Dry January or Dryuary -- whatever you want to call it. This is the month when many people decide not to drink and reset their bodies following the many holiday celebrations.
January is a good month to re-evaluate your relationship with alcohol post-holidays when there tends to be excessive drinking, said Ethan Cowan, associate director for treatment and recovery at Rutgers Addiction Research Center in Piscataway.
There are many physical benefits to Dry January, some are immediate improvements.
Cowan, who is also a professor of emergency medicine at Rutgers NJ Medical School, said what people will usually first notice when they stop drinking is that they tend to sleep better, they sleep through the night and they wake up more rested.
People will also notice energy improvements. "Also, they have better GI health. Alcohol has a lot of negative effects on the gastrointestinal system so they may feel better in terms of having less stomach pains or reflux," Cowan said.
As people continue to decrease their alcohol use, they will also see positive long-term health benefits, Cowan added.
So, people with hypertension or high cholesterol may see decreases in their blood pressure and cholesterol. With longer-term abstinence, people may see decreases in cancer risks, he said.
Now, if people have been drinking for years and years, then a month of not drinking is not going to reset the body, Cowan warned.
But what it will do is provide a period for people to begin to evaluate their alcohol use, and they will have immediate positive health benefits. Cowan said the long-term damage of drinking will take much longer to recede.
"But the benefits from decreasing the alcohol use for that month is still important because it gives people insight into their relationship with alcohol and how they may feel by decreasing or eliminating their alcohol use for that month," Cowan said.
The purpose of Dry January is that hopefully, people will realize that they will be okay without booze. Cowan said oftentimes if though people are social drinkers, they may drink to relieve stress, and anxiety, and to deal with social phobias.
So, if they can go a full 30 days without alcohol, then they will know that booze does not have to be the solution to these problems.
Cowan said that people need to have a plan to succeed in Dry January. They just can't say that on January 1st they're not going to drink for 31 days. Cowan said they will most likely not make it until the end of the month.
Think about how to deal with situations where they normally drink. So, if there is a party on a weekend in January where alcohol is being served, then they need to have an alternative plan on what to do at these parties if they have any hope of making it through the month without a drink.
Dry January comes at a time when the U.S. Surgeon General put out a warning Last week, the U.S. Surgeon General put out a warning about the link between alcohol and cancer.
The advisory highlights alcohol as a leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S. contributing to nearly 100-thousand cancer cases and 20,000 deaths each year.
Drinking alcohol, even at moderate levels can increase a person's risk of developing seven cancers including mouth, throat, esophagus, voice box, liver, colon, and rectum, and breast cancer in women.
"Raising awareness about the link between cancer and alcohol is important. It gets people to think about 'Well, you know I'm drinking quite heavily, what is that doing to my cancer risk,', Cowan said.
Knowing that there is a link between cancer and alcohol is important, and having warnings on labels to just reinforce it, is important to get people to hopefully think about what they're doing, how much they're drinking, and how often they're drinking, he said.
Also, keep Dry January going for as long as you can. Cowan said It's also important to have a plan about what to do once January is over, so they don't go back to the way they've been drinking before, and more importantly, drink even more heavily because they've been craving alcohol the whole month.
New Jersey has some great places that are serving up delicious mocktails in honor of Dry January. Check them out here.