What are the health benefits of Dry January?

People take part in Dry January and abstain from drinking alcohol throughout the month for different reasons. Perhaps some want to detox after overdoing it at Christmas, whereas some individuals will take part to challenge their willpower. Others may decide to rule out alcohol for 31 days to try and lose a bit of weight, and some might want to attempt being tee-total to improve their mental health. In 2022, an estimated 6.5 million people participated in Dry January, and its momentum seems to be growing yearly. There’s no doubt that cutting out alcohol is suitable for your bank account, but does it benefit your mental and physical health too?

Improves your mood

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying an alcoholic drink. Wine in the evening or a couple of beers with friends is enjoyable and healthy in moderation. The danger lies in becoming dependent on alcohol as a coping mechanism because it can, in fact, exacerbate feelings of anxiety and depression. By cutting out alcohol, you may find your mood is more stable and improves, which can benefit your mental health.

Improved quality of sleep

As much as nodding off seems inevitable after a few drinks, most people tend to wake up a few hours later. This is because alcohol interferes with our body’s handling of a chemical called adenosine, which makes blood vessels relax and dilate. If you’re lucky enough not to experience middle-of-the-night wake-up calls after drinking alcohol, you’ll likely feel tired and a bit below par in the morning. A reduction in sleep time and ‘restorative’ REM are both negative effects of drinking moderate or high amounts of alcohol, so giving it up for a month could improve your sleep quality as well as your energy levels.

Brighter skin as a result of Dry January

Alcohol is a diuretic, which means it makes you wee more than you would normally. This can dehydrate your body, which can make your skin look dry and dull. Drinking alcohol can also increase hormones such as oestrogen and cortisol and cause your blood sugar to spike. These can all lead to breakouts and cause your skin to suffer. To top it all off, alcohol has been proven to speed up the skin’s ageing process thanks to the toxins it contains, so you may well find yourself with a brighter complexion come 31^st January.

A stronger immune system

Drinking more than four drinks on a single occasion (for women) qualifies as binge drinking. When individuals who normally consume low or moderate levels of alcohol have an episode of binge drinking, their number of immune cells decreases within two to five hours. While this doesn’t guarantee you’ll pick up a virus, compromising your immune system, even temporarily, isn’t good news for your health and could mean your hangover turns into something even more unpleasant.

Beat the bloat with Dry January

Alcohol is known as having ‘empty calories,’ which means the drinks you consume are calorific but won’t fill you up. What’s more, drinking can increase your appetite, leading us to reach for high-fat snacks at the end of the night or have the ‘munchies’ the next day, both of which can make you feel bloated. Chronic alcohol use can also bring on inflammation of the GI (gastrointestinal) tract that can cause digestive issues, constipation and discomfort. By cutting alcohol out of your diet, you’re not only likely to feel less bloated, but you’ll be reducing your calorie intake from the drinks you consume and from the junk food that’s often eaten to soak up the booze.

Find out what intolerances you have

If you’d like to find out if you’re intolerant to alcohol and other items, you can order a food intolerance test on our website. You can also email any questions you have about intolerance testing to [email protected] or by filling out the contact form on our website.