Don't want to do Dry January? Try this alcohol expert's three simple rules for healthier drinking instead

Mindful drinking can be a year-round practice with these simple tips

Leading neuropsychopharmacologist Professor David Nutt recommends moderation to reduce the harms of drinking (The Independent)

Dry January is in full swing, but it’s not for everyone. A large portion of the population still wants to enjoy a drink, and the pleasures that come with it; flavour, feeling more relaxed and smoother socialising, to name a few. What’s not so popular is the hangover and grogginess that follows, along with other negative health impacts.

Fortunately, there are ways to reduce alcohol’s unwanted after-effects without ditching it entirely. So says Professor David Nutt, a leading neuropsychopharmacologist specialising in drugs that affect the brain, and one of the minds behind alcohol-alternative Sentia.

“I drink, so [the health risks] don’t worry me enough to stop,” says Professor Nutt. But he does recommend taking a more mindful approach to alcohol consumption, which can be summarised by the three simple tips below.

Three rules for drinking, from an alcohol expert

Drinks must serve a purpose

“A general rule of thumb is to never have a drink that doesn't serve a purpose,” says Professor Nutt. “It can relax you, make you more sociable or let you have fun with others. But drinks that don’t do that, you should stop using.”

The points above outline the possible plus-sides of drinking. However, some people use alcohol to dampen negative emotions and escape them for a short while, which can cause problems to build up and dependency to develop, Professor Nutt says.

“A significant proportion of people reduced their alcohol consumption during Covid because they only felt the need for alcohol in social situations. But more people drank more,” he explains.

“The people who increased their drinking during lockdown, these are people who are dependent, and if you’re one of those people then you definitely ought to think very carefully about whether you are drinking too much.”

This is why, before each drink, Professor Nutt recommends asking yourself: “Why do you want to drink?”

Stick to the guidelines

The current NHS guidelines say men and women should not drink “more than 14 units a week [equivalent to six pints of average-strength beer or 10 small glasses of lower-strength wine] on a regular basis”. Professor Nutt says this is pretty good advice to go by.

“Have some knowledge of how much you’re drinking,” he advises. “If you can stick within those limits, the harms of alcohol are relatively minor. Most people who stick within their limits will not get significant harms.”

However, he also suggests a couple of other factors to consider if you want to further lessen the negative effects of drinking.

“The brain seems to be more vulnerable to bingeing, whereas the liver is more vulnerable to chronic daily drinking. The same is true of your blood vessels and your heart,” Professor Nutt says.

“The advice we give is, if you do drink, always have at least two days a week where you don’t drink at all, because that allows your heart, liver and blood vessels to recover. But again, don’t stockpile. If you’re going to try and stick to the 14 units, don’t take them all in one go, because that’s going to be more deleterious to your brain.”

This last point warns against binge drinking – a phrase that conjures images of the messiest nights out. But the yardstick for what experts consider a “binge” is far more tame.

“We define binge as five units,” Professor Nutt says. “People who binge will say that’s kind of pathetic, but the reality is more than five units in a session is going to leave you with changes in your brain which are not permanent. If you do that on a daily basis, over a number of years, they will end up becoming more and more permanent.”

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Don’t open another bottle

This third tip is Professor Nutt’s “own little invention” to protect wine drinkers from bingeing.

“If people just drank one unit of alcohol, alcohol would not be a problem as a drink or drug,” he says. “The problem with alcohol is that it encourages people to drink more, for reasons quite complex and probably linked to dopamine and endorphins, but we’re not so sure about that.

“That’s why, if you are drinking wine with a partner in the evening, never open a second bottle. You will drink that too because your control will have gone [after drinking the first bottle]. Define up front what you’re going to drink; just one bottle between you. That’s still quite a lot of alcohol, but it’s a lot less harmful than one bottle each.”

Professor Nutt says the massive increase in wine consumption has been the biggest change in drinking culture over the last 50 years.

“Wine used to be something you had on special occasions: you had some wine at Christmas, for example,” he explains. “Now, 50 years on, suggesting some people don’t have wine with their dinner is a challenge to their persona, and it’s fascinating.

“That’s all been driven by very sophisticated, subliminal advertising by the industry. The product placements of alcohol in all the right kinds of adverts, the right kinds of movies. Alcohol with meals has become the norm for upper-middle class people. Many of them die of alcohol-related problems, not even realising they’re drinking more than they should.”

What are the negative health impacts of alcohol?

The tips above are designed to help you minimise the negative effects of drinking alcohol. But what exactly are they?

“If alcohol was invented today, as a food additive or something you put into your trifle at Christmas, the recommended annual consumption would be about a glass of wine per year,” says Professor Nutt. “The criterion [for this] is cancer. If you want to avoid any incremental risk of cancer from alcohol then you don’t drink alcohol.”

Alcohol can also increase your risk of conditions such as liver cirrhosis, cardiovascular disease and stroke. But these impacts can be limited by drinking in moderation.

“Liver cirrhosis from alcohol is very unlikely if you drink within the current guidelines, so 14 units per week,” Professor Nutt says. “Similar risks apply to things like cardiovascular disease and stroke, if you can stick within the current guidelines and don’t drink them all in one go.”

While Professor Nutt doesn’t ward people off alcohol altogether, he does warn against binge drinking.

“Bingeing increases harms in two ways,” he explains. “Firstly, the more you drink, the more acute intoxication and withdrawal has a negative impact on the brain.”

“The second thing is, when you’re really drunk, you put yourself at risk of other harms like falling over and getting beaten up, or doing stupid things like driving a car when you know you shouldn’t and crashing it.”

Finally, alongside the physical effects it has on your body, alcohol can also impact your mental health.

“We know inflammation is associated with low mood,” says Professor Nutt. “When you get a cold, it drags you down, and that’s through inflammation.

“Alcohol produces the same kind of inflammation in the brain. The hangover you experience is partly due to neuroadaptation – the brain adapting to try and offset the effects of alcohol – and partly through the toxicity of alcohol leading to inflammation. That inflammation leads to a sense of lowness, flatness, irritability and not enjoying life. This can be mistaken for depression. And, particularly for people with anxiety, a hangover can provoke panic attacks.”

In summary, Professor Nutt says: “If you want no harm [from alcohol], you don’t drink anything.”

But sticking to the guidelines in this list can be a good way of cutting the negative health impacts of alcohol without giving it up for good.

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