Dry July can be a fun challenge, raising money for good causes, but the jury is out on whether it leads to permanent improvements in drinking habits. Photo / Getty Images
Dry July can be a fun challenge, raising money for good causes, but the jury is out on whether it leads to permanent improvements in drinking habits. Photo / Getty Images
Opinion by Simone Pettigrew
OPINION
More of us are becoming “sober curious” and reducing our alcohol use, or even experimenting with giving up the grog altogether. Different people have different reasons but usually, it’s about feeling better and shedding some kilos.
Events such as Dry July provide an opportunity to see what it’s liketo live without the beer or wine goggles for a pre-specified time period. Those who last out the month often report sleeping better, losing weight, and generally feeling healthier. Even those who don’t make it through the full month have been found to experience benefits.
Per capita alcohol consumption in New Zealand is decreasing, showing that more people are drinking less. This likely reflects a growing understanding that alcohol isn’t good for us.
Alcohol is a group one carcinogen, meaning there is a scientific certainty that it is toxic and causes cancer. Drinking alcohol increases your risk of at least seven different types of cancer: mouth, throat, oesophagus, stomach, bowel, liver, and breast.
At the same time, alcohol remains an assumed part of many occasions, ranging from being used to celebrate weddings and birthdays to being considered a natural accompaniment to an evening meal.
Alcohol advertising is everywhere, it is plastered all over our favourite athletes and sporting grounds. This advertising tells us drinking is fun and sociable, and the links with sports suggest it’s even part of a healthy lifestyle. It’s not.
While the jury is still out on whether taking part in short-term abstinence programs such as Dry July can lead people to reduce their drinking on a permanent basis, that’s mainly because the studies haven’t been done yet.
What we really need is more robust research, to build on publications that have suggested there may be positive outcomes for those taking a month off drinking.
Studies include a 2018 BMJ Open publication that showed improvements in insulin resistance, blood pressure, bodyweight, and a decrease in circulating concentrations of cancer-related growth factors for participants.
This study, however, is limited in its usefulness as it was based on a sample of 94 people who were not randomly recruited.
Simone Pettigrew.
The biggest study so far followed 857 British adults (249 men, 608 women) through two questionnaires over six months. It suggested the people most likely to succeed during their Dry January were those who were drunk less frequently in December. That same study suggested no “rebound” effect - those who took part in Dry January reduced their alcohol consumption in the months following. Of those, people who successfully completed their month without alcohol and without falling off the wagon during that time were most likely to reduce their drinking in the next six months.
This study, however, saw a high attrition rate with a number of people dropping out and failing to take part in follow-up questionnaires, preventing the outcomes from being reliable.
What we can say with certainty is that studies involving many thousands of people show that there is no safe level of alcohol intake. As noted by the New Zealand Ministry of Health; “There is no amount of alcohol that is considered safe and drinking any alcohol can be potentially harmful”.
The recommended intake level is nil.
National drinking guidelines aim to advise those who wish to drink how to minimise their risk of alcohol-related harm – they do not indicate that there is any safe level of use.
So perhaps the question should be: “Why not try Dry July?”
Consuming alcohol is a habit, and stopping for a month can give us a chance to re-set those automatic behaviours that involve reaching for a drink.
Saying no can be tricky in the many social environments where others automatically expect you to drink, but Dry July provides a built-in reason for declining the well-meant offers. And after a while, people get used to you not drinking, which could ease you into drinking less once August comes around. By then you will have developed a new set of non-alcoholic favourite beverages that can remain in your regular drinking repertoire.
A further benefit of events such as Dry July is that the proceeds go to good causes.
In New Zealand, funds raised through Dry July participant sponsorships contribute to maintaining cancer helplines and rehabilitation services. It’s a win-win – you’ll feel better and you’ll help others feel better too.
- Professor Simone Pettigrew works with The George Institute for Global Health which was co-founded in Australia by New Zealanders Professor Robyn Norton AO and Professor Stephen MacMahon AO to reduce the escalating burden of non-communicable diseases and injury around the world.
