Alcohol, despite its perception as a social lubricant, is a potent immune suppressor and a significant contributor to preventable diseases, including cancer. Abstaining from alcohol for even a short period, like 30 days, can lead to profound physical and mental health improvements by allowing the body to detoxify and repair itself.
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Alcohol is an immune suppressor, basically disguised as a social lubricant.
Alcohol consumption is a third leading cause of preventable cancer in The United States after
tobacco and obesity.
What if just thirty days could completely change how you feel?
Your sleep, your focus, your energy, even your skin.
Today, I'm breaking down exactly what happens in your body when you give up alcohol for a
month and why the benefits go far beyond your liver.
We're gonna take you through the process week by week and equip you with tools to help you
get through the month alcohol free.
Yeah.
It's not as hard as it sounds.
Don't worry.
We also know why we drink.
Right?
To feel good, feel a little happy, to feel a little loose, social lubricant, blah blah blah.
But what exactly is the buzz we feel when we drink?
Why does alcohol seem to make social situations so much easier and more relaxed?
Well, let's first define what alcohol is and why it actually gives you that bugs.
The active ingredient in alcohol is something called ethanol.
That's the chemical name for alcohol, essentially.
Now, you wanna get a little more nerdy, it's a chemical that's created during the fermentation
process when yeast feeds on sugars and grains, fruit, or other plant based materials.
Like, yeast is in wine, and that's why you get the grapes fermenting to turn into wine.
Ethanol is what gives alcohol that's a relaxing buzz, but it's also the reason that it can be
toxic and that is it can kill you directly in large amounts.
Paracelsus, one of the fathers of modern medicine said, the dose makes the poison and
that is very true with alcohol.
A little bit is not gonna kill you, but if you drink a lot, it will kill you, and I've
personally seen this in my medical career many, many times.
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Now what is actually alcohol doing?
Well, it's a central nervous system depressant.
Now despite how it feels, it doesn't actually stimulate your brain, it slows it down.
But in the early stages, the buzz phase, that slowdown happens first in the inhibitory
centers of the brain, the control centers that keep you reserved or cautious or anxious.
Right?
So the the ego essentially.
Right?
When you drink, your inhibition goes down a little bit.
You feel more relaxed, more social, more confident, maybe you feel little euphoric.
That's the quote buzz.
The other thing that happens in your brain is it works on different neurotransmitter systems.
It works on the GABA system, which is the relaxation system.
It also blocks glutamate, is the excitatory system.
So GABA is calming and inhibitory, and glutamate is stimulating and excitatory.
So there's different neurotransmitters that have different roles in your body.
Wake up, go to sleep, wake up, go to sleep.
For example, Valium is a GABA formula.
It basically stimulates the GABA receptors, so it's progesterone, makes you relax and Now
alcohol acts like GABA, turning up this inhibition, and it simultaneously blocks
glutamate, which is the excitatory neurotransmitter, and it turns down the
stimulation.
And this double effect slows brain signaling and causes you to relax, but it also does bad
stuff, like impairs your judgment.
It slows your reflexes, and it also can reduce anxiety, which is why people drink to self
medicate very often.
And the buzz hits when the balance shifts.
Just enough to quiet the brain's noise without making you drowsy yet, and that's okay, but you
wanna just sort of be in the right sweet spot.
A little too much, you're gonna get in trouble, and you you you just wanna get a little bit so
you can have that little sense of buzz and pleasure if you drink, but not too much.
And alcohol, by the way, when we look at the literature, I hate to say it, folks, it's just
not good for us.
It affects our sleep adversely.
It increases many cancers, increases the risk of metabolic dysfunction, gut microbiome
disturbances, mitochondrial toxin.
Mean, just so many reasons it's not good for you, but it feels good.
So I get it.
In case you have a tequila, so I understand.
How else does it work in the body?
It affects the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex.
The limbic system is your reptile brain.
It's your ancient lizard brain.
It's the emotional center.
