11 HEALTH BENEFITS OF QUITTING ALCOHOL - ARTE - 2025

The health benefits of quitting alcohol are improving the quality of sleep, improving the condition of the skin, reducing the risk of cancer, improving the state of the liver, being more productive and others that I will explain below.

If alcohol is taking its toll on both your body and your personal and professional life, you will be happy to know that you have yet another motivation to quit because as you may have imagined, your body will improve with this fabulous decision.

Quitting alcoholic beverages can improve your life. It not only has benefits for your mind and body, but for the people around you who have suffered with you that way.

Health benefits of quitting alcohol

1. It will improve your sleeping habits

According to recent studies it seems that if we drink before going to bed we increase certain types of waves in the brain called alpha. These occur when we are awake but at rest, in this way sleep is interrupted.

Another study reveals that alcohol consumed before bed, after an initial stimulating effect, can decrease the time it takes to fall asleep. Due to the sedative effect of alcohol, many people with insomnia use it to promote sleep.

However, if it is ingested an hour after bedtime it appears to disturb the second half of the sleep period. Therefore, if you stop drinking alcohol, it will improve both your sleep habits and the quality of sleep itself, this will allow you to wake up more rested, thus increasing your energy and your good mood.

2. You will eat less

Alcohol can be one of our biggest enemies if we want to lose weight since it causes us to eat excessively.

Alcohol is one of the biggest drivers of excessive food intake. That may be because it enhances our senses.

Another good reason to stop drinking alcohol is to reach our ideal weight, the diet we follow will not work for us if we do not remove alcohol from our daily habits.

3. Increase the intake of foods with sugar

We all know that alcohol has a very high amount of sugar and that this substance can “hook us” as it increases the “reward” levels of chemical dopamine and triggers a feeling of pleasure, which is why it is so difficult to stop drinking alcohol.

Sugar is not a good companion for dental health or for the body in general. When you stop drinking alcohol you will feel a tremendous urge to eat things that contain sugar as the body will try to recover the amounts to which it was previously used.

4. It is good for the skin

When you stop drinking alcohol, even your skin improves since it causes us to go to the bathroom more because it is a diuretic, causing dehydration in our skin, so if we stop ingesting this substance we will notice a big difference, according to Dr. Raskin.

On the other hand, alcohol also decreases the body's production of antidiuretic hormone, which helps to reabsorb body water. This causes the typical redness on the side of the nose and cheeks as well as dandruff and other skin problems and even hair.

If you are one of those who have skin problems, perhaps one of the reasons is because of alcohol, another piece of information that will help us decide to stop drinking this substance excessively.

5. It will improve your economy

If you are one of those who drink too much and spend all the money you have on alcohol, you will know that if you decide to stop this unhealthy habit, your pocket will also notice it. You will have more money that you can spend on other more productive things or even on the family.

If you've always wanted to do outdoor activities or take a trip, maybe with the money you've saved from alcohol you can have the opportunity you've always wanted to do.

6. You will reduce the risk of suffering from cancer among other diseases

According to the National Cancer Institute, alcohol intake has been linked to higher risks of cancer of the mouth and liver, as well as breast, colon and rectal cancer.

That is, the more you drink, the more likely you are to suffer some type of cancer, so if you stop this habit you will be preventing these diseases.

7. You will forget about hangovers

If we stop drinking alcohol, we will forget about having a hangover the day after drinking it. If you have ever been drinking you will already know that the following days we feel fatigued and even dizzy and this prevents us from leading a normal life.

So if we stop consuming alcohol disproportionately, we will avoid suffering these terrible hangovers the next day and we will improve our health.

8. You will avoid making your family suffer

Another benefit of stopping consuming alcohol and one of the great reasons that should help you quit is the damage you cause to your family and friends when they see that you have ingested disproportionate amounts and that no matter how hard they try to help you, you don't stop.

So one of the benefits of quitting alcohol will be getting your life back and your family back. That is, you will have a second chance to do everything that you could not do with them due to your addiction.

9. It will improve the health of your liver

The liver can process about one beer or one glass of wine per hour. However, not always the amount we drink of alcohol ends with a glass, the liver reacts by producing acetaldehyde, a toxic enzyme that has been linked to liver damage and scarring.

When we stop drinking, the liver will immediately begin the cleansing process, although some scars may remain due to the great effort that goes into glass after glass. So even the health of your liver will improve if you stop drinking alcohol excessively since you will not have to make any overexertion.

10. You will be more productive

Due to the large amounts of alcohol intake day after day you may have noticed that it takes a toll on your lifestyle. In other words, you are no longer as productive in your work, nor are you the same as always with your family.

Alcohol clouds your thoughts and makes you more fatigued and fragile than necessary both mentally and physically. Even when we left it, we began to notice that it would improve like the ones we have said before if we don't have a hangover.

This will make you return to being productive even more than before you started drinking as your body will thank you quickly.

11. You will feel better about yourself

By quitting alcohol you will be taking control of your life again. You will do things that you could not do before due to the consumption of this substance, so it will improve your mind and thereby increase your sense of well-being.

You will be able to achieve the goals that you set for yourself at some point in your life and you will have the strength that you lacked before to fight for them.

You will go back to spending time with your family and doing those activities that you never could because of alcohol. All this will make you regain the self-esteem that you lost as well as the confidence you had in yourself.

12. You will get your life back

The last benefit that we present to you is the most positive of all since if you stop consuming alcohol you will recover your life.

It will once again be yours completely, you will once again recover your friends, your job, your dreams, your family as well as your goals. What better gift is there than that?

References

1. Breslow, RA, Chen, CM, Graubard, BI, Jacobovits, T., & Kant, AK (2013). Diets of drinkers on drinking and nondrinking days: NHANES 2003–2008, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 97 (5), 1068–1075.
2. Chan, JKM, Trinder, J. Andrewes, HE, Colrain, I. M, Nicholas LC (2015). The Acute Effects of Alcohol on Sleep Electroencephalogram Power Spectra in Late Adolescence. Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 39: 291-299.
3. Eiler, WJA, Džemidžić, M., Case, KR, Soeurt, CM, Armstrong, CLH, Mattes, RD, O'Connor, SJ, Harezlak, J., Acton, AJ, Considine, RV and Kareken, DA (2015), The apéritif effect: Alcohol's effects on the brain's response to food aromas in women. Obesity, 23: 1386-1393.