PHOTOGR APHY: NICK BALLON WITH SPECIAL THANK S TO THE HEREFORD ARMS KENSING TON LONDONBBC SCIENCE FOCUS MAGAZINE COLLECTION 31DIEToing a ‘Dry January’ has become
increasingly popular over the last
few years and I’ve known quite a
few people who have done it. Dry January is an
idea being driven, among others, by a charity
called Alcohol Concern. Alcohol Concern’s
website states that the reasons for doing a Dry
January include: “enabling you to take control
of you r relat ionsh ip w it h a lcohol” a nd “d r iv i ng
a conversation about alcohol: why do we drink
it, what does it do and how can we reduce the
harm it can cause?”
It says that the potential benefits include
better sleep, improved skin, weight loss,
having “an amazing sense of achievement at the
end” and saving money (according to Alcohol
Concern the average person spends £50,000 on
booze in their lifetime).
This all sounds terrific. So when
BBC Science Focus asked me if I fancied getting
ahead of the game and giving ‘Dry November’
a go, I thought, “why not?”. I enjoy a bit of self-
experimenting and one of the advantages of doing
it i n No v e m b e r i s t h a t t h e r e a r e o n ly 30 d ay s i n t h a t
month, so that’s one less day of total abstinence.
I’m not, and have never been, a heavy drinker.
Even at medical school, where there was a
culture of heavy drinking among certain groups,
I hardly ever drank more than two or three
pints in a single session. Once alcohol hits
my brain I have about an hour of uninhibited
fun before I go into a slump. Drinking doesn’t
make me good company. Nonetheless I have
got into the habit of drinking most evenings,
mainly red wine, so I thought it would be an
interesting challenge.
I started by logging everything I drank for
a couple of weeks in the lead up to November,
and it worked out at around 20 units a week. 5D
After an alcohol-infused festive season,
many people try to stay off the booze
throughout January. But can you really
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a month of sobriety?
words by DR MICHAEL MOSLEYIS DRY
JANUARY
WORTH
IT?