For sure, you have been repeatedly warned of the cringe-worthy effects of alcohol on the body. Most of us have become all too familiar with them firsthand. There’s no denying that alcohol plays a huge role in the life of most teenagers and adults. In fact, most of us would agree to drink on a monthly basis. Though occasional drinking is known to be beneficial for health, frequent binging at happy hour isn’t.
Alcohol’s negative effects on the body can include everything from inflammation to potential damage to your DNA. Drinking excessively can also put you at risk for certain diseases such as diabetes, liver disease, cancers, etc. Mood swings, sugar cravings, excess calories, poor sleeping habits, dehydration, and foggy concentration.
Huge bummer, right? But there’s a giant ray of hope! Our bodies can actually bounce back from alcohol’s negative effects at amazing speeds, depending on a few factors like how much you drink, how long you have been drinking, and whether you have gone through detox in the past. If you make the decision to stop drinking heavily, expect to have withdrawal symptoms before regaining control of your bodily functions.
Read on to learn more about what time frame to expect when detoxing from alcohol and the many benefits of quitting alcohol.
How Long Does it Take to Detox from Alcohol?
According to experts, the following are general guidelines about when you can expect to experience withdrawal symptoms (1):
6 hours
Minor withdrawal symptoms normally start approximately 6 hours after your last drink. However, if you have a long history of heavy drinking, you are prone to having a seizure attack as early as this phase after quitting on alcohol.
12 to 24 hours
A small percentage of people going through alcohol withdrawal may experience hallucinations at this point. They may hear or see things that aren’t there. While this symptom can be scary, doctors don’t consider it a serious complication.
24 to 48 hours
Minor withdrawal symptoms usually continue during this time. These symptoms may include headaches, tremors, and stomach upset. If a person goes through only minor withdrawal, their symptoms usually peak at 18 to 24 hours and start to decrease after 4 to 5 days.
48 hours to 72 hours
Some people experience a severe form of alcohol withdrawal that doctors call delirium tremens (DTs) or alcohol withdrawal delirium. A person with this condition can have a very high heart rate, seizures, or high body temperature.
72 hours
This is the time when alcohol withdrawal symptoms are usually at their worst. In rare cases, moderate withdrawal symptoms can last for a month. These include rapid heart rate and illusions, where one sees things that aren’t there.
What Are the Common Symptoms of Alcohol Withdrawal?
A lot of people are hooked into drinking because alcohol can depress the CNS, causing feelings of relaxation and euphoria. Because the body usually works to maintain balance, it will signal the brain to make more neurotransmitter receptors that excite or stimulate the central nervous system.
However, as soon as you stop drinking, you take away alcohol not only from the receptors you originally had but also from the additional receptors your body made. As a result, your nervous system is overactive. This causes symptoms such as:
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Nausea
- Rapid heart rate
- Sweating
- Tremors
In severe instances, you may experience DTs, which are considered to be the most severe symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. Symptoms doctors associated with DTs include:
- Hallucinations
- High body temperature
- Illusions
- Paranoia
- Seizures
Other Factors That May Affect Alcohol Withdrawal Timeline
Approximately 50% of people with an alcohol use disorder go through withdrawal symptoms when they stop drinking. Many doctors say that about 3-5% of people will have severe symptoms (2).
Multiple factors can affect how long it may take you to withdraw from alcohol. A doctor will consider all these factors when estimating how long-lasting and how severe your symptoms may be.
Risk factors for DTs include:
- Abnormal liver function
- History of DTs
- History of seizures with alcohol withdrawals
- Low platelet counts
- Low potassium levels
- Low sodium levels
- Older age at the time of withdrawal
- Preexisting dehydration
- Presence of brain lesions
- Use of other drugs
If you have any of these risk factors, it’s important that you withdraw from alcohol at a medical facility that’s equipped to prevent and treat alcohol-related complications.
Some rehabilitation facilities offer a rapid detox process. This involves giving a person sedative medication so they are not awake and aware of their symptoms. However, this approach is not well suited for those with other health problems, such as heart or liver problems.
Once you have endured the withdrawal phase, you are set to enjoy the many benefits of being alcohol-free! Here’s an outline of the positive changes you can expect to see over the weeks.
What Are The Many Benefits of Giving Up Alcohol?
1. You’ll Dodge Accidents and Crimes
There can be no question that alcohol is a major contributor to the problem of traffic safety in the United States (3). It also plays a role in at least half of all serious trauma injuries and deaths from burns, drowning, homicides, and suicides. You don’t have to go completely dry to be safer. Even cutting back your drinking by a third can lower the number of injuries and sick days.
