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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum here. This episode talks about alcohol use and

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Speaker 1: a little about misuse. So if you're not up for

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Speaker 1: that today, go ahead and skip it and take care

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Speaker 1: of yourself. Okay, It's a new year, and that means

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Speaker 1: millions are ditching alcohol in hopes that a dry January

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Speaker 1: will be what they need to start a new decade right.

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Speaker 1: A Journal of the American Medical Association study published in

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Speaker 1: September found that alcohol use had increased four that year

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Speaker 1: over nineteen. This increased drinking may bonivate even more people

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Speaker 1: to try a dry January, but what happens when the

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Speaker 1: lucks come off the liquor cabinet February one. Many nutritionists

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Speaker 1: recommend moderation over drastic diets, but with booze, cold turkey

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Speaker 1: can actually work. A research from the University of Sussex

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Speaker 1: found that a dry January rarely leads to have wet February.

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Speaker 1: In fact, participants of the study ended up drinking less

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Speaker 1: in February and for the rest of the year. The

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Speaker 1: research studied more than eight hundred dry January participants to

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Speaker 1: analyze their drinking patterns, afterward, the results might persuade skeptics.

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Speaker 1: On average, Dry January participants afterward went from drinking four

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Speaker 1: point three to three point three times per week, They

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Speaker 1: consumed less alcohol when drinking eight point six units down

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Speaker 1: to seven point one units, and their frequency of being

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Speaker 1: drunk went from three point four to two point one

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Speaker 1: instances per month. Even those who slipped up during their

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Speaker 1: Dry January attempts still reported decreased drinking over time. According

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Speaker 1: to Alcohol Change UK, a nonprofit think tank raising awareness

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Speaker 1: about the dangers of alcohol, this shift occurs because Dry

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Speaker 1: January participants realized that they don't actually need alcohol in

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Speaker 1: their lives. They wrote in a blog post that realization

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Speaker 1: is a powerful thing. It means that for the rest

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Speaker 1: of the year, having a drink can be a choice,

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Speaker 1: not a default. Dry January becomes almost like a training period,

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Speaker 1: they say. Participants learn how to adapt to social situations

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Speaker 1: without booze and how to turn down a drink even

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Speaker 1: though saying yes is so much easier. The author of

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Speaker 1: the article that this episode is based on, Stephanie Vermillion,

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Speaker 1: admitted that she had always shrugged off dry January is

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Speaker 1: just another fad, but that speaking with participants changed her mind.

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Speaker 1: Take Ohio resident Megan Luce Singer, a former casual drinker

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Speaker 1: who used to spend her January's booze free. She reported

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Speaker 1: feeling so refreshed after her twenty nineteen dry January that

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Speaker 1: she ended up ditching the alcohol entirely. Litch, Singer said

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Speaker 1: via email after giving it up for good, I don't

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Speaker 1: miss it at all. I'd say going alcohol free for

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Speaker 1: a month is actually harder than giving it up for good,

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Speaker 1: because once February came around, I was like, oh, now

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Speaker 1: I can have a glass of wine at dinner again.

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Speaker 1: I didn't over indulge in February, but it was more

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Speaker 1: of a countdown to get there. For Ohio exercise enthusiast

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Speaker 1: Chris Rotterier, dry January is a chance to rebalance and

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Speaker 1: get healthier after holiday revelry. With multiple dry Januaries under

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Speaker 1: his belt, Rotterier has not only realized that he doesn't

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Speaker 1: need alcohol, he also feels drastically better without it, He

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Speaker 1: said via email. When you go dry for a period,

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Speaker 1: you realize even more how even two drinks can affect

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Speaker 1: you the next day. I haven't had the desire to

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Speaker 1: binge at any time. I think it serves as an

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Speaker 1: eye opener as to how much better you feel without alcohol.

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Speaker 1: Rotterier's health improvements are not a dry January placebo effect.

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Speaker 1: Drinking less alcohol over the course of the year can

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Speaker 1: do wonders for the human body, starting with two of

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Speaker 1: the most important changes, better sleep and sharper concentration. A

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Speaker 1: study in the journal Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research seems

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Speaker 1: to back that up. It found that alcohol quote may

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Speaker 1: exert an arousal influence, which may compete with the sleep

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Speaker 1: maintenance influence of increased delta activity. This may have negative

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Speaker 1: implications for the impact of pre sleep alcohol consumption on

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Speaker 1: sleep and consequent daytime functioning. Several other studies have shown

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Speaker 1: that drinking too much alcohol leads to sugar cravings, over eating,

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Speaker 1: and dry looking skin. The University of Sussex found that

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Speaker 1: most dry January participants had more energy, lost weight, slept better,

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Speaker 1: and had better concentration. So although we're halfway through the

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Speaker 1: month already, if you do drink and have been thinking

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Speaker 1: about trying a dry patch, go ahead and ditch the drinks.

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Speaker 1: It seems unlikely that you'll bingeine February, and you might

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Speaker 1: even end up drinking less for the rest of the year.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Stephanie Vermilion and produced by

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Speaker 1: Tyler Klang. For more in this and lots of other topics,

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Speaker 1: visit howstuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.