One in four French people. This is the proportion of French people saying they want to participate in Dry January at the start of 2025, according to an IFOP survey carried out on request by Freixenet Gratien, the French subsidiary of the global sparkling wine producer Henkell Freixenet. This figure would therefore represent nearly 17 million people. But for Dr Alasdair Scott, scientific director for British medical devices Selph and microbiota specialist, stopping drinking for one month a year to resume bad habits immediately afterwards is of little interest. To reduce your alcohol consumption in the long term, he recommends the 20 minute rule. What is it exactly? Of “take a 20 minute break after finishing a drink” and before drinking the next one. According to the expert, cited by the British pressthis can “make a big difference in the amount of alcohol you drink”.
“Taking that break between drinks will help you determine if you really want to drink more or if you’re really feeling tired and like you’ve had enough. It also slows down your drinking in general, so over the course of an evening you will automatically drink less this way,” continues Dr Alasdair Scott.
According to him, over a year, this technique would reduce alcohol consumption much more than Dry January alone. Because according to his calculations, assuming that an individual follows the British health recommendations to the letter (14 units or 7 glasses per week), he will drink 728 units per year. If he follows these recommendations except during the month of January when he stops drinking completely, this will bring his annual consumption to 672 units or 336 glasses. In contrast, if an individual who originally followed the National Health Service (NHS) recommendations begins to adopt the 20-minute rule, their annual alcohol consumption will be 520 units, or 260 drinks. A much better result, enthuses Dr. Scott.
Dry January or not?
“In January, we tend to think that it is an opportunity to give a « pause » to your liver, to compensate for the excesses of December and New Year. But the reality is that you cannot simply reset or eliminate the effects of alcohol on your health in a month, alerts Dr. Scott.
But is the point of Dry January just about stopping drinking for a month and getting back to life the way you left it? Absolutely not, assures Dr Richard Piper, CEO of the charity Alcohol Change UK, interviewed by the British press group Reach. « The Dry January challenge was designed by behavior change experts at Alcohol Change UK precisely to help people reduce their drinking and return to controlled, moderate, low-risk drinking over the long term. It’s the circuit breaker many people need to reset their relationship with alcohol. Simply trying to reduce your consumption, without first taking a month’s break, is much more difficult. »
“When it comes to seeing more benefits and making lasting changes in our drinking habits, there’s a big difference between trying to avoid alcohol for 31 days on your own and participate in the challenge Dry January® d’Alcohol Change UK », he continues, therefore encouraging people to download the free application.
For information, the latter downloaded, you can configure it in French. She will offer you questionnaires to assess your “alcohol-related risk” but also a calendar, to observe your progress curve or to calculate the savings made by “dry”.
What effects on health?
Worldwide, in 2024, 400 million people, or 7% of the global population aged 15 and over, had alcohol use disorders, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Among them, 209 million individuals (or 3.7% of the world’s adult population) were alcohol dependent. In 2019, alcohol consumption caused approximately 2.6 million deaths globally. That year, it ranked seventh among the risk factors with the greatest impact on mortality and disability worldwide. Among 15-49 year olds, it ranks first (10% of global mortality for this age group).
Because the long-term health effects of alcohol are devastating. It increases, among other things, the risk of colon and breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver diseases but also epilepsy, dementia and even mental disorders (anxiety, depressive symptoms, etc.).
Source: www.topsante.com