2. Your Heart Will Get Healthier
You might think that a regular glass of red wine or other alcoholic beverages might be good for your heart. But that may not be true, or true only for light sippers, who consume less than one drink a day. If you use more than that, cutting back or quitting may lower your blood pressure, levels of a fat called triglycerides, and chances of heart failure.
3. Your Liver May Heal
Alcoholic liver disease has a broad clinical spectrum, from mild disease to severe, life-threatening liver injury. Simple fatty liver occurs in nearly all people who drink alcohol on a heavy basis, even for a relatively short period of time such as a few days. In contrast, alcohol-induced fibrosis and cirrhosis usually develop after decades of heavy drinking, so does alcoholic hepatitis.
Cessation of alcohol is necessary to treat alcoholic liver disease. If the patient has a simple fatty liver, cessation will allow the liver to heal and return to normal. If a patient has alcohol-induced fibrosis or cirrhosis and abstains from alcohol, damage to the liver will stop and the liver will get better, although liver scar tissue will remain (4).
Your liver also filters toxins. And alcohol is toxic to your cells. Heavy drinking, at least 15 drinks for men and eight or more for women a week, can take a toll on the organ and lead to fatty liver, cirrhosis, and other problems. The good news is that your liver can repair itself and even regenerate. So it’s always worth drinking less or quitting.
4. You Can Lose Some Weight
Recreational alcohol intake is a widespread activity globally and alcohol energy (7 kcal/g) can be a contributing factor to weight gain if not compensated for. In general, recent prospective studies show that light-to-moderate alcohol intake is not associated with adiposity gain while heavy drinking is more consistently related to weight gain (5).
A glass of regular beer has about 150 calories, and a serving of wine has about 120. On top of those mostly empty calories, alcohol ramps up your appetite. It also makes you more impulsive, and less able to resist the fries and other temptations on the menu. So when you stay away from alcohol, the number on your scale may well start moving down.
5. Your Relationships May Improve
Enjoying alcohol socially in reasonable amounts can boost your mood and help you bond with others. But if you drink alone, or down multiple drinks a day, it could turn into an unhealthy habit. If you can’t control it, it may lead to a condition called alcohol use disorder. Giving up drinking may let you focus on your relationships, work, and health. It also may ease any depression and anxiety and elevate your self-esteem.
6. You May Decrease Your Risk of Certain Cancers
Alcohol use and abuse have been implicated as etiological factors in the genesis of an increasing number of cancer types in both men and women. In 2012, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) listed both beverage alcohol and its major metabolite, acetaldehyde, as tumor-inducing substances in humans. The most recent worldwide statistic from 2002 estimated that about 3.6% of all cancers, or 389,100 cases, are associated with alcohol consumption. Cancers for which strong epidemiological evidence indicates that alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk include, but are not limited to, esophageal, laryngeal, pharyngeal, stomach, colorectal, liver, pancreas, lung, prostate, breast, central nervous system, and skin cancers. The risk of developing a second aerodigestive-tract cancer also is higher in alcohol drinkers (6).
It’s clear that alcohol, and heavy drinking, in particular, can up your chances of several types of cancers. What’s less clear is if quitting alcohol lowers your chances for cancer and, if so, how long it might take. Some studies suggest potential benefits, but more investigations are needed for confirmation.
7. You’ll Spice Up Your Sex Life
Contrary to the popular belief concerning the aphrodisiac effects of alcohol, there exists scientific evidence that concludes on sexual dysfunction caused by chronic alcohol use. There is a dearth of studies from India.
Evidence showed that chronic alcohol drinkers may suffer from sexual dysfunction – the most common type being erectile dysfunction, followed by dysfunction in satisfying orgasm, and premature ejaculation. Sexual dysfunction was significantly associated with the duration of alcohol dependence, the amount of alcohol consumed per day, and the severity of alcohol dependence (7).
Women’s sex drive may also drop, and their vagina might get drier. Cut down on the booze, and see if it stirs up the romance!
8. You Can Rest And Sleep Better
Alcohol is traditionally known to have a relaxing effect. However, people who consume alcohol in excessive amounts suffer from poor sleep quality and patients with alcohol use disorders commonly report insomnia and difficulty breathing (8). You also may need to get up more often to pee. Try skipping alcohol, especially in the late afternoon and evening, for more restful shut-eye.
9. You’ll Get Sick Less
Clinicians have long observed an association between excessive alcohol consumption and adverse immune-related health effects such as susceptibility to various diseases. In recent decades, this association has been expanded to a greater likelihood of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, alcoholic liver disease (ALD), and certain cancers; a higher incidence of postoperative complications; and slower and less complete recovery from infection and physical trauma, including poor wound healing.
Alcohol disrupts immune pathways in complex and seemingly paradoxical ways. These disruptions can impair the body’s ability to defend against infection, contribute to organ damage associated with alcohol consumption, and impede recovery from tissue injury (9).
