What happens to your body when you stop drinking?

Deciding to quit drinking can cause significant changes in your body and in your overall health. It will aid weight loss, lower the risk of some forms of cancer and make your heart healthier. Quitting or drastically cutting down on drinking without help may be hard, but it can provide with you so many long and short term benefits to your health.

One day after quitting drinking

During the first 48 hours after you stop drinking, your body will have started the process of removing all of the harmful toxins from your body and it is during this stage you can expect to feel the bulk of your withdrawal symptoms. These can include bouts of sweating, tremors, headaches and a rise in blood pressure.

One month after quitting drinking

In as little as a month, you can expect to see a drastic improvement in your general health. Your liver function and energy levels will have significantly increased and it is not uncommon for excessive drinkers to see improvements in conditions they may have developed such as eczema, dandruff and rosacea.

One year after quitting drinking

A year after you stop drinking, you’ll typically notice changes in your appearance and how you feel overall. For example, on average those who have quit drinking for a year will have lost around 13 pounds, and your liver should be fully functional once more. As well as this, the risk rate of developing a variety of cancers, like liver, mouth, breast and more will have decreased.

Your next step to LiveWell

For more advice on drinking, you can register to see how we can help you. For a general look into your overall health, you can take the Are you Living Well? quiz to see how you compare to national guidelines.

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How does this work?

The tailored approach LiveWell Dorset uses to come up with solutions to the things that are stopping us achieving our goals, is based upon work done by University College London developing the COM-B model of behaviour change. In this model, all behaviour is influenced by understanding a person’s capability to change, their opportunity to change and their motivation to change. By understanding which of these is the biggest barrier to change, we can tailor support accordingly. This model of behaviour change is at the centre of the support we offer, online and in person.

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