Does dry January really make people healthy?

Friday, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy suggested a major change How America Labels Alcoholic Beverages: Alcohol should come with cigarette-style warnings, because alcohol is a major preventable cause of cancer, similar to labeling. Ireland This is rolled out later this year. It emphasized alcohol ahead of a scheduled update to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans later this year, but it’s unclear whether to expect new labels—adding them would require action from Congress.

Drinkers, however, are already taking action of their own. If the bars look a little emptier this month, it might be because more people are trading happy hour for dry January. The tradition, where people abstain from alcohol for an entire month, is growing in popularity.

According to polling firm CivicScience, One of the four US adults completed the driest January in 2024, 16 percent more than the previous year. and an approx 15.5 million People in the UK, where the movement began 12 years ago, said they planned to participate this year, according to Alcohol Change UK, the charity behind the movement. In 2013, this number was only 4,000. Temporary restraint is contagious, and Study Show that pushing the bottle away for a month has immediate health benefits. But whether health benefits last—or reach those most in need—remains unclear.

“The idea, that it’s a one-month detox or spring clean that prepares you for the rest of the year, I don’t think there’s any evidence for that,” says Gautam Mehta, associate professor of hepatology at University College London, who has studied the effects of months of sobriety. “But people seem to have a greater understanding of their own relationship with alcohol and what they want to do with their relationship with drinking the rest of the year.”

A 2018 Study Mehta worked on following a group of moderate drinkers who stayed sober for a month and compared them to a control group that maintained their old habits. The most noticeable benefits for nondrinkers include better sleep and weight loss. They experienced more subtle effects; Their blood pressure dropped and their biomarkers for insulin resistance improved, indicators of a reduced risk of developing diabetes.

And some people say that a quiet month helps them lose weight overall. In 2019, researchers at the University of Sussex conducted an analysis Survey Filled by several thousand people. They found that 59 percent of respondents reported drinking less alcohol six months after Dry January, and 32 percent said they were in better physical health. However, only 38 percent of people who started the survey followed through at the six-month mark.

However, taking only a short break does not necessarily give the body time to fully recover from the effects of drinking. Two British doctors, who are also identical twins, showed just that when they did their own thing test In 2015. (Mehta provided expertise in the test, which was broadcast as an episode of the BBC the horizon.) They each spent a month sober and tests showed they had similarly healthy livers. Then, they drank 21 units of alcohol a week for a month, which was the recommended limit for men in the UK at the time (this has since been revised to 14 units). How they accomplished the task differed: one drank three units (about a glass of wine) per day for a month, and the other only drank once a week, but drank all 21 units. By the end of the month, both had developed liver inflammation. For the binging twins, it was clear that even taking six days off between binges was not enough time for the organ to fully heal.