On Friday, US surgeon general Vivek Murthy suggested a major change to the way Americans label alcoholic drinks: liquor should be given a cigarette-style warning, saying alcohol is a preventable cause of cancer, similar to the Irish label introduced later this year . . It has increased the focus on alcohol ahead of a scheduled update to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans later this year, but it’s unclear if the new label should be expected—adding it would require action from Congress. prevail. If the bar looks a little empty this month, it’s probably because more people are trading happy hour for dry January. The tradition, where people do not drink alcohol for a month, is growing in popularity. According to data from the CivicScience polling organization, one in four US adults will complete Dry January in 2024, up from 16 percent the previous year. And an estimated 15.5 million people in the UK, where the movement started 12 years ago, have said they plan to take part this year, according to Alcohol Change UK, the charity behind the movement. In 2013, the number was only 4,000. Temporary sobriety is contagious, and studies show that popping the bottle for a month has immediate health benefits. But whether the health benefits last — or reach those most in need — remains unclear. for that,” said Gautam Mehta, associate professor of hepatology at University College London who has studied the effects of a month of sobriety. “But people seem to be more aware of their own relationship with alcohol and what they want with their relationship with drinking for the rest of the year.” A 2018 study followed a group of moderate drinkers who went sober for a month and compared them to a control group who kept up their old habit also experienced more subtle effects; blood pressure decreased and biomarkers for insulin resistance improved. In 2019, University of Sussex researchers analyzed a survey of several thousand people. They found that 59 percent of respondents reported drinking less month after dry January, and 32 percent said their physical health was better. However, only about 38 percent of people who started the survey followed it at the six-month mark. That’s what two British doctors, who are also identical twins, showed when they did their own experiment in 2015. (Mehta provided expertise in the experiment, which was broadcast as an episode of BBC Horizon.) They each spent one month sober, and tested. showing that they have the same healthy heart. Then, they spend a month drinking 21 Units of alcohol per week, the recommended limit for people in the UK at the time (has been revised down to 14 Units). There is a difference in how they got the job done: one drank three units (about one large glass of wine) every day for a month, and the other drank only once a week, but binged all 21 units. At the end of the month, both have increased liver inflammation. For the binging twins, it was clear that the six-day break between binges was not enough time for the organs to heal.
