety of cognitive issues, including poor memory, slow reaction time, impaired impulse control, and poor concentration. Over time, drinking can also damage nerve cells and contribute to a loss https://rehabliving.net/alcohol-definition-formula-facts/ of brain volume. Alcohol plays a role in at least half of all serious trauma injuries and deaths from burns, drownings, and homicides. It’s also involved in four out of 10 fatal falls and traffic crashes, as well as suicides.
Lower Your Blood Pressure
While receiving treatment, healthcare providers will want to monitor you continuously to make sure you don’t develop life-threatening complications. Alcohol withdrawal (alcohol withdrawal syndrome) is a range of symptoms that can happen if you stop or significantly reduce alcohol intake after long-term use. Take my old belief that “anything liquid won’t make me gain weight” as an example. https://rehabliving.net/ My belief came from the observation of people drinking smoothies for weight loss and the experience of losing water weight after a heavy drinking session. As maintaining an ideal body weight was relevant to me, I captured the information and formed an assumption that liquids equal weight loss. The assumption led to the conclusion that drinking alcohol wouldn’t make me gain weight.
“Again, depends on what the baseline alcohol consumption is,” she said. Alcohol is metabolized by the liver and an enzyme called dehydrogenase. However, when you drink in excess, the enzyme gets saturated and is metabolized by a different enzyme. Heavy alcohol use is expensive, potentially costing you $800 each month or even more. Stopping alcohol won’t just put a bit of extra change in your pocket; it has the potential to have a sizable impact on your income and the lifestyle you can live. Along with anxiety and irritability, you may also experience mood swings when you give up alcohol.
Beyond the safety considerations, medical detox is a more comfortable, pleasant experience. Your healthcare team will help treat each symptom as soon as it develops and equip you for success. This can help you avoid much of the unpleasantness that can occur as withdrawal symptoms develop.
Allocating a few alcohol-free days can help you reduce how much you drink each week, as can opting for smaller sizes, such as bottles of beer instead of pints. Lower-alcohol or non-alcoholic beers or wines are a good choice too – there is a wide range available in supermarkets. “Alcohol has been linked with seven types of cancer, including breast cancer, bowel cancer and some other common cancers,” Sim adds. “Not drinking, or drinking within low-risk guidelines, reduces the risk of these cancers.”
- If you’ve committed to stop drinking alcohol, you’ll likely notice some positive changes.
- If all of that sounds good to you, let’s dive deeper into the long-term benefits of quitting alcohol.
- Even if you don’t drink a lot, the end of an alcohol-free month is a good time to reflect on your relationship with alcohol.
- If you’re concerned about someone who drinks too much, ask a professional experienced in alcohol treatment for advice on how to approach that person.
- Stopping alcohol can seem daunting, especially if you use it frequently or if it is a central part of your social life.
It has articles on every topic imaginable related to quitting drinking and is continuously updated. But with determination and help, whether through recovery programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or other sobriety support systems, you can beat alcoholism and live a life you love. You will experience improved sleep, better digestion, noticeable weight loss (assuming you do not replace alcohol with terrible food), and a healthier-looking complexion. You may have problems with digestion for up to a year after quitting drinking, but this will improve over time. Different parts of the brain heal at different rates, so depending on your previous drinking habits and the amount of damage done, the recovery process could take some time.
Although we often turn to a glass of wine or a stiff martini to feel better, the irony is that drinking can have both short- and long-term negative effects on mood. Since alcohol floods the brain with dopamine, which influences how we feel pleasure, the “rush” of this feel-good chemical can cause anxiety to flare up as soon the levels begin to drop. Over time, this can turn into a detrimental cycle of drinking, feeling anxious, and then drinking more to reinstate a feeling of calm. That’s why alcohol consumption can lead to reduced mood, increased anxiety, and even depression. “There’s a high correlation between alcohol use disorder and other mental disorders, including depression and anxiety,” Dr. McGrath explains. “When you stop using alcohol, it really benefits your overall mental health.”
