Every year, millions of people around the world stop drinking alcohol for a month; a tradition originally called Dry January which gave rise to other similar initiatives, such as Sober October. Whether it's part of a coordinated campaign or just a personal attempt to drink less, the number of people interested in sobriety appears to be growing.
In 2024, 4.5 million French people will have tried a month without alcohol, according to the operation website Dry January. According to a survey by Ipsos, in 2025, 20% of American adults plan to participate in Dry January, and 39% have resolved to reduce their alcohol consumption throughout the year. These numbers are even higher among young adults; 25% of adults aged 18 to 34 intend to take part in Dry January and 50% of them say they would like to drink less in 2025.
With this trend necessarily comes a few questions: what benefits can we get from stopping alcohol consumption? And is one month enough to start feeling them?
“The effects will be different depending on the person, it depends on how long it has been since you started drinking alcohol,” explains Shehzad Merwar, a gastroenterologist at UTHealth Houston. As some studies are beginning to show, reducing your alcohol consumption throughout the year has many benefits; and initiatives such as Dry January can greatly contribute to moderating one's consumption habits.
Alcohol harms our body in many ways. The most significant effects concern the liver, the organ where alcohol is broken down. But the latter has secondary consequences on our other organs, such as the heart, the digestive system, the pancreas and the brain. These can vary greatly and often depend on how long the alcohol has been in the body and the amount ingested.
“Blood alcohol level is a major factor in organ damage,” warns Paul Thomes, a researcher at Auburn University in Alabama whose work focuses on the mechanism of organ damage due to alcohol. 'alcohol.
As Paul Thomes explains, the liver breaks down alcohol into a less toxic form so that it can be eliminated in the body. During this process, alcohol is first transformed into acetaldehyde, a highly toxic compound known to be carcinogenic. In general, acetaldehyde disintegrates very quickly; However, if this process is delayed or interrupted – either because of high blood alcohol levels or because of another underlying factor, such as taking medications that interfere with liver metabolism – then this chemical compound is likely to accumulate throughout the body and cause damage.
“It is the duration of the accumulation of toxic molecules in cells and tissues that determines the extent of the damage,” explains Paule Thomes.
This damage can have effects on all organs of the body and promote in the long term a certain number of dangers linked to chronic alcohol consumption: high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease and increased risk of contracting certain forms of cancer, among others. … Chronic alcohol consumption can also weaken the immune system and impair proper brain function.
Most research on the effects of stopping alcohol consumption focuses on people with alcoholism. However, “even among moderate drinkers, you can have observable health effects when you stop drinking alcohol for a month,” says Carrie Mintz, a psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis. “You can see these changes in just a month. »
When you stop drinking alcohol, changes appear within just a few weeks. Particularly in the liver, which can begin to repair the damage caused in three of the four stages of alcoholic liver disease, which begins with the accumulation of fat and then progresses to chronic inflammation, which in turn leads to damage, which culminate in cirrhosis. For all of these stages except the last, the liver can heal.
“The liver has an enormous regenerative capacity,” says Paul Thomes. The first three stages [des lésions hépatiques] are reversible during the period of abstinence. » Abstaining from alcohol may still have benefits for people with liver cirrhosis, as it slows the progression of the disease and prolongs the patient's life, although it does not help turn back the clock and recover from the disease.
In addition to the benefits for the liver, stopping alcohol has other health benefits that are also believed to be due to a reduction in alcohol and acetaldehyde levels in the body.
In one study, ninety-four moderate and heavy drinkers who quit alcohol for a month saw improvements in insulin resistance, blood pressure, and weight compared to their peers who had not abstained.
“In the intestine, this dysbiosis can be reversed, but not completely, even after three to five weeks,” warns Paul Thomes. It may take longer to restore the gut microbiota and [réparer] intestinal lesions. »
A month-long break also often has the benefit of helping consumers understand why their drinking habits are affecting their overall health and well-being.
“This can be a real eye-opener,” says Steven Tate, a doctor at Stanford University who specializes in addiction. As he points out, alcohol can either cause or worsen health problems (poor quality sleep, depression, anxiety, etc.). Regular drinking may also be an attempt to self-medicate because one has underlying sleep or mood disorders. By stopping alcohol for a month, we give ourselves the opportunity to find out if this substance causes – or masks – health problems.
According to Steven Tate's experience, stopping alcohol can also help us better understand the relationship we have with it, and in particular to know if our consumption has become excessive.
“It is sometimes difficult to realize that you have fallen into addiction,” observes the doctor. It's sometimes tricky to know where the red line is and sometimes you don't realize it until you cross it. »
One of the biggest concerns about trying to quit alcohol for a month is what happens when the month ends, particularly that a person's drinking may become extreme when they return to drinking. . However, studies suggest that for a number of Dry January participants, abstaining for a month may also lead to moderate drinking in the months that follow.
In the study that followed ninety-four moderate and heavy drinkers for a month, researchers found, at a follow-up six months later, that the participants reported drinking considerably less than before. On average, their drinking habits placed them in the “low risk” category for problematic drinking behaviors. In another survey, this time involving 857 British adults who took part in Dry January, participants claimed to drink less six months after giving up alcohol for a month.
Research is beginning to show that moderating one's alcohol consumption over time can have significant beneficial effects on health, effects that are largely likely to last well after the end of the initial month. According to experts, given the damage that alcohol can cause to various organs, particularly when blood alcohol levels are high, general moderation of drinking behaviors can lead to major long-term benefits.
