alcohol consumption

What Happens When You Stop Drinking for a Month?

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There is a movement that is gaining steam throughout the country, it is called Sober September. The idea is that people give up alcohol for the entire month to give their bodies a chance to recover from the rest of the year of drinking. However, how beneficial is a month of sobriety? Does it only take one month to make up for the other eleven months of damage inflicted to the liver and the brain? The truth is that an alcohol-free month is only temporarily beneficial, as it is not a long enough period of time to allow the body to recuperate from heavy drinking.

“I would look at a month of sobriety as equivalent to an intermittent fast, or juicing, or a cleanse. And we have no real evidence that they are physically beneficial per se. But it’s like rebooting a computer – they make you stop, they make you conscious, they make you mindful, and there’s the opportunity to get into a pattern that’s better for you,” explained Dr. David Katz, the founder of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.

Katz also wonders why people would feel a need to take a break from alcohol. If someone feels that they are due for a month long break, it is likely because they are consuming too much alcohol in the first place. Researchers have determined that women who drink more than a few glasses of wine a week are in danger of drinking too much. Men who drink more than 21 units of alcohol fall into the same category. Oftentimes binge drinking (drinking several drinks in a short amount of time) is a behavior that occurs without the person realizing that they are participating in this type of dangerous behavior.

While maintaining sobriety for a month will make a person feel better, it will not repair the damage that was created in the liver. In order for liver damage to be addressed, a person needs to stop drinking altogether for a significant amount of time. However, one major benefit of taking a month off of drinking is that it will help break the habit of going out every night and feeling like the only way to have fun is to drink.

Research Finds No Real Cure For Hangovers

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Despite marketing efforts for novel products or supplements, the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology recently determined that the only real cure for a hangover is to drink less, or to not drink at all.

Binge drinking episodes and chronic heavy drinking create many problems for people, and some of the more acute symptoms include the hangover the next morning. A typical hangover includes major headaches, dehydration, aches and pains, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and more.

Researchers conducted surveys on more than 700 Canadian college students. After collecting the data, it became clear that the less a person drank the less likely they would develop a hangover the next day. The information analyzed will help researchers determine exactly why a person experiences a hangover in the first place and what goes on in their body that makes them nauseous, tired, depressed and anxious after they drink. The simple answer seems to be that any ingestion of a toxic substance can produce such symptoms.

“Research has concluded that it’s not simply dehydration – we know the immune system is involved, but before we know what causes it, it’s very unlikely we’ll find an effective cure,” explained Dr. Joris Verster of Utrecht University.

Hangovers are especially common for college students, which is the age range an population that has the highest rates of binge drinking. Hopefully the revelation that there really is no cure for a hangover might deter at least a few people from engaging in such dangerous behavior.

When to Discuss Alcohol with Kids

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New research shows that parents and educators should be discussing the dangers of alcohol much earlier than many people previously expected. Explaining why children should not consume alcohol, and how doing so can harm them, needs to be done between the ages of 9 and 13. This is likely a much different approach regarding underage drinking prevention than what most parents and schools have been doing. The tendency to wait until children are older to discuss alcohol and drugs is proving to be too late.

“Surveys indicate that children start to think positively about alcohol between ages 9 and 13 years. The more young people are exposed to alcohol advertising and marketing, the more likely they are to drink, and if they are already drinking, this exposure leads them to drink more. Therefore, it is very important to start talking to children about the dangers of drinking as early as 9 years of age,” the report discussed.

Experts agree that it is not just the parent’s responsibility to begin educating their children about the dangers of alcohol. Physicians and health care providers should begin discussing the issue with children and their parents as well. Studies show that by the time children reach the age of 13, 21% have already tried more than a sip of alcohol. This number skyrockets by the time children graduate high school. Almost 80% of high school graduates have drunk more than a sip of alcohol.

Further indication that parental involvement is vital when it comes to the decision of whether or not to consume alcohol is that most children agreed that their parents were the biggest influencers on drinking. Kids whose parents discussed the dangers of alcohol abuse and experimentation were less likely to become heavy drinkers while in college. This is particularly vital because college students are more likely to engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking occurs when a person consumes large quantities of alcohol in a short amount of time. There are many dangers to binge drinking, such as alcohol poisoning, making poor decisions regarding driving and sex and the risk of developing an alcohol addiction.

Alcohol Abuse Down Worldwide, but Increased in U.S.

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Worldwide, alcohol abuse has gone down by 7.6%, according to a recent study that looked into world epidemiology. The research was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and showed that despite the good global news, alcohol abuse has actually increased by 5.5% in the United States. This means that current preventative methods are not creating enough of an effect as much as policy makers had hoped.

Of the 76.8 million people around the world who were diagnosed with alcohol use disorders, 5.1 million of those people are from the United States. Researchers criticized the U.S. for not making more efforts to prevent alcohol abuse. In addition to the growing alcohol problem, illicit drug use is also a major problem in this country, and is more of a problem here than the rest of the world.