After thirty days of sobriety, your energy levels will continue to increase. If you fall into the category of heavy drinker (as so many of us do), then your first week may go a bit differently. Some people don’t experience any of that for the first week or two and jump straight to the pink cloud, before getting hit with cravings. It is still unknown whether these positive effects of abstinence persist beyond a month, but Moore speculated it could be possible. “It’s quite clear that alcohol has a physiological effect on the body, so I’d be surprised if all those effects just wore off,” he said.
While many think drinking alcohol before bed will help them nod off and stay asleep, it’s quite the opposite. Excess alcohol consumption may cause weight gain, which means that cutting out alcohol could lead to weight loss for some people. The Recovery Village Atlanta offers comprehensive addiction treatment for drug and alcohol addictions and co-occurring mental health conditions. When you constantly have some alcohol in your bloodstream, you will not think as clearly. Many people who use alcohol heavily for a prolonged period often don’t even recognize the perpetual fog that alcohol creates. When you stop drinking, it can feel like entering a whole new world and like a fog that you didn’t even know was there has suddenly lifted.
Stopping alcohol can reduce many of these risks, potentially adding decades to your life expectancy. The alcohol withdrawal timeline varies, but the worst of the symptoms typically wear off after 72 hours. People who are daily or heavy drinkers may need medical support to quit. Stopping drinking abruptly can lead to seizures and can even be fatal. A healthcare provider will also run tests to rule out other medical conditions that have similar symptoms of alcohol withdrawal or occur alongside withdrawal.
Many people who regularly drink excessive quantities of alcohol become alcohol-dependent. There is a great deal of help for people who are alcohol-dependent and want to stop drinking. Whether you’re a weekender, an after-worker, a daily tippler, or an only-with-company-er, a month of no alcohol can do wonders for how you feel, how you look, and how healthy you are inside.
“You may notice an increase in mental clarity and memory, [since] alcohol use can impact concentration and memory,” he explains. That said, If you’ve been drinking excessively, then stopping drinking cold turkey can lead to withdrawal symptoms. He is the co-chair of the LA County Department of Health Services HIV Best Practices Committee and member of the LA County Department of Health Services Substance Use Disorder work group.
“These improvements can be observed not only in people who abstain from alcohol but in people who reduce heavy drinking,” Volpicelli says. Volpicelli says that some of the negative effects of alcohol on mental health can be reversed if you stop drinking. The American Society of Clinical Oncology adds that limiting or quitting alcohol while you’re having cancer treatment may help you avoid complications. This includes cancer recurrence or the development of secondary primary tumors (SPTs). Millions of people join support groups to help stop drinking and stay stopped. Studies show support groups play an instrumental role in helping people develop healthy social networks that result in continued sobriety.
Drinkchat is a free online chat service with trained advisors offering confidential advice. Or if you’re just thinking about taking a break from alcohol, for your own reasons or as part of a challenge, you will be joining millions of others. Your doctor can suggest the right course of action for you and point you in the direction of local support groups, or other alcohol counselling services. It’s also important to note that everyone responds to alcohol differently and your height, weight and gender all play a part, as well as how much you have eaten and how much sleep you’ve had. A pint of 4% beer – or a medium glass of wine – equals 2.3 units of alcohol.
While there are many potential benefits that you should expect to see in your first month of sobriety, the positive effects of stopping alcohol will continue to follow you and grow throughout your life. Once the initial symptoms of withdrawal have subsided, you may find that you have more energy than you did before you stopped drinking. This is because alcohol is a depressant, so when it’s no longer in your system, your body has more energy to work with.
“For both men and women, alcohol can reduce your fertility. So, particularly if you are both heavy drinkers, it may be more difficult to conceive. By going sober, these problems are reversed.” Regular drinking can also affect your body’s ability to fight infections, with heavy drinkers at higher risk of catching more infectious diseases. “I never really thought about the consequences until I turned 18 and started going to clubs every weekend,” she says. With the support of her boyfriend, she decided to stop drinking alcohol completely to see if it improved her health and wellbeing. Within a few days, you’ll notice your skin looking and feeling more hydrated.