The Health Factor

That 50% reflects a shift in advice from the experts. For years, scientists published research that suggested moderate or occasional drinkers were healthier than those who didn’t drink at all. But more recent analysis has shaken that view, finding that the “abstainers” category of many studies included those who used to drink, potentially heavily. Once they compared people who’d never been drinkers at all with those who drank moderately or even occasionally, the seeming health protections disappeared.

Similarly, a 2018 study in The Lancet looked at data on alcohol use and health outcomes from more than 25 years and hundreds of locations around the world. Researchers found there was no safe level of alcohol drinking. Both the National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the International Agency for Research on Cancer have declared alcohol a carcinogen. And another recent study found that people who had two drinks a day for 40 years had a 54% higher risk of cancer than nondrinkers.

But while those findings are scary, the fear of cancer or early death may not be enough to make people stop drinking, says James C. Garbutt, MD, an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies. “Long-term health consequences aren’t always motivating, because you don’t see immediate results,” he says.

Where immediate improvements do appear after a period of abstinence: general well-being. “There’s a cycle where if you sleep badly because you had a glass of wine, you miss your workout, then you don’t feel up to cooking healthy meals, then you feel bad about yourself, then you drink again,” Manning says. “When you’re not drinking, you go in reverse -- you don’t need a greasy slice of pizza to soak up the alcohol. The healthy behaviors build on themselves. In my first year not drinking, I lost about 25 pounds, and my weight has been stable since, for the first time in my life. Not drinking has a cascading effect.”

Manning’s experience with elective sobriety is typical, says Garbutt. “Someone who has a drink or two a day might not notice as much as someone who drinks more, but in general, when people reduce or have a period of sobriety, their sleep improves, they’re less irritable, less edgy, calmer,” he says. “But the biggest benefit is still over time. If you reduce alcohol use, you’re reducing your risk for certain health consequences -- that won’t be detected in a month.”