On Friday, USA Surgeon General Vivek Murthy suggested a major change how america labels alcoholic beverages: alcohol should carry cigarette-style warnings given that alcohol is the leading preventable cause of cancer, just like on the label Ireland will be released later this year. This has prompted an increased focus on alcohol ahead of a scheduled update to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans later this year, but it is unclear whether up-to-date labels should be expected – adding them would require action from Congress.
However, drinkers are already taking their own action. If bars are looking a little emptier this month, it may be because more people are trading content hour for a parched January. The tradition of abstaining from alcohol for an entire month is becoming more and more popular.
According to data from the polling organization CivicScience, one in four U.S. adults completed Desiccated January 2024, up from 16 percent the year before. And estimated 15.5 million According to the charity Alcohol Change UK, which is behind the movement, residents of Great Britain, where the movement was founded 12 years ago, have said they plan to take part this year. In 2013 it was only 4,000. Fleeting sobriety is contagious and studies show that stopping the bottle for a month brings immediate health benefits. However, it is unclear whether the health benefits will last or reach those most in need.
“I don’t think there’s any concept of it that a month of detox or spring cleaning is enough to prepare you for the rest of the year,” says Gautam Mehta, an associate professor of hepatology at University College London who has studied the effects of a month of sobriety. “But people seem to have a better understanding of their relationship with alcohol and what they want to do with it for the rest of the year.”
2018 test Mehta followed a group of moderate drinkers who became sober within a month and compared them with a control group who retained their venerable habits. The most noticeable benefits for non-drinkers included better sleep and weight loss. They also experienced more subtle effects; their blood pressure dropped and their biomarkers of insulin resistance improved, which are indicators of a reduced risk of developing diabetes.
Some people claim that a month of sobriety actually helps them reduce their alcohol consumption overall. In 2019, researchers from the University of Sussex analyzed: questionnaire It was filled by several thousand people. It found that 59 percent of respondents said they were drinking less six months after Desiccated January, and 32 percent said they were in better physical health. However, only about 38 percent of people who started the study continued after six months.
However, a low break does not necessarily give the body time to fully recover from the effects of drinking. This is what two British doctors, who are also identical twins, showed in their own study experiment in 2015 (Mehta provided expertise on the experiment, which was broadcast as an episode of the BBC Horizon.) They each spent a month sober, and tests showed they had identical, fit livers. They then drank 21 units of alcohol a week for a month, which was the recommended limit for men in the UK at the time (it has since been lowered to 14 units). There was a difference in the way they did their jobs: one drank three units (about one vast glass of wine) a day for a month, and the other drank only once a week but drank all 21 units. At the end of the month, both people developed increased hepatitis. It was clear to the overeating twin that even six days off between binges was not enough for the organ to fully heal.