Alcohol has many negative effects on our health, some of which may surprise you. These include short-term impacts such as waking up with a or , to effects including .
If you are thinking about taking some time off alcohol, you’ll find many quick wins and long-term gains for your health.
How long will you have to wait to feel the benefits?
We’ve made a timeline – based on scientific research – that shows what you might feel in the first days, weeks, months and years after taking a break from alcohol.
Some benefits start immediately, so every day without alcohol is a win for your health.
After one day
Alcohol takes to completely leave your body, so you may start noticing improvements after just one day.
Alcohol makes you , causing dehydration. But your body can absorb a glass of water , so once alcohol is out of your system alcohol dehydration is reduced, improving digestion, brain function and energy levels.
Alcohol also reduces the liver’s ability to . Once alcohol leaves the system, blood sugar begins to normalise.
If you are a daily drinker you may to start with while your body adjusts to not having alcohol in its system all the time. You may initially notice disrupted sleep, mood changes, sweating or tremors. Most symptoms usually resolve in about a week without alcohol.
After one week
Even though alcohol can make you feel sleepy at first, it . By the end of an alcohol-free week, you may notice you are in the mornings as a result of getting better quality sleep.
As the body’s filter, the liver does much of the heavy lifting in processing alcohol and can be easily damaged even with .
The liver is important for cleaning blood, processing nutrients and producing bile that helps with digestion.
But it can also regenerate quickly. If you have only mild damage in the liver, to reduce liver fat and heal mild scarring and tissue damage.
Even small amounts of alcohol can . So quitting can help within a few days in light to moderate drinkers and even for very heavy dependent drinkers.
After one month
Alcohol can make harder and worsen symptoms of anxiety and depression. After a few weeks, most people start to . Even very heavy drinkers report better mood after .
As your sleep and mood improve you may also notice .
After a month of abstinence regular drinkers also report about making changes to how they drink.
You may and body fat. Alcohol contains a lot of and can trigger hunger reward systems, making us overeat or choose less healthy foods when drinking.
Even your skin will thank you. Alcohol can make you look through , which can be reversed when you quit.
Alcohol and disrupts , causing bloating, indigestion, heartburn and diarrhoea. These symptoms usually within .
One month of abstinence, – which can lead to high blood sugar – reduces by 25%. also reduces (by 6%) and declines, lowering your risk of cancer.
After six months
The liver within weeks. For moderate drinkers, damage to your liver could be by six months.
At this point, even heavy drinkers may notice they’re better at and feel healthier overall.
After one year or more
Alcohol contributes to or causes a large number of , including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and seven different types of cancer, as well as mental health issues. All of these risks can be reduced by quitting or cutting back on alcohol.
Alcohol increases . High blood pressure (hypertension) is the for death in the world. A small above the normal range (120mmHG) increases death from stroke by 10% and from coronary artery disease by 7%.
Cutting back on alcohol to less than two drinks a day can , reducing risk of stroke and heart disease. Reducing blood pressure also of kidney disease, eye problems and even erectile dysfunction.
With sustained abstinence, your risk of getting any type of cancer drops. looked at cancer risk for more than 4 million adults over three to seven years and found the risk of alcohol-related cancer dropped by 4%, even for light drinkers who quit. Reducing from heavy to moderate drinking reduced alcohol-related cancer risk by 9%.
Making a change
Any reduction in drinking will have some noticeable and immediate benefits to your brain and general health. The less you drink and the longer you go between drinks, the healthier you will be.
Whether you aim to cut back or quit entirely, there are you can do to help you stick with it:
set clear goals plus the smaller steps you need to take to get there
pay attention to the benefits you notice from quitting
monitor your progress with a
get support from others, for example Hello Sunday Morning’s anonymous , , or .
If you are still wondering about whether to make changes or not you can check your drinking risk .
If you have tried to cut back and found it difficult you may need professional help. Call the National Alcohol and other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015 and they will put you in touch with services in your area that can help. You can also talk to your GP.
We would like to thank Dr Hannah MacRae for assistance in identifying the research used in this article.
, Adjunct Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne based), and , Alcohol and other drug specialist,
This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .
