What Happens When You Cut Out Alcohol For 30 Days

Whether you drink socially or daily, this blog post may be interesting for you. The question this post is trying to discover is what happens when you cut out alcohol for 30 days?

Many of you may be thinking of different results.

- No Change

- Minimal Change

- Significant Change

Before you read any further, predict what you think happens, and let me know in the comments below!

Some Quick Facts

Cutting out alcohol if you drink in excess can bring about health benefits for your liver, heart, and body composition.

The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that alcohol should be consumed in moderation — up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men.

Alcohol consumption has been linked to cancers of the head, neck, esophagus, liver, breast, colon, and rectum.

Benefits of 30-day alcohol cleanse (dry month)

1. Liver relief

Cirrhosis of the liver can occur over time in those who drink excessively.

“It doesn’t happen in a day, but for anyone who drinks in excess, which again is more than two drinks a day for men, and one a day for women, there are fatty changes in liver, so when you stop drinking, those changes are reversible and the liver can become normal again,” said Dasgupta.

Because the liver is a tolerant organ, he said positive changes can occur within weeks of going dry.

2. Decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease

Alcohol is metabolized by the liver and an enzyme called dehydrogenases. However, when you drink in excess, the enzyme gets saturated and is metabolized by a different enzyme.

“Drinking one or two glasses of wine once or twice a week has some health benefits, especially for men over 40; it reduces risk of cardiovascular disease… for women you can get those benefits anytime, it’s not age-dependent,” Dasgupta said.

However, he notes that people of Chinese and Indian descent do not get the benefit of drinking alcohol due to a genetic reason that isn’t clearly known.

“[The bottom line] is, protect the heart with low amount of alcohol, but increase the risk of cardiovascular disease with high amount of alcohol,” Dasgupta said.

3. Reduce the risk of cancer

The National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists alcohol as a known human carcinogen in its Report on Carcinogens.

Links are shown between alcohol consumption and the development of the following types of cancer:

- head

- neck

- esophageal

- liver

- breast

- colorectal

Data from 2009 published in the American Journal of Public HealthTrusted Source estimated that about 3.5 percent of cancer deaths in the United States were alcohol-related.

4. Weight loss

While alcohol is high in calories, and wine, beer, and mixed drinks add sugar to one’s diet, Kumar says cutting it out may or may not help to lose weight.

“Again, depends on what the baseline alcohol consumption is. If heavier drinkers remove alcohol for a longer period of time, they might see weight loss, improvement in body composition, less stomach fat, improvement in triglycerides (one of the fat particles in the blood),” she said.

"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.

5. Boost Brain Power

The saying that drinking a lot of alcohol makes you "dumber" may be true...

Dasgupta says the best people to practice Dry January and being dry all year-round are those under 21 years old, and not just for legal reasons.

“There’s a reason why the legal age of drinking is 21 years. Teenage and college drinking is a huge problem. It can cause memory loss and interference with brain development. For college students, being dry is the best thing to do,” he said.

“Alcoholics have some specific disorders of the brain which are due to excessive alcohol drinking. Brain damage can reduce memory and concentration,” said Dasgupta.

So What?

Going dry for a month may or may not make a significant impact however if your goal is to limit your drinking or completely quit, it may be a great stepping stone.

"Just being dry for 1 month and going back to drinking in excess is a bad idea. If you are drinking in excess, it’s better to cut your alcohol intake,” said Dasgupta. “And going [dry] for 90 days will get you more benefits… it will give more time for the liver to heal and heart to heal.”

Sources: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-quit-alcohol-for-30-days#Benefits-of-Dry-January

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