Deliness

"Una estera de yoga es un gran lugar para cambiar la dirección del movimiento cuando las conversaciones con un psicoterapeuta y antidepresivos no son suficientes". - Amy Weintraub

The Health Benefits of Taking a Break From Drinking Alcohol
There’s scientific proof that pressing pause on alcohol (or avoiding it forever more) can help you look and feel better. A study published in July 2022 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry shows that alcohol may accelerate biological aging. Another study, published in July 2022 in the journal The Lancet, found that people under 40 should avoid alcohol because of the risks that come along with drinking (while older people may benefit from an occasional drink, like a glass of red wine).

Booze can interfere with sleep, another vital component of good health. “Alcohol prior to bedtime allows you to fall asleep faster, but your quality of sleep is impaired, so you’ll wake up feeling less well rested than if you didn’t have alcohol or if you had just one drink,” says Christine Palumbo, a registered dietitian nutritionist in private practice in Naperville, Illinois. Research confirms that higher alcohol intake is associated with poorer sleep quality.

Cutting back on alcohol has been shown to help lower your risk for several chronic diseases. “Alcohol increases the risk of several cancers, including colon and breast cancer, per the National Cancer Institute. Even just one drink a day can increase your breast cancer risk,” says Karen Ansel, a registered dietitian nutritionist on Long Island, New York.

“People forget that alcohol is a known carcinogen,” adds Palumbo. One small study published in May 2018 in the journal BMJ Open found that healthy individuals who abstained from alcohol for one month showed improved markers associated with cancer.

The drinking uptick during the COVID-19 pandemic has unfortunately had a big impact on the population’s health. A modeling study published in December 2021 in the journal Hepatology found that a one-year increase in alcohol is estimated to result in about 8,000 additional deaths due to alcohol-associated liver disease.

Going booze-free may also have benefits for your mental health. Nondrinkers tend to rate their well-being highest, suggested a study published in July 2019 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Researchers also observed that for women, quitting alcohol was associated with better self-reported mental well-being. They didn’t see the same effect for men but concluded that kicking the habit may still be emotionally worthwhile for men. Also, even light drinking (one drink per day) is associated with harm to the brain, including reduced brain volume, per research published in March 2022 in the journal Nature Communications, and the impact on the brain is even bigger if people consume more.

So if you’re considering going on the wagon, you’re in luck. Research published in November 2020 in the journal Psychology and Health supports the perks of foregoing alcohol for a month: Participating in Dry January (when people are encouraged to abstain from alcohol during the month) increased study participants’ well-being and ability to handle stressful situations, and the results were more pronounced for the people who were able to successfully complete the challenge.