Booze Break—Dry January
Dry January was first introduced by the UK in 2012 as an initiative by Alcohol Change UK. Since then, it has taken traction worldwide as a way to click the reset button on a practice that has become such an intertwined part of social culture. This is the first year I am going to be taking part in the Dry January challenge (full review coming about my experience at the end of the month!) I want to review some of the health benefits found in abstaining from alcohol for even just 31 days and how it can affect your health, mood, and future choices regarding alcohol and the role it plays in your life.
First, let us discuss what exactly alcohol is. Chemically it is known as ethanol or ethyl alcohol. It is produced by the fermentation of yeast, sugars, and starches. The molecular formula for alcohol is C2H5OH—it is an organic molecule structured from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Due to that -OH (hydroxyl group) at the end alcohol is hydrophilic, meaning it loves water. Alcohol is also slightly lipophilic meaning it likes fats—this is important when we discuss how the body absorbs it. Alcohol is classified as a depressive drug. Once ingested, alcohol moves through the intestinal lumen into the bloodstream. Our biological membranes are lipid bilayers and since alcohol is a small molecule it has no issues moving right through— it passively diffuses through cell membranes. Alcohol moves throughout the body by capillaries (the tiniest blood vessels). However, the capillaries once we reach the brain are slightly different; these capillaries are not fenestrated. The reason for this is that it creates what is called the blood-brain barrier, protecting our brain from chemicals and substances that may be damaging. Due to the chemical makeup of alcohol, it can pass through the blood-brain barrier. Alcohol is hydrophilic as discussed earlier, this means that it moves throughout the body and into water spaces. The female body's total body water composition is 55% as opposed to males which are about 68%. So what exactly does this mean? It means that women can consume the same amount of alcohol as men but have a higher BAC because alcohol is distributed less throughout the body.
There are many psychological benefits of abstaining from alcohol. There has been immense research conducted on alcohol and the effect it has on depression and anxiety. You know that “hangxiety” is incredibly real and can be an awful way to start your day after a night out. Alcohol affects the function of some neurotransmitters because it promotes inhibition —enhancing our GABA and glycine neurotransmitters. Alcohol also induces its sedative effect by inhibiting our excitatory neurotransmitter system. Our excitatory neurotransmitters are aspartate and glutamate. These excitatory neurotransmitters act through NDMA reception, which turns out alcohol inhibits. Dr. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, discusses how alcohol affects serotonin and our brain circuits in regard to mood. He discusses that alcohol essentially acts as a toxin that disrupts our normal synapses. It is also important to keep in mind that since alcohol can travel anywhere within the brain, it can affect our hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. This axis maintains our balance of fight and flight responses. By drinking regularly, there can be changes in this axis which causes more cortisol to be released by the adrenals aka more anxiety and stress when not consuming alcohol.
Alcohol also plays a large role in our ability to form new long-term memories. Neuroscientists at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis showed that alcohol inhibits our LTP (long-term potentiation system) aka our ability to have our neurons make connections and memories. The main area that alcohol affects is our ability to take short-term memory and convert it over to long-term memory. A rapidly rising BAC (usually associated with binge drinking) seems to have the most effect on memory inhibition according to Dr. Aaron White, a professor at Duke University. There are different types of memory loss when drinking. There is a total blackout where no short-term memories are made at all. Fragmentary or “browning” out is also a type of memory loss where there is some recall of the time when drinking. Dr. White also discusses another research survey study conducted that females were at higher risk for blacking out. The effects on alcohol and memory are still being regularly studied.
Now that we have the science down on what alcohol is, how it is absorbed, and the effect it has on mood and memory, it will be incredible to see what a month of abstaining from alcohol does. Alcohol plays a role in so many other aspects of health including sleep patterns, hormone balance, cancer risk, and more. There are immense benefits in taking a break from alcohol and partaking in any challenge—does not have to be in January!
Below are some tips for a successful abstaining period:
plan different types of social activities
learn to say no
try out different mocktails or nonalcoholic beverages
use tracking apps
journal to track your sleep and mood
give yourself grace— do not beat yourself up over a slip-up
I cannot wait to check back in with you all at the end of the month to reconnect about how this month went. Cheers!
Sources:
The Alcohol Pharmacology Education Partnership. https://sites.duke.edu/apep/module-1-gender-matters/content/content-where-does-alcohol-go-in-the-body/. Accessed January 3, 2023.
Dryden J. The biology behind alcohol-induced blackouts - the source - Washington University in St. Louis. The Source. https://source.wustl.edu/2011/07/the-biology-behind-alcoholinduced-blackouts/. Published February 9, 2021. Accessed January 3, 2023.
White AM. What happened? Alcohol, memory blackouts, and the brain. Alcohol Res Health. 2003;27(2):186-96. PMID: 15303630; PMCID: PMC6668891.
Aaron M. White PhD, David W. Jamieson-Drake PhD & H. Scott Swartzwelder PhD (2002) Prevalence and Correlates of Alcohol-Induced Blackouts Among College Students: Results of an E-Mail Survey, Journal of American College Health, 51:3, 117-131, DOI: 10.1080/07448480209596339