Stop Drinking Podcast by Soberclear
The Stop Drinking Podcast by Soberclear is here to help you stop drinking alcohol and achieve the life of your dreams. We want to support people getting sober so they can get on with their life without feeling miserable. If you want to learn more about stop drinking coaching, head over to https://www.soberclear.com/
Stop Drinking Podcast by Soberclear
10 Reasons Why Quitting Alcohol Is The Healthiest Thing You Can Do
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Welcome to the Stop Drinking Podcast, where we help you make stopping drinking a simple, logical and easy decision. We help you with tips, tools and strategies to start living your best life when alcohol free. If you want to learn more about stop drinking coaching, then head over to wwwsoberclearcom. Quitting alcohol is one of the healthiest things that you can do. But why? Because your brain is literally shrinking right now, not from aging, not from stress, but from what you might be calling your healthy glass of wine with dinner. Nearly 180,000 Americans die from alcohol each year, losing an average of 24 years of their lives. But here's what's fascinating your body starts healing within hours of your last drink. Today, I'm going to show you exactly what happens when you finally quit and why.
Speaker 1:Number seven shocked even me. Now, a very quick introduction. My name is Leon Sorvester. I'm the founder of SoberClearcom. I personally drank alcohol for close to a decade. I tried stopping more times than I can count, using AA, going to church, using willpower, but for the past six years I've not touched a drop and, most importantly, unlike previous attempts, I now just don't want to drink.
Speaker 1:Let's start with what shocked me the most when I did this research, which is reason one cancer. Approximately 4% of cancers worldwide are linked to alcohol. This translates to around a quarter of a million cases annually. Even more staggering is just how many different types of cancers are linked to alcohol. This is on account of its ability to penetrate more or less every single tissue and organ in the body, and we'll get to this later on. The esophagus, basically the tube that connects your mouth to your stomach, accounts for roughly a quarter of the cancer cases. This is followed by the liver, breast and colon. The remaining 25% involves the rectum, pharynx and larynx.
Speaker 1:Scientists aren't exactly sure just how alcohol causes cancer, but it's almost certainly through a combination of factors. These include a highly toxic metabolite called acetaldehyde, which we'll get to shortly, as well as increased oxidative stress, inflammation, altered metabolism, hormonal changes and immune dysfunction. Whatever the exact cause, one thing is for sure the alcohol industry has successfully gaslighted the public about this, and to this day, most ordinary people are blissfully unaware of exactly how dangerous and potentially life-ending their favorite drink can be. The good news is, if you quit drinking today, your risk of cancer will start to go down after just a few months, and, depending on how much you've drank and for how long you can expect your cancer risk to resemble that of a non-drinker in 15 to 20 years, give or take. And when I say non-drinker I mean someone that's never drank. Cancer isn't even the most immediate threat.
Speaker 1:So let's dive into reason two the liver. Every single sip of alcohol is forcing your liver to pay a hidden tax, and the cost is horrifying. Listen, no drink in this life is for free. Even if somebody gives you all the booze in the world, you will be paying for it with every single sip. And I'm not talking about the dollar value. Sure, the dollar value can run up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime, but it's not the real cost. It's actually nothing compared to the real cost. The hidden tax. Yeah, I'm talking about your liver. This is where the real tax is paid and the real pain is suffered.
Speaker 1:You see, the large majority of the booze that you consume eventually reaches the liver. There it's broken down into various intermediate stages before finally turning into water. The water is then expelled through your urine and sweat. The problem is that an intermediate stage between ethanol and water involves a highly toxic metabolite called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde only sticks around in the liver for a few minutes before being metabolised into a less harmful metabolite, but because it is up to 30 times more toxic than ethanol itself, it still manages to inflict immense damage, and this accumulates over the years. Most of acetaldehyde's toxicity is because it's a highly reactive molecule, in other words, it likes to interact with more or less any molecules that it comes across Proteins, fats, dna, whatever. And when acetaldehyde reacts with these molecules, it forms so-called adducts. Think of an adduct as the acetaldehyde and whatever it's interacting with, forming one big, unhealthy molecule which just has no business floating around your body. Now these adducts obviously impair the molecule's normal functioning and this leads to all sorts of problems in the cells. Now, the exact biochemical pathways that cause this damage are too complicated to describe here.