It becomes more active leading to emotional openness, laughter, which is good.
But the prefrontal cortex is the adult in the room.
It's responsible for judgment, for planning, restraint.
It goes offline early in drinking, which explains why people feel freer or act
impulsively when they drink.
Now, that combination is why you might feel just more talkative or affection during this
buzz phase.
That's, you know, good.
It feels good, but it's not necessarily good for you.
So what are the negative effects of alcohol in the body?
I get what we drink, right, to relax, to connect, to take the edge off.
But what actually happens inside the body when we drink alcohol?
Why does that one or two glass of wine or tequila hit us the way it does, and why do we
pay for it the next day?
Well, once your liver can't metabolize ethanol fast enough, then your blood alcohol
concentration rises moving from buzz to drunk, to even worse sedated, which is blackout drunk.
Then the buzz fades and often is followed by rebounding glutamate and cortisol activity
leading to anxiety and fatigue.
That's called hangxiety.
Even moderate drinking can impact nearly every organ system in the body.
And the reason is it it builds this damage to metabolic stress, to inflammation, to impaired
detox ification, to effect on hormones, the microbiome, your mitochondria.
Pretty much everything is affected by it.
What's the deal with brain function, neurotransmitters, and alcohol?
How does it all work?
I kinda mentioned a little bit, but it's a it's a central nervous system depressant.
It slows brain communication.
And as I said, it increases this calming neurotransmitter called GABA, and it decreases
the stimulating neurotransmitter called glutamate, which is why you feel more dull and
not so alert.
Now dopamine does spike early on during the buzz phase, which is what makes us focus, pay
attention.
But it drops very quickly, and it leaves you feeling tired or low mood.
And I noticed this, like when I drink, I feel good for like maybe fifteen minutes, and then
it's like, meh, don't really like it anymore.
So I think if you pay attention to how your body responding, you'll see this also.
It also my aura ring tells me this every night if I have something.
It prevents you from falling into REM sleep, so you're not able to enter into that deep rest
recovery period where your immune system and your lymphatic system, that's the immune system
of the brain, it basically cleans out all the toxic metabolites from the day.
That's when it's most active at night, and when you're cleaning out all the the metabolic waste
from your brain so you don't end up with dementia and worse.
And that's why alcohol, by the way, is very powerfully linked to dementia, not just because
of certain nutritional deficiencies, but for other reasons too.
And so we wanna have a healthy functioning brain at night, and when we drink, we just
don't.
When you chronically use alcohol, it rewires the reward pathway.
So what does that mean?
It means you need more and more to feel, quote, normal.
And so whereas, you know, if you're a teetotaler, if you have one glass of wine,
you're drunk, whereas if you're drinking a bottle of wine every night, it doesn't affect
you.
And I think you should pay attention to that because when you use more, even though you're
not feeling it, it's it's having even more harm on your body.
And so long term, what do we see with long term use of alcohol?
Well, we see memory loss, cognitive decline, anxiety, sleep disruption, as I mentioned,
dementia.
And basically, the idea with alcohol is it sort of numbs you, and then it depletes you.
Your brain becomes dependent on alcohol just to feel okay.
And you see this with alcoholics.
They can't feel normal unless you're drinking.
What about your liver?
Well, the liver's got to metabolize the alcohol before anything else.
It's kinda like the worst liver toxin.
That's why we have something called alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is caused by
alcohol.
And this is a poison for the liver, and there's an enzyme in your liver called alcohol
dehydrogenase, which converts ethanol, which is alcohol, into a derivative byproduct called
acetaldehyde.
Now this acetaldehyde is a highly toxic compound that damages your DNA and damages
proteins, and it's really rough on your body.
Then the acetaldehyde is then broken down by an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase, don't
worry about that, into something called acetate.
Now if you drink too much too fast, this acetaldehyde builds up, and it causes
hangovers, nausea, flushing, all kinds of inflammation.
And when you're chronically overloaded with this, you get fatty liver and you get cirrhosis
eventually.
