With January 1st coming up, a lot of us are planning to drink less booze for a while. It turns out that this plan has a lot of benefits.
You are not the only one who wants to get back on track with alcohol or quit for good. This is a road that has many benefits.
There are perks to a dry January even if you don’t drink all the time. This is especially true if you like to drink once in a while.
For people who like to drink, having a dry month every once in a while is very helpful. If you don’t believe me, read what other people, including scientists, have said.
1. Better sleep.
In spite of what most people think, drinking alcohol does not make you sleepy for a long time. As soon as you fall asleep, your body starts making drugs to fight off the alcohol. This makes your sleep less good.
You know what I mean if you’ve ever woken up at 3 a.m. after a night of drinking.
2. You feel more hydrated.
Also, because alcohol is a diuretic, it makes you pee out most of the water in your body.
That makes you thirsty, and that can last for days after a night of even light drinking. It’s bad for your brain and kidneys, and it makes your face look bad.
3. Your liver catches a break.
As it breaks down booze, your liver can’t do much else. This can cause fat to build up in your liver, also known as a fatty liver.
If you drink too much and eat a lot of fatty foods, you can get cirrhosis or fatty liver disease in the long run. You can help your body fight this by giving it even just 30 days off.
4. Your risk of heart disease is reduced.
When the liver breaks down booze, it makes a type of chemical enzyme called dehydrogenases. And if we drink too much, the enzyme can make free radicals that break down bad cholesterol, which then builds up in our vessels. For a while, cutting back can help stop that.
5. Effortless weight loss.
And because booze is high in calories, it makes us eat more, which makes us gain weight. The liver can still break down booze even if there are no calories because it prefers alcohol to fat.
In this case, the food we’ve eaten is kept instead of being burned or used as fuel. If you drink a lot, cutting back is likely to make you lose weight, but it can happen even if you only drink once a week.
6. Less stress and sadness.
Even though most people drink to feel better, it makes them feel worse. And once the inhibition goes off (which is what makes you feel good), we are left with the effects that make us feel bad. Irene Manaker, MS, RDN, says that giving up booze for even one month can make you feel better.
7. Improved digestion.
One of my best reasons is that giving up alcohol helps my digestion. Our body’s digestive enzymes get blocked when we drink a lot.
This hurts the walls of our stomachs and makes it harder for our bodies to digest food properly. Because of this, we get gassy, bloated, and bad.
8. Better immune system.
When we drink alcohol, our gut flora gets hurt pretty fast. This makes it harder for us to fight off sickness, infection, and disease. Just cutting back for a short time can help the gut bacteria start over, which in turn can boost our immune systems.
Courtesy: https://awarenessact.com/