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Dry January: What a month without booze does to the body and mind

Elizabeth Ladewig’s dry January has nothing to do with a lack of snow.

Since Jan. 1 — at first by accident — the 35-year-old from Lakeview has abstained from drinking, inadvertently joining the growing movement of Dry January or “Dryanuary.”

“I decided to make some New Year’s resolutions this year that were pretty blanket, to be healthier,” she said.

After spending the first few days — and even the Winter Classic game in Washington, D.C. — without having anything to drink, the self-described moderate drinker said she decided to see if she could go a month without alcohol. She wasn’t aware it was something anyone else was doing, let alone had a name, until she started seeing the #Dryanuary hashtag pop up on Instagram.

“I am really starting to enjoy it,” she said, adding that the initial weird looks and pregnancy comments from friends have now dissipated. “Whenever it’s kind of tempting [to have a drink] I think I don’t want to ruin what I have already done.”

While many report having abstained during January for years, the formal concept of “Dry January” began in 2013, when U.K.-based group Alcohol Concern launched a national campaign to raise money for its alcohol dependence and addiction awareness efforts. The idea is to abstain to save money, avoid hangovers and lose weight, according to the organization, though they warn that it is not meant as a medical detox or for those with alcohol dependency. Last year, according to Alcohol Concern, more than 17,000 had joined in the pledge to go dry in January, and the trend has come stateside with hashtags on Twitter and Instagram such as #dryanuary.

The concept is nothing new to Dr. Rahul Khare, an emergency medicine physician at Northwestern Medicine. Seven years ago, his neighbor approached him with the concept, and ever since, he has gone the month without a drink. His typical “moderate” drinking — occasionally having a few beers after work with colleagues or his weekend drinking — takes a break in January, and has become a tradition, even if it does cause some “grumpiness” throughout the month.

“It really made me realize perhaps alcohol does take a toll on my health, even if I don’t drink it to what I consider too much,” he said.

While some medical studies show that an occasional glass of wine or beer can be good for cardiovascular health and provide other benefits, a month off from alcohol is an overwhelmingly positive decision, both mentally and physically, Khare said.

“The positive benefits are that you’re aware of what alcohol does to you,” he said. “You might sleep better, you might lose weight. Alcohol is a depressant, you might start feeling better about yourself.” Khare said he has seen the concept of Dry January grow throughout the years, especially in the past two or three years. But a month without alcohol isn’t just a movement, it also can be somewhat of a prescription for those on whom booze has taken a physical toll. Such is the case when a patient’s blood is drawn and tested and shows elevated levels of liver enzymes AST and ALT, which are produced when the liver processes alcohol. When those levels are high, Khare said the patient usually is told to cut back significantly or abstain altogether from drinking for about a month, after which the blood is tested again.

“Most of the time, the results then come back normal or close to normal,” he said.

The reflection during Dry January on how much alcohol one previously was consuming also is seen as a positive for K. Luan Phan, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He said he sees the reprieve for those who drink socially as a positive, a time to re-evaluate how much they consume and for what reasons. However, for those who may be actually physically addicted to alcohol and may not know it, the cold-turkey stop of Dry January could be dangerous.

“Some people drink not to just chase the high, but also to prevent withdrawal,” he said, adding that symptoms can include discomfort, irritability and shaking when drinking has stopped. In more serious cases, seizures and hallucinations can occur, and it can be dangerous for those who experience them to stop drinking without medical help, as sometimes medication is needed to get the patient through the withdrawal.

For Ladewig, who said it has become increasingly easier throughout the month to say no to BYOB at social dinners and the occasional beer, Feb. 1, aka Super Bowl Sunday, marks the first day she can indulge if she so chooses. But after a month of abstaining, she said she wonders if she’ll ever go back to drinking as much as she once did.

“It’s definitely given me the awareness to why I had been drinking in the first place,” she said, adding that she feels she is more naturally letting out emotions rather than sometimes drinking to suppress them. “This doesn’t necessarily need to be a big part of my life anymore. Part of me is like, `How long can I keep this going?'”

mswasko@redeyechicago.com | @swasko