The Next Round: What happens after you change your drinking?
The Next Round: What happens after you change your drinking?
Today, the 7th of April is World Health Day 2022. The day is earmarked for drawing attention to a specific health topic and was set up to honour the founding of the World Health Organisation in 1948. 74 years later, we’re using the occasion to draw attention to health-related topics that come up often in our mindful drinking community. If ever you’ve wondered whether alcohol has affected your health then we’ve covered it. From your teeth to your liver, whether it’s causing your insomnia, or how your mental health is affected by quitting drinking altogether. Please note that if you do have concerns about how alcohol is affecting your health, please contact your doctor. We aren’t medically trained and our articles are merely advisory and thought-provoking.
Here’s a roundup of our top 10 health articles for World Health Day.
Club Soda member and psychologist, Helen O’Connor writes about one of the most asked questions in our Club Soda community: should I tackle giving up smoking and drinking together, or one at a time? There’s no single right way for anyone to approach making changes to their own life. Helen offers some advice if you’re cutting down on one and considering the complicated relationship with the other.
High on the list of previous World Health Day topics is sugar. Our drinks writer Anja takes a look at the sugar and calories in alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks in one of our most-read articles of 2020. This article deals with sugar cravings when you give up drinking, as well as the effect alcohol has on your blood sugar. Are sweeteners a better option? Which alcohol-free drinks are the lowest when it comes to sugar? If you’re diabetic, it can be more difficult to choose what to drink, so Laura put this helpful article together for you.
Many of us embrace cutting down on alcohol as part of an overall healthy lifestyle so that we can lose weight. However, the expectation that giving up drinking automatically means that we’ll lose weight is an unrealistic one. Oftentimes, we substitute our evening glass of wine with a sweet treat. We choose unhealthy drink substitutes, forget about our metabolism, and become resentful of ‘missing out’. For 7 tips on weight loss when changing your drinking, take a listen to this podcast. It features nutritionist Rob Hobson and mindful drinker Janey Lee Grace.
Did you know that alcohol and other drinks can have serious effects on the health of your mouth and teeth? Our guest blogger, dentist James Goolnik, did a series of blogs for Club Soda on how dental health. They include how to mitigate the effects of different drinks on your dental health when you’re changing your drinking. He’s also got an interesting take on alcohol-free drinks and healthy teeth which is super interesting.
In 2019, our content writer Nia discussed whether you should drink if you have bowel disease. From recurring bad stomachs after a heavy night of drinking to IBS, and more serious conditions such as Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, Nia discusses why booze isn’t the best plan for a happy gut. From irritating your intestinal tract to messing up your sleep and hydration, if you suffer from stomach problems then this is an important article to help understand why cutting down on alcohol plays such a major role in your gut health.
We all know that avoiding alcohol during pregnancy is important – the official guidance is to cut it out completely. But what about pregnancy and alcohol-free drinks? Jussi takes a look at whether 0.5% ABV drinks have any effect on mother and baby, and what ‘alcohol-free’ and ‘low alcohol’ actually mean.
On World Health Day, it’s important to remember a vastly overlooked topic: alcohol and menopause. Laura talks frankly about how both alcohol and menopause are hugely impactful on women, with sleep and body temperature issues exacerbated by a few glasses of wine, and hangovers just that bit harder to cope with. The bottom line? Menopause symptoms and alcohol consumption just don’t mix well.
Active and supportive Club Soda member Dougal shared his story with us in our Inspiring Stories section. It takes extra effort for Dougal to participate in our community, as he was born with a rare neurological condition called Congenital Autonomic Sensory Neuropathy with insensitivity to pain. This means that he uses a wheelchair, and he candidly shares how this affected his confidence and self-esteem. He turned to alcohol for solace, as do many people with chronic and debilitating conditions. But Dougal’s story is one of determination, reflection, and how to write the best dating profile if you’re in a wheelchair.
We couldn’t let World Health Day pass without discussing how alcohol withdrawal symptoms affect our health. Without a doubt, cutting down or quitting drinking can only mean positive things for our overall health. But for some of us, the withdrawal process can be a health upheaval. If you’re physically dependent on alcohol, we strongly suggest you talk to your doctor as it can be dangerous to stop drinking suddenly. Dru talks us through how to ride the wave of withdrawal safely.
It’s not just our physical health that suffers when we overindulge on a regular basis. Symptoms such as anxiety, depression, stress, guilt, and dread are common, especially after a weekend of heavy partying. While cutting down your drinking or stopping completely may lessen these feelings the raw emotions that are left after the booze haze lifts can be difficult to manage, too. But, as our article on Mental Health Awareness Week proves, the only way out is through.
For more information on certain health issues this World Health Day, such as Men’s Health Week articles, whether alcohol affects asthma, or to read about Anja’s TB journey, go to the Health section of our blog page.
If you feel that alcohol is affecting your health badly then please call your doctor at your earliest convenience. Be well!
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