The report, which was published in The Lancet, included the rates of abuse of other drugs as well, and overall the U.S. isn’t doing very well in the substance abuse category. University of Washington professor and lead study author Theo Vos told CNSNews.com that the reported declines in substance abuse are modest, and that little progress has been made to prevent alcohol and drug abuse in the U.S. and around the world.

Revisiting Alcohol’s Supposed Benefits

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Updated research on the potential benefits of consuming a small amount of alcohol shows that it may not be all that healthy. After pouring over ten years’ worth of information, scientists believe they have located the original study’s mistakes and how these mistakes may have led to an increased amount of people consuming alcohol, buying into the notion that a glass of wine a day is good for your heart.

Researchers today say that the study promoting wine for heat health was poorly ran and made some glaring errors. The first error was that they combined people who have never consumed alcohol in the same group as people who used to be drinkers. Former alcoholics are likely to have health problems and experience depression. So, when researchers compared the health of people who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol to a group of people that consisted, in part, of former alcoholics they mistakenly came to the conclusion that those who drank in moderation were healthier.

“Given the harms attributed to alcohol use, it is not surprising that reports showing possible mortality benefits for low level users attracted enthusiasm among consumers, the media the alcohol industry. In health as elsewhere, if something looks too good to be true, it should be treated with great caution,” explained Craig Knott, lead author and researcher of the new meta study.

Ensuring that the public has the right information is vital. People who are inclined to drink too much are likely to use any excuse to justify this behavior. If a study comes out stating that some alcohol is healthy for a person that is just the reason someone may need to continue drinking and making poor decisions. Additionally, the perception that alcohol is healthy goes against what most people believe in the first place.

Parents Held Responsible for Teen Drinking

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In order to combat the underage drinking problem, many counties have enacted social hosting laws. These laws hold accountable anyone who is hosting a party where underage drinking is occurring. Different states and counties have variances in these laws, but all center on targeting the person who is supplying the alcohol and/or allowing underage drinking to occur.

Underage drinking has long been a problem, especially during high school. Maturity levels have a lot to do with the inability to drink moderately, which was a contributing factor when the legal drinking age was raised from 18 to 21 many years ago. Social host laws make it illegal to host parties where people under the age of 21 are consuming alcohol, and police note that in areas where this law is in effect, there are less incidents of underage drinking parties.

Bettina Friese with the Prevention Research Center in Okland has been researching the underage drinking problem in our country and has found that most teens receive multiple texts in a weekend regarding underage drinking parties. Additionally, Friese conducted a survey of 1,100 teenagers and found that 39 percent of them hosted parties where alcohol was involved. The survey also indicated that 70 percent of the teenagers surveyed said that their parents have known that they were at parties where drinking was involved.

It seems that parents are most concerned with drinking and driving. Most parents feel that it is safer for teenagers to drink under the supervision of an adult, rather than at someone else’s home where there is no adult present. While it may be true that adult supervision could be better, this train of thought is a bit short-sighted due to the overall legality of the consumption as well as the message of approval that sends to young people.

This mindset is also shared by law enforcement, and was the catalyst behind enacting the social host law. Ignoring some parent’s excuses that their child is ok to drink under their supervision, police agencies and lawmakers have begun to crack down on parents who allow underage drinking in their home. In states like California, if the parent is unaware that underage drinking is occurring in their home, the child will receive the fine.

“We found that cities with more stringent and enforceable social host laws had lower levels of drinking at parties among teenagers compared to cities with less stringent laws, or without any kind of social host law,” explained M.J. Paschall, a researcher who has been looking into the effectiveness of these types of laws throughout the country.

Perhaps fining parents will continue to help reduce underage drinking problems in more areas around the country.

Criteria for Excessive Drinking Surprising to Some

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Most people would not consider themselves excessive drinkers. Excessive drinkers have red noses, have probably gotten arrested for driving under the influence and make fools of themselves at parties and gatherings. The idea is that excessive drinkers cannot control themselves and always need to be consuming some sort of alcohol. This is actually not the case. In fact, many adults fall into the category of excessive drinking and do not even know it.

Heavy drinking is very strictly categorized. Women who consume more than eight alcoholic beverages in a week’s span are considered to fall into the group of excessive drinkers. Men who drink more than fifteen alcoholic beverages a week are also considered heavy drinkers. Surveys show that many adults consume a drink a night and even more on the weekends, this type of behavior shows why more than 30 percent of adults are considered to be heavy drinkers within the past year.

Experts are warning that many people consider themselves to be moderate drinkers, when in fact they are drinking to excess. This type of behavior leads to all sorts of health and personal problems. Doctors have connected breast cancer, liver disease, heart disease and liver cancer with excessive drinking. Children that grow up around parents whose drinking habits exceed that of a moderate drinker often think that it is ok to consume the same quantity that their parents drank. This type of behavior has led to over nearly 90,000 deaths due to drinking excessively and has cost the American taxpayers over 200 billion dollars in health care costs, added law enforcement and insurance rates.

Interestingly, research has shown that those who drink excessively are actually not considered alcoholics. This means that many people do not suffer from withdrawal symptoms and intense cravings when they do not have alcohol. This can be concerning because there is nothing stopping many people from continuing to consume large amounts of alcohol. Studies also show that prior to becoming an alcoholic, a person is considered to drink excessively.

