Talk to a doctor about your personal history and what’s right for you. If your liver has taken a hit from prolonged alcohol use, there are ways to give it — and the rest of your body — a break. Your liver has enzymes that work like special tools to help metabolize (break https://ecosoberhouse.com/ down) different toxins that enter your body, such as alcohol. The less you drink, the lower your risk of alcohol-related harm. For most people, participating in month-long challenges will provide a range of benefits and little downside, even over the longer term.

Alcohol withdrawal symptoms

The insights gained while taking a break from alcohol can help guide better choices moving forward. One hidden benefit of taking a break from alcohol is in the hip pocket – we might not be aware of this, but nights out with friends or even a few bottles of wine per week tend to add up. It is an idea to keep track of how much money you’re saving if you take a break from drinking – most people find that putting that money aside and saving up for something meaningful is an additional motivator.

How Taking a Break from Alcohol Benefits Your Health

In addition to the health benefits, when you stop drinking for any amount of time it automatically saves you money. “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. Depending on the person, Kumar said she sometimes suggests cutting back on alcohol to lose weight.

Health Categories to Explore

• Here’s how to figure out where you are on the alcohol use disorder spectrum.
• The insights gained while taking a break from alcohol can help guide better choices moving forward.
• Embarking on a journey of sustained sobriety brings forth many long-term benefits that extend beyond the initial phases.
• For college students, being dry is the best thing to do,” he said.
• “I have found kombucha to be an effective tool in transitioning off nightly nightcaps,” says Koskinen.

Symptoms can range from headache, elevated blood pressure, heart palpitations, and nausea and vomiting to tremors, hallucination and in severe cases death. As for the health effects, White says it’s been clear for a long time that heavy drinking takes its toll, but now there’s emerging evidence that — even for moderate drinkers — a break from alcohol can be beneficial. “There is early evidence that even taking a one month break from fairly low levels of consumption reduces some burden on the liver,” White says. Whenever you decide to take a break from alcohol, whether it be during a designated sober month or any other time of the year, the NIAAA website, Rethinking Drinking, has strategies that can help you stop drinking.

Recent evaluations of their Daybreak program – which includes one-on-one chats with health coaches – shows it leads to significant reductions in drinking, and improvements in physical and mental health. Men consume an additional how to take a break from drinking 433 calories on those days they drink a “moderate” amount of alcohol, according to one study. Cut those from your diet—and don’t replace them with desserts or snacks—and you’ll start to drop pounds without much effort.

Reduce the risk of cancer

If you drink in excess, cutting out alcohol for a period of time can help your liver, heart, and body composition. Research from 2018 showed that a month-long break from alcohol was enough for moderate-heavy drinkers to see improvements in insulin resistance, blood pressure, body weight, and cancer-related growth factors. After two weeks into quitting alcohol, you may start to lose weight, due to the removal of calories from alcoholic drinks. Not too long ago, a group of women in a bar who were not drinking alcohol would have seemed kind of strange. Still, abstaining from alcohol — on a short-term basis or longer term — is becoming more common. While that amount is generally thought to be okay for your health, having more than that on a regular basis isn’t.

How to Stop Drinking: Benefits of Quitting Alcohol

“Nutrition therapy is very important in terms of feeding the liver and giving it the building blocks it needs to restore itself,” says Dr. Lindenmeyer. Another thing that will help your liver’s journey in recovery is good nutrition. There’s no miracle diet by any means, but the Mediterranean diet, for example, can help fill some of the nutritional gaps you may have due to alcohol use. Setting a quit date is linked to success in sticking to your plan. It helps you prepare and reflect on the reasons making a change is worthwhile, which can improve your commitment to change. Brigid Clancy works as a contractor to a private alcohol and other drug consultancy.

• “Having one glass of wine started to not provide the same effect that I was looking [for],” says listener Ash Weber.
• Use this energy to boost your motivation and productivity and see what you can accomplish.
• For many beginning  a path to alcohol reduction, the first benefit is often improved sleep.

What happens when you stop drinking for 30 days