Speaker 1:What I'll do instead is give you the major outlines of how alcoholic liver disease progresses. In early stages, the liver starts to accumulate fat and literally becomes swollen. This is so-called fatty liver, and it's almost universal amongst heavy drinkers. Eventually, the liver sustains so much damage from acetaldehyde and its adducts that it becomes chronically inflamed, and around 20-40% of heavy drinkers will reach the inflammation stage which scientists call hepatitis. Now, if the person keeps on drinking, the healthy liver cells then gradually get replaced by scar tissue, so-called cirrhosis, and this is end-stage liver disease and it's generally irreversible. Unless you've already reached that stage, I do have good news. Only three to four weeks after your last drink, your fatty liver will have largely resolved and the liver will now appear normal under an ultrasound. By this point, your liver enzymes like ALT, ast and GGT, which are markers of its injury, will also have returned to their pre-drinking baselines.
Speaker 1:Our body is pretty amazing at healing itself, even after years of abuse. Now you might be thinking well, at least red wine is good for my body, right? Good for my heart. Wrong. What I'm about to tell you about alcohol and your heart has been hidden from you for years. So let's jump into reason three.
Speaker 1:After the liver, arguably the second most heavily affected organ is actually the heart. We've heard all the feel-good stories that you watch in the evening about red wine, resveratrol and how good all of that stuff is for your heart. I hate to break it to you, but a lot of that is directly or indirectly promoted by big alcohol. But even if it wasn't, it's completely implausible biologically. It makes no sense that a toxic industrial product like ethanol can have any positive effect on the heart. It's like saying bleach is somewhat good for you. So let's set the record straight here.
Speaker 1:Both ethanol as well as its major metabolite, acetaldehyde, are toxic to the heart. They cause a decrease in the production of various structural proteins, while increasing oxidative stress and metabolic damage. They also directly trigger the death of heart cells, so-called apoptosis. None of this is disputed. It is all in the mainstream medical literature. At lower doses, chronic alcohol consumption has the dual effect of causing hypertension and an irregular heartbeat. Both the hypertension and irregular heartbeat are generally easy to reverse if the person stops drinking at an early stage. But if they persist for a long time, they can be difficult to reverse, especially the irregular heartbeat, meaning you're then at a permanently increased risk for stroke and heart failure. At higher doses, chronic bruising is a risk factor for atherosclerosis. This is a condition where fatty deposits, called plaques, build up on the walls of arteries, making them narrow and less flexible. This restricts blood flow and further increases the risk of heart attack or stroke. Eventually, the alcohol-related toxicity accumulates to the extent that it directly targets the heart muscle. The heart literally stretches out of shape and can no longer pump blood effectively, and symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain and even swelling of the legs, and this is advanced cardiac disease, and about a third of patients will die or require a heart transplant.
Speaker 1:Now again, we come back to a theme that is probably familiar by now. Unless you've already reached advanced stages like alcohol cardiomyopathy, it's not too late to stop drinking. Like the liver, the heart is remarkable at recovering from these chronic insults, and at an astonishing speed. Only a few days from your last drink, you will notice a decrease in your resting heart rate. This is a first sign that your heart is finally catching a break, and a month or so of sobriety is all it will often take for your hypertension to resolve and your blood pressure to return to where it was before you started drinking. Now your heart might be suffering, but what about your brain? Listen? That's where alcohol's real destruction reaches a whole new level.
Speaker 1:Let's look at reason four. Due to its chemical composition, alcohol easily passes the blood-brain barrier, which is nature's protective mechanism to defend the brain from toxins like alcohol, and of course, this is why people drink in the first place. Unfortunately, once alcohol reaches the brain, it attacks more or less every single part of it. No region is spared, and because it's a neurotoxin, after years of heavy drinking the results become visible to the naked eye. You can show anybody an MRI scan of a heavy drinker before and after they started drinking, and they'd be able to see the difference. It's not subtle. You see, countless brain cells die off over the course of the person's drinking career, leading to a noticeable reduction in brain volume At death. The brains of heavy drinkers weigh, on average, one ounce less than those of non-drinkers.