Of course the best way for most people to not fall into these categories is to monitor overall alcohol consumption, or eliminate it altogether.

New Way of Ingesting Alcohol Even More Dangerous

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Unfortunately there are always people that are looking for the quickest, easiest, most intense way to ingest a drug. Some people have found that snorting alcohol allows them to feel the effects much faster and more powerfully than if they just drank the alcohol. This new trend is much more common among young adults and has health care providers and law enforcement worried. They are seeing more alcohol poisoning and people that are out of control due to ingesting too much alcohol in this new way.

“When we see these types of new trends people get over intoxicated and people do things where they lose control of themselves and they do something they typically would not do,” explained Lieutenant Mike Pooley of the Tempe Police Department.

Promoting responsible drinking has always been important for police, bar owners and health care providers. When trends like snorting alcohol start to become popular it becomes even more essential for people to consume alcohol in a responsible manner.

The last thing anyone wants is for young people to start snorting alcohol. The risks for alcohol poisoning are overwhelming, especially in children, yet underage drinking fads continue to exist. When a person drinks alcohol their stomach, liver and kidneys go to work to filter the toxic substance out of the body. A lot of times this biological safety net prevents a person from poisoning themselves with alcohol. When a person bypasses the stomach and liver and simply snorts the alcohol they do not allow their body to dilute or filter out the alcohol. They are at a much greater risk for alcohol poisoning and developing an alcohol dependency.

Alcohol addiction starts when the person creates a tolerance for alcohol. This means that the person can drink more and not feel the effects like they used to, in order to get the desired effect they have to drink more and more alcohol. When snorting alcohol, the person is essentially speeding up this process and is at a greater risk for becoming dependent on alcohol.

New Program Allows Teens to See Future Alcohol Damage

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Many teenagers do not realize the dangers of heavy alcohol consumption. Drinking alcohol almost always starts out as a social endeavor. Drinking at parties and with friends is something that many teens try at least once, which can quickly escalate. Binge drinking and heavy drinking have serious effects on the body and the brain, and now there is a program that allows teenagers to upload their picture and see how alcohol would affect their appearance over time.

This in-your-face type of campaign is important for a demographic like teenagers. Teenagers and children in the past have grown up with slogans like; “Just Say No” and have been lectured and talked to about the dangers of drugs, underage drinking and drinking and driving. Illustrating the dangers of alcohol by using their own face may be more powerful than any speech of catchy slogan.

The program shows the destruction alcohol can have on a person’s facial features. The preventative tool works by uploading a picture into the program and seeing how your face is affected after two years, five years, 10 years, 15 years and 20 years of heavy drinking. The original picture is distorted and altered to accurately portray someone who has engaged in heavy drinking. Red blotches, facial alterations and wrinkles are just some of the changes one can see in their picture after submitting it to the program.

Alcohol abuse is something that oftentimes gets overlooked in the wake of the prescription drug and heroin epidemic that is running through our society. However, alcohol still remains one of the most deadly drugs on the market and has long lasting effects on the body. Binge drinking, defined as consuming a large amount of alcohol in a short time, is common among teenagers and younger adults. Binge drinking is most often done among large groups of people, usually at a party. Experts warn that excessive binge drinking can lead to a more severe alcohol problem in the future.

Friends Trump Protective Qualities of Anti-Alcohol Gene

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There are some people that have a gene variant that prevents them from feeling the desired effects when consuming alcohol. When a person ingests alcohol their body goes to work to metabolize the chemical. For those that have the gene variant, their bodies produce large amounts of Acetaldehyde, which causes the person to feel unpleasant side effects from drinking, mostly headaches and vomiting. Due to this reaction, people who have the gene variant are less likely to drink as much as those that do not have it.

However, there is one thing that researchers noticed trumped the effects of Acetaldehyde in the body, and that was friends. People, especially teenagers, are more likely to ignore the negative effects of drinking if their friends are drinking as well.

Despite initial discomfort, researchers noticed that if a teen chose to drink despite the variant, eventually the negative would disappear and they would react to the alcohol just like those that do not have the genetic quality. “Young people with this protective variant in the alcohol dehydrogenase gene, ADH1B, had a lower risk of becoming intoxicated and developing early symptoms of alcohol use disorder. But when in a high-risk environment – that is, if they reported that ‘most or all’ of their best friends drank alcohol – the gene’s protective effect essentially disappeared,” explained Emily Olfson, a researcher on the study.

It is quite common that teenagers are put in situation where alcohol is around and being offered to them. For those who have the protective gene, alcohol may never become an issue. The person may go their entire life never being interested in alcohol. However, it is clear that the gene’s protective qualities only go so far.

The results of the study prove one thing for certain, it is important that teenagers surround themselves with friends who do not encourage underage drinking. The effects of peer pressure can never be underestimated and this study proves that peer pressure can even trump genetics, just as people who may be more susceptible to addiction don’t automatically become addicts.