Alcohol gradually kills the functions of your central nervous system. Researchers discovered that even a little abstinence may boost your mental health.

Alcohol-free bars, “Dry January,” and fraternity houses devoid of kegs are just a few signs that America’s love affair with Drinking is evolving. Now a study published in July 2019 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests these teetotaling trendsetters may be onto something. The study found that people were often happier when they quit drinking, especially women.

Other research, such as a review published in September 2016 in the American Journal of Public Health, suggests moderate drinking can be part of a healthy diet. But a coauthor of the 2019 study, Herbert Pang, PhD, an assistant professor at the school of public health at University of Hong Kong (HKU), says these new findings may show otherwise.

“The study suggests that people who stopped drinking, even if they were drinking in moderation, experienced a positive change in mental well-being,” says Dr. Pang.

According to the Addiction Center, alcohol depresses the central nervous system, and drinking can increase feelings of stress and anxiety.

A Growing Trend of Going Alcohol-Free

The move away from alcohol is relatively new, and although most cities don’t have a permanent alcohol-free bar like Getaway in Brooklyn, New York, pop-up “dry” bars are growing in popularity and can be found in many spots across the United States, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Los Angeles.

A keen look at the data suggests this isn’t just a passing fad — for the third year in a row, Americans are drinking less alcohol, according to a report from IWSR, a company that tracks the volume of beer, wine, and spirits consumed in the United States. Nielsen, a data analytics company, attributes at least part of the slowed growth of alcohol sales to health and wellness trends and fewer drink-led occasions.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has also gotten a lot of questions recently about this phenomenon of people quitting drinking or abstaining for a period of time, says George F. Koob, PhD, the director of the NIAAA, who was not involved in the new research. “I think our relationship with alcohol in this country may be starting to change,” he says.

What’s Moderate Drinking, Anyway?

The team analyzed data from 10,386 participants in the FAMILY Cohort study at HKU. The study group included people who were nondrinkers or moderate drinkers, including former drinkers, new drinkers, persistent drinkers, and people who never starting drinking. The study looked at the association between alcohol drinking habits and mental well-being in two waves between 2009 and 2013.

They defined moderate drinking as 14 drinks or fewer per week for men and 7 drinks or fewer per week for women. In the study (and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]), a standard drink is equal to 14 grams, or 0.6 ounces (oz), of pure alcohol.

Here’s what one drink looks like in different forms:

• 12 oz of beer (5 percent alcohol content)
• 8 oz of malt liquor (7 percent alcohol content)
• 5 oz of wine (12 percent alcohol content)
• 1.5 oz of 80-proof distilled spirits or liquor (40 percent alcohol content)

People who drank more than these amounts were excluded from the study because previous studies have already established the negative effects of drinking heavily, the authors say.

To verify the results, researchers compared their findings with data collected from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, a representative survey of 31,079 people conducted by the NIAAA.

The average age of participants was 49, and women made up 56 percent of the study group. Among the women, 88 percent were nondrinkers, as were 64 percent of the men. During the follow-up period, which lasted an average of 2.3 years, 40.3 percent of the male drinkers and 62.2 percent of the women drinkers quit.

Persons Who Never Start Drinking May Have Healthier Minds

Researchers measured participants’ physical and mental well-being using the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey, which includes standard questions about a person’s health and feelings of contentment.

After weighing the mental and physical well-being results with drinking status, researchers found the following results:

• Lifetime alcohol abstainers reported the highest level of mental well-being.
• Women who quit drinking had a greater improvement in mental well-being than lifetime nondrinkers.
• The mental well-being of women who stopped drinking was close to the level found in lifetime nondrinkers.
• People who started drinking during the study period or who continued drinking throughout did not see an improvement in physical or mental well-being.

These associations were found in both the Hong Kong and U.S. cohorts, and remained consistent after controlling for age, household income, education level, sociodemographic characteristics, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, self-reported diseases, and self-reported physical activity.

“These results fit with the pattern that’s been emerging,” says Dr. Koob. “For some people, drinking any amount of alcohol may not be good for you,” he says.

Although researchers found that quitting alcohol was associated with a more favorable change in mental health among women, this does not necessarily indicate a sex difference, says Pang. “Whether there is a sex difference in the link between alcohol use patterns and mental well-being remains unclear,” he says. The authors note that to accurately assess sex difference more research is needed; an interaction analysis and larger sample would be required.

“Our study adds to the evidence base suggesting that further studies are needed to establish clearly the impact of alcohol use on mental and physical well-being before alcohol is recommended as part of a healthy diet,” says Pang.

Growing Evidence That Abstaining From Alcohol Can Offer Benefits

A study published in March 2016 in Health Psychology looked at the possible benefits of temporarily abstaining from drinking. Researchers analyzed 856 men and women who volunteered to abstain from alcohol during Dry January. Participants completed a baseline questionnaire, and then a one-month and a six-month follow-up questionnaire. They reported substantial benefits: More than 80 percent said they felt a sense of achievement, 62 percent reported improved sleep, and 49 percent said they lost weight.

Staying away from alcohol gives a person a chance to weigh his or her relationship with alcohol and possibly find alternatives for relaxing, socializing, and coping with stress, says Koob. “If you feel better when you’re not drinking, that’s telling you something,” he says.

According to the CDC, underage drinking is down from 50.8 percent in 1991 to 32.8 percent in 2015. “There’s been a straight-line decline in underage drinking in the United States,” Koob says, “and I’m hopeful that that will convert later on to a generation of kids who don’t binge drink or excessively drink.”

Even if the news is encouraging, many people still struggle with alcohol use, he says. “We have about 5 to 6 percent of the population that has an alcohol use disorder — that converts to about 14 or 15 million people in the United States,” says Koob.

Thinking About Drinking Less? Tips to Try

Trying out the alcohol-free life, even for a few weeks? Rethinking Drinking, a website sponsored by the NIAAA, offers a handful of strategies that may help.

• Track your intake. Consider recording your drinks using a pen and notepad or through a phone app, such as the free iPhone app DrinkControl.
• Set goals. Think about how many days a week you want to drink and how much you’ll drink on those days, and then stick to those targets.
• Take stock of your social life. If time spent with friends often involves booze, look for different groups and activities that don’t require drinking. The website Meetup can help you identify new social activities in your hometown.
• Avoid triggers. If there are certain people or places that make you want to drink, do your best to stay away.

Suddenly stopping alcohol if you’re a chronic drinker (or have alcoholism) can be extremely dangerous as you can go through alcohol withdrawal, and alcohol withdrawal can take a till and even kill you, says Koob. “If you’re a really heavy drinker, it’s not a good idea to detox yourself, because you may need physiologic support and even medication,” says Koob. Rethinking Drinking provides guidance as well as resources on where to find treatment and support.

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