What happens to your body if stop drinking alcohol for a day, week, and month
There are some little-known benefits that come with ditching booze that may encourage you to abstain for drinking alcohol for a while.
We all know the immediate aftermath of having not having alcoholic drinks, that being the absense of the gnarly headache you usually get the morning after. There's also the financial upsides of not drinking booze – as I'm sure we can all agree that your usual glass of wine or bottled beer isn't as affordable as it used to be.
Sometimes the benefits of cutting back on booze are less obvious though and take a bit of time of kick in. Some may start as soon as 24 hours later, while others might take a month to become obvious.
Aside from your head and wallet thanking you for cutting back on drinking, the likes of your liver and mental health will too...
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A day after not drinking
By the 24-hour mark, the alcohol you consumed will have usually left your system and that's when the positive effects will kick in as it's when your blood sugar begins to normalize.
You may have the whether the storm of withdrawal symptoms to feel the benefits if you're a regular drinker, however.
Nicole Lee, an adjunct professor at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, says (as per The Independent): "You may initially notice disrupted sleep, mood changes, sweating or tremors. Most symptoms usually resolve in about a week without alcohol."
A week after not drinking
While you might find that an alcoholic beverage helps you drift off at night, the quality of sleep you get isn't great. After seven days without booze though, you might find that this improves.
As a result of better quality sleep, you should feel more energized.
As well as better sleep, your mood and mental health should feel better. Professor David Nutt, head of the neuropsychopharmacology unit at Imperial College London, told The Independent: "We know inflammation is associated with low mood when you get a cold; when people had Covid, a lot of them had severe depression and anxiety, and that’s through inflammation.
"Alcohol produces the same kind of inflammation in the brain. The hangover is partly due to neuroadaptation – the brain adapting to try and offset the effects of alcohol – and partly through the toxicity of alcohol leading to inflammation."
He added: "That inflammation leads to a sense of lowness, flatness, irritability and not enjoying life. This can be mistaken for depression."
Just seven days without alcohol can help your liver too, says Katinka van de Ven, an alcohol specialist at the University of New South Wales.
"The liver is important for cleaning blood, processing nutrients and producing bile that helps with digestion," the expert said. "But it can also regenerate quickly. If you have only mild damage in the liver, seven days may be enough to reduce liver fat and heal mild scarring and tissue damage."
A month of not drinking
This is when the benefits can really kick in. From weight loss to lowered cancer risk, it all happens after four weeks.
One study that compared people who drank around 31 units of alcohol a week and people who abstained from booze found that, after a month, those who were sober had improved insulin resistance, weight, blood pressure and cancer-related growth factors.
In terms of those who carried on drinking 31 units each week, they had an increased risk of cancer and metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease.
Your skin may look better as well, according to Alcohol Change UK.
"Alcohol reduces the production of anti-diuretic hormone, so you lose water and sodium more quickly," the organization explains. "A low tissue water content, courtesy of your daily tipple, is the sworn enemy of soft, plump, healthier-looking skin."
Topics: Mental Health, Alcohol, Health
Niamh Shackleton