But even within a few weeks of drinking a lot, you start getting fatty liver.
And then over the years, you'll get scarring, and that leads to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and
ultimately liver failure and death.
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You can have quote normal cholesterol and still be at serious risk for a heart attack.
Because with your standard annual exam, get a few basic heart markers checked and you carry
on.
But cholesterol is just one piece of the puzzle.
The most important tests are missing, like APOB.
Have you ever had that done?
Probably not.
It helps move cholesterol in the bloodstream and is a powerful marker for your risk of
cardiovascular disease.
Or HSCRP, is a marker of systemic inflammation in the body.
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And what else happens when you drink alcohol if that wasn't enough, right?
It's poor.
You get an impaired metabolism of fats and sugars and hormones.
So your whole metabolic system is hijacked, and it hijacks your liver's capacity for
detoxification, like even estrogen clearance.
For example, if you are taking estrogen, you are going to get much higher levels when you
take alcohol.
And even if you're not taking estrogen, when you drink alcohol, you increase your estrogen
levels because your body can't detoxify it, and you end up with more breast cancer.
In fact, one drink a day or seven days a week for a woman is linked to a forty percent
increased risk of breast cancer.
That's a big deal.
Women out there, you pay attention because you can get really messed up with estrogen and
alcohol.
Also, when you when your labor's not working, you're not gonna be able to remove
environmental toxins.
You're not gonna be able to burn fat, and then you're gonna have to do all kinds of bad things
like gain weight.
You're gonna get blood sugar swings and cortisol swings and adrenaline up and down.
And that means you become more insulin resistant, and that means you become more
likely to gain fat, particularly belly fat or visceral fat.
And now for women, as I mentioned, when you drink alcohol, it messes up your estrogen
metabolism, and that causes a high risk of breast cancer and uterine cancer.
So really a problem.
Now for men, does the kind of opposite.
It lowers testosterone, lowers sperm quality and function, and it leads to men growing, you
know, beer bellies and also gynecomastia, which is large breasts just like women because
testosterone gets converted to estrogen, and that's why testosterone ends up lower.
So that's what happens with alcohol.
Not a good deal.
It also screws up thyroid signaling.
That makes you feel tired, sluggish, and the slower metabolism.
Alcohol turns off your body's metabolic repair mode, and it throws your hormones out of
balance.
You want to not drink for that reason too much.
Occasionally, I just to be fair, I probably drink maybe one or two drinks a month,
literally.
It's fun if I go out or home with friends or I wanna just have something a nice dinner, I'll
do it.
But otherwise, I I just stay away because I know how it affects me.
What else does it do?
Well, if that ain't enough, there's more.
It affects the gut.
It affects your microbiome.
What does it do in your gut?
Your gut is a very delicate system, and there's only one cell between you and a sewer.
Your entire lining of your intestinal tract is just one cell thick.
And when that lining gets damaged, you get leaky gut, which means the proteins from food
and food reactions happen, like food sensitivities and bacterial toxins get into
your system.
And by the way, your immune system, 60% of your immune system is right underneath your gut
lining, and that creates inflammation throughout your whole body.
So it's another way that alcohol causes inflammation.
It also messes up your bacteria.
So if you have a healthy microbiome, great, but if you drink a lot, you won't.
And so people who are alcoholics have really unhealthy microbiomes, and they increase the
growth of bad bugs in your gut.
And that can also cause gut symptoms like bloating, nutrient absorption, gel
inflammation.
A lot of nutritional deficiencies happen with alcohol.
Like, it just depletes all your b vitamins.
You get vitamin b one or thiamine deficiency.
It can cause b twelve deficiency, folate deficiency.
So you see a lot of nutritional deficiencies in alcoholics.
But even if you're not, it's still using up a lot of these nutrients to just get rid of it.
So bottom line, this whole gut brain axis disruption, it just also causes other issues
like anxiety, mood changes.