Even just one bout of drinking too much may weaken your body’s germ-fighting power for up to 24 hours. Over time, large amounts of alcohol blunt your immune system and your body’s ability to repair itself. Ease up on drinking so you may better ward off illnesses.
10. You Can Lower Your Blood Pressure
Several studies established the association between high alcohol consumption and hypertension. Loss of relaxation due to inflammation and oxidative injury of the endothelium by angiotensin II leading to inhibition of endothelium-dependent nitric oxide production is the major contributor to alcohol-induced hypertension. Aside from exercise training, reducing the amount of alcohol intake can help prevent alcohol-induced hypertension (10).
11. You May Clear Your Brain
Alcohol dependence can make it harder to think or remember things. Over time, heavy drinking can cloud your perception of distances and volumes, or slow and impair your motor skills. It can even make it harder for you to read other people’s emotions. But if you quit, your brain seems to be able to regain some of these abilities.
When Can You Enjoy These Benefits?
Week One
After one week away from alcohol, you may notice that you are sleeping better. When you drink, you typically fall straight into a deep sleep, missing the important rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. While you are supposed to have between 6-7 cycles of REM sleep a night, you typically only have 1 or 2 when you’ve been drinking.
Better sleep comes with many benefits. You will be more productive, where you can learn and solve problems better. Your ability to control your emotions and behavior will also improve.
You’ll also have more opportunities to manage your food and drink intake. Sleep helps to balance the hormones that make you feel hungry or full. Alcohol may increase your ghrelin levels while decreasing your leptin hormone levels, making you feel hungrier.
When you drink alcohol, you lose around 4 times as much liquid as what you actually drank.
Dehydration can cause headaches, as your organs take water from the brain due to their own water loss. Salt and potassium levels also reduce, which can impact nerve and proper muscle function while also causing headaches, fatigue, and nausea.
Therefore, giving up alcohol can help you keep well hydrated, which is, in turn, beneficial for your brain. Your mood and concentration will be more stable, and the frequency of headaches is likely to decrease. You also won’t suffer from the effects of dehydration such as lack of motivation and increased fatigue, so you will have more energy throughout the day.
Also, if you were to give up drinking six 175 ml glasses of wine a week, you would save around 960 calories, which is equivalent to 3 burgers or 5 ½ bags of crisps. And if you were to stop consuming 6 pints of average strength lager a week, you would save 1080 calories, which is similar to 6 bags of crisps or five chocolate bars.
Week Two
After two weeks off alcohol, you will continue to reap the benefits of better sleep and hydration.
As alcohol is an irritant to the stomach lining, after a fortnight you will also see a reduction in symptoms such as reflux where the stomach acid burns your throat.
After a fortnight, you are also likely to start losing weight as a result of giving up alcohol’s empty calories. If you were to stop drinking six 175ml glasses of wine per week, you would have saved 1920 calories at this point, and 2160 if you’d stopped drinking around 6 pints of lager.
Week Three
Drinking too much alcohol can cause your blood pressure to rise over time. After 3-4 weeks of not drinking, your blood pressure will start to reduce. Reducing your blood pressure can be crucial as it can help to lessen the risk of health problems occurring in the future.
As the calories in alcohol can cause you to gain weight, giving up alcohol can also help you to reduce your blood pressure as a result of the weight you can potentially lose. By this point, if you’d previously been drinking six 175ml glasses of wine a week, you would have lost 2880 calories over three weeks. And if you’d been drinking six pints of lager a week, you would have lost 3240 calories.
Week Four
Giving up alcohol will have a positive impact on your skin due to you having better levels of hydration. As more water will have been absorbed rather than wasted, you are likely to have more hydrated-looking skin, as well as reduced dandruff and eczema.
Removing alcohol from your diet for four weeks can also help to improve your liver function as your liver will start to shed excess fat. If your liver function is not too badly affected by alcohol, it can recover within 4-8 weeks.
With the liver playing a part in over 500 vital processes, you also give your body a better chance of removing contaminants, converting food nutrients, storing minerals and vitamins.
The Bottomline
Across weeks and months, your body is likely to benefit greatly from giving up alcohol. Better hydration and improved sleep will increase your productivity and daily wellbeing. Your liver, stomach, and skin will also benefit from not dealing with alcohol. You will also reduce your calorie intake.
Embarking on recovery from alcohol addiction can be an emotionally difficult time. If you are struggling with alcohol and are finding it hard to quit, you may want to think about getting support from professionals.
References:
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4085800/
(2) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4jm2h3bx
(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK217455/
(4) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5572973/
(5) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4338356/
(6) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590626/
(7) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5914267/
(8) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666864/
(9) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590612/
(10) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4038773/
