Here’s What Happens to Your Body When You Cut Out Alcohol for 30 Days
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.
Many people turn to Dry January as a motivator to start off the new year alcohol-free.
But while abstaining from alcohol for a month might seem like a trendy, short-term New Year’s resolution, there are several health benefits that come with it.
“The benefits can vary from person to person depending on how much of a change from their baseline behavior this is,” Dr. Rekha B. Kumar, medical director of the American Board of Obesity Medicine.
For those who drink in moderation, Kumar said partaking in Dry January won’t do harm, but it may not do much good either.
“There are people who have learned to practice very reasonable alcohol consumption that contributes to psychosocial well-being in a way that does not impair their health. In these people, completely cutting out healthy/moderate/social consumption might interfere with their social dynamics, cultural factors around meals, and mildly interfere with one’s routine of stress management,”