If you’re interested in abstaining from alcohol for a while, whether it’s to save money, feel more alert in the mornings, or for any other reason, you might anticipate some of the more obvious health benefits, like improved sleep. However, the unanticipated advantages of abstaining from alcohol might persuade you to stop going to the bar for more than just a month.
“Most of us are aware of the health advantages of sobriety,” says Dr. Joseph Volpicelli, M.D. a specialist in addiction tells Bustle. “For instance, quitting alcohol is linked to better sleep, a better mood, and even a better complexion with less puffy skin and baggy eyes. He claims that many of the advantages of sobriety, despite being just as crucial to our long-term health and wellbeing, are less immediately apparent and may not be well known.
According to experts, quitting drinking can improve mental health, lower the risk of cancer, improve insulin resistance, and lessen liver damage. Even though the evidence of those improvements doesn’t always show up in the mirror, they still exist. Here are seven long-term effects of quitting drinking.
You’ll lessen the strain on your liver.
Your liver can repair some of the damage caused by drinking with just one month of sobriety. George Koob, Ph.D. D. , director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), tells Bustle that a 2018 study in the journal Alcohol found that people had lower levels of harmful liver enzymes after a month of abstinence than at the beginning of the study.
These elevated enzyme levels weren’t toxic to begin with, but they did return to the normal range, according to him. A month of sobriety “could be beneficial given that these enzymes reflect oxidative stress to the liver. Even if you don’t notice a difference, abstinence may be promoting the health of your liver. Long-term oxidative stress has been linked to liver disease, which can shorten lifespan and make it difficult for the body to rid itself of toxins.
Possible Improvement In Your Sense Of Wellbeing.
According to research, after experiencing sobriety, you might unintentionally feel happier with life. According to a 2019 Canadian Medical Association Journal study involving more than 40,000 people, women in particular who gave up drinking reported significantly better feelings of wellbeing up to two years after doing so. A scale known as the SF-12 was used to measure happiness. It includes questions about social functioning, pain, emotions, and other aspects of both physical and mental health.
The effects of sobriety on mental health are complicated, but research suggests that you may experience the benefits years after making the decision to stop using.
Your sexual life could benefit from it.
In your bedroom, sobriety might have an unexpected advantage. According to Shakespeare, alcohol “provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance,” Dr. Volpicelli tells Bustle. Many people think that drinking will increase sex drive and take away inhibitions, but alcohol can also make it impossible to have sex and is a major factor in erectile dysfunction. People who have made the decision to stop drinking might benefit in bed in other ways, such as having a higher libido and performing better. You may feel more confident about your choices in bed if you are sober because a 2018 study of nearly 700 people discovered that alcohol was also linked to regret after sex.
You might want to limit your overall alcohol intake.
It may not be the case, despite what you might anticipate, that your first sober experience will be marked by cravings for alcohol. People who participated in Dry January felt less compelled to drink afterward, according to a study of 850 participants published in Health Psychology in 2016. When their sobriety ended, they didn’t drink nearly as much as they had before. Dry January may teach you that you don’t necessarily need to drink as much to have fun, but more research is required to confirm this. This may also be psychological.
Insulin Resistance May Be Improved.
A 2018 study of 94 people found that those who had been sober for one month displayed a variety of improvements in their health, including one unexpected area: their insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a condition where the body no longer responds to insulin’s cues to absorb glucose and, as a result, begins to produce more insulin. It is well known to be a precursor to diabetes and other illnesses. After just four weeks of abstaining from alcohol, the participants in the 2018 study displayed noticeably lower levels of insulin resistance.
It May Affect the Risk of Cancer.
The study published in the British Medical Journal also looked at a number of growth factors that are known to increase the risk of cancer. They discovered that levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) decreased in individuals who abstained from alcohol for a month. Growth factors are proteins that stimulate tissue growth. VEGF and EGF are linked to colorectal and lung cancers, while VEGF and breast cancer are linked to each other. Although the signals from the small study suggest the outcomes might be favorable, there has been no long-term analysis of how these growth factors might affect cancer risk in people who stop drinking.
From sleep to mental health, quitting alcohol can have many advantages. But the benefits that are less obvious could actually have a significant impact on your life.
