alt=Madison SelchoAs we are nearing the end of “Dry January” and many have chosen to not drink alcohol during the month, there are some health benefits that may in fact help people continue this trend going into February.
Here’s what we found out.
Alcohol may be making your anxiety and depression worse
The Washington Post reported that when Dr. Richard A. Friedman advised a patient he was treating for depression and anxiety to no longer drink over the weekend, Friedman found that his patient’s mood was “markedly better.”
Friedman wrote regarding his patient, “It wasn’t just that he was unaware that alcohol had wrecked his mood and sleep; he was beginning to drink each night to counter the very anxiety provoked by the previous night’s alcohol, setting up a self-sustaining cycle of depression, anxiety and drinking.”
PBS reported that Dr. Tim Naimi from the University of Victoria said in an interview, “Alcohol is one of the leading behavior-related causes of health problems and deaths, and also some social problems and economic costs.”
Costs from alcohol can be seen in workplace productivity, law enforcement, criminal justice expenses, health care costs and motor vehicle crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite the cost of alcohol in temporal and physical expenses, there is also a cost to the mental and emotional well-being of people.
“There’s a really complicated, but important relationship between alcohol and things like depression and anxiety in particular. So, yes, so alcohol may play a causal role in those, but can certainly also exacerbate or make worse existing mental health conditions, particularly depression,” Naimi continued.
Alcohol affects sleeping patterns negatively
Though there are many who believe alcohol helps you sleep better, science would beg to differ on that stance.
Despite helping people fall asleep initially, “alcohol produces highly fragmented, non-restorative ‘manufactured’ sleep. With that kind of interrupted sleep, it’s almost impossible to meet your sleep need,” according to Rise, a sleep tracker app company.
Drink Aware reported that, “The alcohol in your system will mean you spend less time in the important rapid eye movement stage of sleep, with the end result that you wake up feeling less refreshed. Even just a couple drinks will have an effect.”
What changes are being made due to the effects?
The Deseret News reported that Canada’s new alcohol guidelines suggest that citizens should only have two drinks per week.
“The main message from this new guidance is that any amount of alcohol is not good for your health,” Erin Hobin, a senior scientist with Public Health Ontario, said. “And if you drink, less is better.”