Why Dry January may do you more harm than good
GIVING up alcohol for Dry January could do more harm than good, an expert claims.
The campaign, run by charity Alcohol Concern, has been credited with encouraging two million people a year to stop drinking for a month.
But Ian Hamilton, a lecturer on substance misuse at York University, says those who take part may use it as an excuse to drink heavily for the rest of the year. He said: ‘Dry January risks sending out a binary, all or nothing, message about alcohol – that is, either participate by abstaining or carry on as you are.
‘Although not the intention, people may view their 31 days of abstinence as permission to return to hazardous levels of consumption ... ignoring the need for regular breaks from alcohol.’
Mr Hamilton, who previously worked with alcoholics as a mental health nurse, said the effectiveness of programmes like Dry January has never been ‘rigorously’ evaluated.
He added: ‘It is not clear who Dry January is targeting. Because participants select themselves it could attract the people at the lowest risk from health problems related to alcohol.’
Meanwhile alcoholics, who are more at risk, should not stop drinking without expert help as they could suffer seizures, he said.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, he concluded: ‘ Parched of evidence, Dry January could have unintended consequences which would do more harm than good.’
However, his comments were met with scepticism last night. Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, a liver expert at Liverpool University and former president of the Royal College of Physicians, said alcohol campaigns help people at least to reassess their drinking habits.
In the same edition of the
‘Time to reflect on drinking’
BMJ, he wrote: ‘What could possibly be wrong with encouraging the estimated two million or so adults who decide on Dry January to take a month off the booze and have time to reflect on their drinking?’ He pointed to Public Health England’s study of 2015’s Dry January, in which 67 per cent of participants said they had experienced a sustained drop in their drinking six months on.
A report by the University of Sussex found 62 per cent of participants slept better and 49 per cent said they lost weight.
Recent research by London’s Royal Free Hospital found a month off alcohol could heal the liver, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and decrease the risk of cancer and diabetes.
NHS guidelines published this month advise people to have two or three days off alcohol a week to allow their livers to recover. Jackie Ballard, Alcohol Concern’s CEO, said: ‘ Since we launched Dry January four years ago, we have ensured that [the campaign] is evaluated to check it really does work in the long term.
‘There is a growing body of evidence that having even just one month off from alcohol has health benefits and has a positive impact on alcohol consumption.’
She added that the campaign is aimed at social drinkers, not those who are dependant on alcohol, and that it ‘can help break bad habits, helping people to reduce their drinking all year round’.