The season of festivities might have come to an end, but the aftertaste remains!
Are you someone who is trying to cut down on alcohol and quit drinking as part of your New Year resolution? Then there is some good news in store for you.
While consuming alcohol in moderation doesn’t leave a dent in your health, excessive drinking can damage your health and organs including the liver, heart, and gut. However, as per the latest research, cutting down on alcohol also helps in transforming your brain.
As millions of people embark on Dry January, where they give up alcohol for a month, Dr Peter Rice, chair of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, revealed that alcohol profoundly affects the brain, both in the short and long term.
As per Dr Rice, who told Independent, “For many people who consume alcohol – not just heavy drinkers – reducing or stopping alcohol intake often results in enhanced concentration and better mental health, all of which indicate improved brain health.”
Not only Dr Rice, Dr Richard Piper, CEO at Alcohol Change UK, told Independent, "Alcohol is a chemical that can bring about big changes in the complex functions of the human brain. The good news is that by cutting down our alcohol consumption or by taking a break, such as the Dry January challenge, we can realize some immediate health benefits, like reduced blood pressure and heart rate while improving our hydration and sleep quality, all of which can help our brains."
As per Dr Piper, 15.5 million people plan to have an alcohol-free January in 2025.
How does alcohol affect your brain?
Alcohol interferes with the brain's communication pathways and can affect the way the brain looks and works. These disruptions can change mood and behavior, and make it harder to think clearly and move with coordination. Alcohol makes it harder for the brain areas controlling balance, memory, speech, and judgment to do their jobs, resulting in a higher likelihood of injuries and other negative outcomes. Long-term heavy drinking causes alterations in the neurons, such as reductions in their size.
How does sobriety transform your brain?
Sobriety can have many positive effects on your brain, including:
Changes in dopamine: Drinking alcohol triggers the release of extra dopamine, the hormone that makes us feel happier and less inhibited.
As per Piper, "So it’s no surprise that once we start drinking, we often want to carry on or become reliant on its immediate effects when looking to de-stress or feel better. Yet, if we drink often or heavily, our body and brain can become used to these dopamine boosts and start to make less dopamine to compensate, leading us to become dopamine-deficient."
When one stops drinking, it can help in the early days to find new ways to reward or treat yourself that don’t involve alcohol, like going for a run or setting yourself a new challenge.
As Piper explained, finding new reward pathways when you first stop drinking "will help to release these chemicals in your brain in a healthier, more positive and sustainable way.” If one stays sober, dopamine levels should eventually level out again.
Improved mental health: As per Piper, heavy drinking can lead to alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) and increased risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s, and amnesia. Piper revealed, "ARBD can manifest itself in a variety of ways, such as changes in personality, as well as problems with thinking, decision-making, mood, memory and learning."
However, after around three weeks of not drinking, as per Piper, "The brain boosts we may notice include improvements in mood and memory, particularly our short-term memory. We might also find that we can retain information for longer, are less forgetful, and more able to focus our attention."
Dr Rice added, "For daily heavy drinkers in the medium to long-term, stopping or reducing alcohol intake can reverse some harms such as impaired memory and orientation. Unfortunately, for some people, the extent of brain cell loss means recovery isn’t complete."
Change in brain shape: A 2022 study of 36,678 middle-aged and older men and women found that consuming just one alcoholic drink daily (or two units of alcohol) was associated with changes in grey matter and white matter volumes in the brain.
Rice warned, "Long-term drinking can cause brain shrinkage, memory decline, and increased dementia risk, with brain imaging studies showing shrinkage even at moderate levels of drinking." At the same time, Piper explained that as alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it makes drinkers pass more urine, it can lead to dehydration which can also affect the brain. As per Piper, "This can cause brain cells to shrink and die. Longer-term, drinking too much alcohol can change the way the brain works and its physical shape and structure."
However, when you stop drinking alcohol, especially for a long time, the brain starts to repair and rebuild damaged neural connections. According to the Alzheimer’s Society in the UK, "If a person with ARBD stops drinking alcohol and receives good support, they may be able to make a partial or even full recovery."
Sustained abstinence can lead to increases in the volumes of brain regions like the insula and cingulate cortex, which are important for decision-making and drug craving.
Changes to vitamin B1 levels: A lack of vitamin B1 (thiamine) can also play a part in changing the shape and structure of the brain. As Piper explained, "Alcohol makes it hard to absorb some vitamins, including the all-important vitamin B1, which is a building block of the brain." However, Piper assured that recovery was possible, and added, "The outcomes for people who stop drinking and who receive high-dose vitamin B1 treatment can be very good, with much of the damage to the brain being reversed."
Betterment in mental health: Opposite to what many people think drinking alcohol might help in managing stress, anxiety, and depression - the effects of drinking are short-lived and the long-term negative consequences of drinking a lot can be harmful and lead to the worsening of low mood and anxiety symptoms.
Piper explained that depression and heavy drinking are mutually reinforcing – meaning that either one increases a person’s chances of experiencing the other. However, he added, "Managing your alcohol intake is one way of reducing your risk of developing depression. If you’re worried about your drinking or keen to understand your relationship with alcohol may be impacting your health and wellbeing, it’s best to speak to your GP." Cutting down on alcohol helps your brain to regulate better stress hormones, which can lead to reduced anxiety and improved mental well-being.
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