Speaker 1:Predictably, this massive dying off of brain cells has profound implications for the psychological welfare of drinkers. We will get to this shortly. But before we get to that, if the idea of your brain cells dying off grosses you out, have good news. Regardless of how long and how much you've drank, you can still save your brain. If you give up, the volume you've lost will start to increase at a dramatic pace over the first few weeks and then will continue to recover, albeit at a slower pace. At around the one-year mark after your last drink, you can expect it to have recovered to its pre-drinking days. A word of caution, however. If you relapse and start drinking again, even if only for a few weeks, you will quickly lose all the volume you gained back. Now speaking of your brain physically shrinking. Wait until you see what's that doing to your.
Speaker 1:As you might have guessed, this massive dying off of the brain cells has real implications for the cognitive functioning of drinkers. And because, as we mentioned, alcohol attacks more or less every brain region, the corresponding cognitive deficits are also very widespread. Compared to non-drinkers, you can expect deficits in attention, all aspects of memory, processing speed, visuospatial abilities, verbal skills, social intelligence, executive function, ability to control impulses you name it. Basically, any test a neuropsychologist can administer you on any domain whatsoever, you're likely to perform poorer than the average person. In severe cases, the cognitive decline can become so severe that it leads to full-blown dementia. Tragically, this can sometimes strike drinkers at a really young age, even in their 40s or 30s. Now, thankfully, only a small minority of heavy drinkers will ever go on to develop alcohol-related dementia. And as for the rest, it's never too late to give up and start regaining that lost cognitive potential.
Speaker 1:The recovery in cognitive abilities parallels that of the underlying brain volume that we described earlier. It's a lot faster during the first weeks, particularly the first month. Then it starts to level off. While the brain volume will largely recover after 12 months, scientists disagree over how many years it will take for a full recovery of cognitive skills. It's really tricky because you can get different results depending on which test that you use and which populations of drinkers you test. For all practical purposes, however, by the one or two year mark you will basically be as good or almost as good as your old self.
Speaker 1:And listen, your brain isn't the only thing affected. Your gut takes a major hit too. So let's dive into reason six. The gastrointestinal tract is mostly where your body absorbs alcohol into the bloodstream. Some of it is metabolized here even before it reaches the liver. As such, it's one of the organs that suffers the most. A lot of the damage is due to the acetaldehyde that we spoke about earlier that's generated during the metabolism process. But alcohol also upsets the balance of the microbiota, namely the countless bacteria, viruses and fungi that live inside your gut, and these are essential to its functioning. These are the little creatures that the various probiotic yogurts or supplements are meant to support, and these are absolutely decimated by booze. Alcohol also damages the mucosa that lines the upper GI tract, increasing your risk of hemorrhaging and eventually cancer.
Speaker 1:Critically chronic drinking also disrupts the gut's protective barrier, which is made up of tight junctions between intestinal cells. These tight junctions are essential for maintaining the integrity of the gut lining. After they've been damaged by alcohol, harmful molecules and bacteria can enter the bloodstream and reach the liver, causing chronic inflammation. Fortunately, you can expect your gut to make a very quick recovery after your last drink. Studies suggest that three weeks of abstinence are enough to completely restore the intestinal barrier. Now, after they've been damaged by alcohol, harmful molecules and bacteria can enter the bloodstream and reach the liver, causing chronic inflammation. Now, fortunately, you can expect your gut to make a very quick recovery after your last drink. Studies suggest that three weeks of abstinence are enough to completely restore the intestinal barrier. They also bring about a measurable improvement in your gut microbiota, though it will take a few more weeks or months for this to recover completely. Now here's something most people don't even realize. But alcohol actually also affects your bones. So let's look at reason 7.
