This challenge consists of not drinking a drop of alcohol for a month, in order to rest your body (and your liver) and enjoy the benefits of abstinence.
Like every January, Dry January invites everyone to take a break from drinking for a month, in order to change their relationship with alcohol. How to do it? For what benefits? Effects on the body? For weight loss? Detoxify your liver? Have better quality sleep? Advice and advice from our liver expert.
What is the Dry January or Alcohol-Free Month challenge?
The rule for the alcohol-free month challenge is simple: do not drink alcohol from the time you get up on January 1st until the end of the month. The opportunity to rest your body (and your liver) after the excesses of the end-of-year holidays. Across the Channel as in France, millions of people take up the challenge every year.
What is the origin of Dry January?
This challenge, imagined in 2013 by the British association Alcohol Change UK, quickly went viral on social networks and was the subject of thousands of shares.
Dry January was launched in France on January 1, 2019 at the initiative of the French association “France Janvier Sobre” created under the presidency of Dr Christine Joly, Head of Department of the Alcohol and Addiction Care Unit (US2A ) at the Valence hospital, in 2014. Laurence Cottet, a former alcoholic who publicized his fight against the disease, assumes the presidency today.
What does “Dry January” mean in French?
Literally, “Dry January” in English can be translated as “Janvier Sec”. In France, we prefer to call it “Sober January” or “January Challenge” or even “Alcohol-Free Month”.
Dry January consists of stopping all alcohol consumption between January 1st and 31st. More broadly, the objective is “achieve reasonable consumption and keep at least 2 days without alcohol per week”.
What are the benefits and effects on the body?
- Detoxify your liver
- Avoid seasonal viruses (flu, etc.)
- Limit your weight gain
- Reduce your risk of cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension and cancer
- Improve your sleep
In a study conducted by the University of Sussex in 2019, out of nearly 3,000 Dry January participants, 71% explained that they slept better, 58% lost weight, 57% had better concentration and 54% had more beautiful skin. “Many of us know about the health risks of alcohol – cancers, liver disease, mental health problems – but we’re often unaware that drinking less also has more immediate benefits. Sleep better, feel more energetic, save money, better skin, lose weight… The list goes on. Dry January is helping millions of people reap these benefits and make a more lasting change to drinking healthier“, commented Dr Richard Piper, CEO of Alcohol Change UK, the UK charity which created the challenge.
What are the benefits for the liver?
During the holiday season, we tend to eat more fat than usual, consume more alcohol and be a little more inactive. And these three factors increase the risk of overloading your liver with fat. This is called steatosis, a liver damage which corresponds to a deposition of fats inside the liver cells. “It is true that under the influence of a diet that is too rich, excessive alcohol consumption and a sedentary lifestyle, the liver can suffer and reach the stage of steatosis after just a few days of excess. But let’s be reassured, this steatosis is completely reversible provided you stop your alcohol consumption (or have an extremely low alcohol consumption) just after a period of excess.“, explains Professor Patrick Marcellin, hepatologist at Beaujon hospital and president of the APHC (Association for the improvement of the care of patients with chronic liver diseases). Whether you are an occasional consumer or regular, “Dry January” is an excellent way to boost the process of eliminating toxins in your body and particularly in your liver, an organ which ensures many essential functions of the body.
In just a few days we can have a healthier liver.
“In just a few days, we can have a healthier liver and regain better shape, good sleep and better energy. Furthermore, a healthy and detoxified liver helps strengthen your immune system just before spring and fight against certain viruses such as the flu.“, specifies the hepatologist. Finally, this also has psychological effects: in fact, this period of abstinence makes it possible to become aware of one’s true alcohol consumption (consumption which is often underestimated), and above all, proves that the less alcohol one drinks, the less one desires to drink alcohol, because the brain becomes disaccustomed to alcohol relatively quickly!“
Does Dry January help you lose weight?
Alcohol is very high in calories and very sweet. One gram of alcohol represents 7 calories. For example, a glass of red wine or champagne contains 70 calories, a glass of Martini has 112 calories on the counter, around a hundred calories for 25 cl of beer. Not to mention the sodas and other juices that often accompany liqueurs and brandies! Logically, reducing or even stopping your alcohol consumption helps limit weight gain, due to the calories not ingested when you swap your cocktail for a glass of water. Furthermore, consuming alcohol tends to slow down the elimination of fat. Worse, it even promotes its accumulation in the abdominal area. A mechanism well known to those we colloquially call “beer drinkers”…
What are the benefits for sleep?
At very low doses, alcohol tends to “make you sleep” and does not alter the quality of sleep. On the other hand, regular or larger alcohol consumption can promote or exacerbate certain sleep disorders, including insomnia, sleep apnea and snoring. Sleep is fragmented, punctuated by waking up, which prevents you from recovering properly. This contributes in particular to the “hangover” the next day… Remember that the sleeping pill/alcohol mixture is very dangerous, can lead to breathing problems, violent behavior, parasomnias or reinforce sleep apnea.
What application to make the month without alcohol?
Try Dry is the official Dry January app, created and managed by Alcohol Change UK, the British NGO behind Dry January. It is available on Android and iPhone. It contains tips, notifications full of motivation and allows you to follow in an individualized way the economic and health benefits of this alcohol break. You can download it from the Dry January website.
For Jean-Michel Delile, president of the Addiction Federation and psychiatrist, this challenge constitutes “a very positive, unifying and not moralizing initiative [qui] does not demonize the product, but allows you to distance yourself from it in the form of a game, with the support of social networks“. For the rest of the year, he advises “to invent your own challenge“like not drinking alcohol two or three days a week, or planning weeks without consuming a single drink. In short, “taking care of your liver by banning all alcohol consumption for a period of time is essential for preserving your health and regaining the right balance in your body” explains Professor Patrick Marcellin.
How many glasses of alcohol per week?
If there is no consumption threshold that would certainly limit health risks throughout life. an expert opinion from Public Health France and the National Cancer Institute proposed in 2017 to define a benchmark value which concerns both men and women. This benchmark is a maximum of 10 standard glasses of alcohol per week, without exceeding 2 standard glasses per day, and not every day. However, “recent studies have shown that from 20 to 30 g of alcohol per day (20 g for women and 30 g for men), there were health risks“, specifies Professor Marcellin. A standard glass corresponds to 10 g of pure alcohol, i.e.:
- 10 cl of wine,
- 2.5 cl of pastis at 45°,
- 25 cl of beer at 5°
- 10 cl of champagne at 12°
If in doubt about potential excessive alcohol consumption, do not hesitate to seek advice from your doctor so that he can prescribe a liver test (transaminases dosage).