Speaker 1:While we tend to think of bones as static and unchanging, they are actually living tissue in a constant state of flux. The process is called bone remodeling. Old bone is constantly being removed and new bone is constantly being formed. Different types of cells are involved in the creative and destructive parts of this process. Early in life, during childhood and adolescence, the creative side of the process is favoured, while the reverse is true.
Speaker 1:As we age, chronic alcohol drinking only exacerbates this natural age-related decline. It decreases bone mass and bone mineral density, a measure of bone strength and density. This happens because alcohol upsets the natural balance between bone loss and creation. The loss of bone increases and becomes decoupled from bone generation, presumably because alcohol interferes with the work of the specialised cells that create new bone. In line with this, those who have just two drinks a day have 34% higher risk of developing osteoporosis, which rises to 63% for those that consume more than two. The risk of fractures skyrockets, being up to four times as frequent as the general population. Many of these people will actually be walking around for months or years on end with undiagnosed fractures that only come to light after they take an x-ray. For some reason or the other, they sometimes have up to three of these fractures at the same time, often at the ribs.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about reason eight sleep, which is where quitting makes a difference almost instantly. Now let's talk about reason eight, sleep, which is where quitting makes a difference almost instantly. While alcohol might help you fall asleep faster, it significantly disrupts your sleep quality. This is one area where quitting alcohol can lead to dramatic improvements, literally in a matter of days. Alcohol consumption, especially close to bedtime, improvements literally in a matter of days. Alcohol consumption, especially close to bedtime, interferes with your natural sleep cycles In the early part of the night. It suppresses REM sleep, which is the light stage of sleep where we dream. As the night progresses and alcohol levels in your blood decrease, you experience what's known as a rebound effect, often where light sleep increases dramatically. This makes it more likely that you'll wake up and find it difficult to go back to sleep. Predictably, between 36-91% of heavy drinkers, depending on the study, suffer from chronic insomnia. Fortunately, quitting alcohol can lead to significant improvements in sleep quality. Often within days, you'll experience an increase in the time spent in REM sleep, more restorative sleep and fewer awakenings throughout the night. You'll also increase the number of hours slept overall. After one month, most people can expect a complete reset of their sleep patterns. Now all these effects add up to one simple truth about alcohol and longevity Alcohol is, without exaggeration, one of the most harmful drugs known to man.
Speaker 1:Most drugs will usually target one or two organs the brain, and typically one of the liver, heart or lungs and they will inflict damage through a limited number of biochemical pathways, which scientists will generally be able to describe in detail. Some illegal drugs, like various psychedelics, actually have very little or no toxicities whatsoever. Now, alcohol is nothing like this. It's a small light molecule that is highly soluble and can penetrate countless tissues and cell types, including most organs. And when scientists try to restrict their research to how it affects one organ, say the brain or the heart, the effects and pathways are so varied that it's basically impossible to capture the impact.
Speaker 1:But for you, the takeaway from all of this is very simple you cannot aspire to health and a healthy lifestyle as long as you keep on drinking. The two are simply not compatible with each other. From the sleepless nights and hangovers to the binge eating and partying, the weight gain, the brain fog, the digestive issues, heart problems, fatty liver blackouts, mood swings listen the list goes on and on and on, and I've not even gotten into the indirect factors like the lost income and social isolation that alcohol causes. They make a healthy lifestyle even more implausible. Now, listen, let's put all this into perspective with some numbers. Let's dive into reason 10.
Speaker 1:The ultimate outcome of an unhealthy lifestyle is premature death. According to the CDC, close to 180,000 Americans die from alcohol abuse annually. We've discussed cancer, heart disease and liver failure, but alcohol is really unique amongst recreational drugs in the staggering number of ways that it can bring about death. The CDC lists 58 different alcohol-related causes of death. These include things like acute alcohol overdose stroke. These include things like acute alcohol overdose stroke, pancreatitis, pneumonia, alcohol-related suicides, accidents, motor vehicle crashes, violent deaths and so many more. When all is said and done, the CDC estimates that, on average, an alcohol-related death kills somebody 24 years ahead of their time. By comparison, the corresponding number for cigarettes is 10 years. Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking podcast by Sober Clear If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking.
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