So alcohol basically turns the gut from this healing system into a inflammatory trigger.
Really bad news.
Next one is the cardiovascular and immune system.
What does alcohol do if consumed regularly on a long term basis?
It raises your blood pressure, and it raises your triglycerides, and it increases your risk
of heart attacks.
And ultimately, there's something called alcoholic cardiomyopathy.
But what it means is you get heart failure from drinking alcohol.
It's a well known condition.
I've seen it many times in practice.
It also suppresses immune function.
So even one night of heavy drinking reduces your immune cell activity for up to a whole
day.
So alcohol is an immune suppressor, basically disguised as a social lubricant.
And what about cancer?
I mentioned that, but alcohol consumption is a third lien cause third lien cause of
preventable cancer in The United States after tobacco and obesity.
Well, actually, obesity is the first.
Only forty five percent of Americans are aware of the link between alcohol and cancer.
So most people even know about it, and the risk of cancer goes up for a lot of reasons.
Right?
DNA damage from the acetaldehyde production, increased free radicals and oxy of stress,
change in hormones like estrogen I mentioned, increasing the absorption of carcinogens like
cigarettes.
When your body's processing alcohol, it creates a toxin that damages your DNA.
It makes it easier for cancer to get going.
You don't want that.
So that's another reason to not drink so much.
Okay.
What about hangovers?
Hangovers your body's emergency cleanup after a chemical storm.
And what's going on here?
Well, acetyl aldehyde toxicity is the reason.
Now this is the byproduct of ethanol, as I mentioned before.
The liver can't keep up metabolizing it, so it basically builds up, and the toxic byproducts
build up, and that causes it.
Also, dehydration.
It's a dehydrating compound.
Alcohol blocks this hormone in your brain called ADH or antidiuretic hormone.
Why is that a problem?
Well, when you are not preventing yourself from peeing, you're gonna pee more, you're and gonna
lose more water and lose more electrolytes and become more dehydrated.
So alcohol basically makes you pee more and lose water and electrolytes.
Also, you get blood sugar fluctuations.
After this insulin surge, your glucose crashes, and you can get shaky and fatigue.
You know, lot more systemic inflammation.
Alcohol irritates the gut and the liver, releases something called cytokines.
Now these are the body's chemicals that are used for infection.
That's why, know, basically, when you have a hangover, you feel like you have the flu, you
have that cytokine storm during COVID.
When you have the flu, you feel achy.
That's because of these immune messenger molecules we call cytokines.
So sleep disruption is another big problem with alcohol.
Alcohol blocks REM sleep, which is your dream sleep.
And then it causes this rebound overactivity when you stop it.
So when you get this rebound chemistry, as alcohol fades, the stress chemical spike, you
get anxiety, restlessness, anxiety, and and that is a huge problem.
So bottom line, alcohol taxes every major system in your body, especially your liver,
your brain, your gut, your hormones.
Now hangovers are the body's emergency cleanup after a neurochemical and metabolic storm.
But the good news is after twenty four to seventy two hours of abstaining, your body
starts to repair itself.
So what happens when you stop drinking?
Well, I want you to understand what happens week by week when you stop drinking.
Week one is when your body starts to detoxify and you start to have a reset.
Your sleep initially may be a little disrupted at first.
Your blood sugar and your cortisol stress hormones start to recalibrate.
Your liver starts processing this whole backlog of toxins.
You stop being dehydrated, have more energy, fewer headaches.
So that's week one.
Week two, your gut and your brain start to rebalance.
Your serotonin and dopamine start to stabilize, The gut inflammation drops, microbiome starts
healing, leaky gut starts healing, hopefully, if you're not drinking.
You're craving for sugar and alcohol, obviously go down.
You get more mental clarity, less brain fog.
Week three, inflammation drops, you get liver fat going down, and systemic inflammation going
down a lot.
Blood pressure tends to get more normal, your skin looks clear, a lot of alcohol causes
puffiness.
You've seen those red puffy faces, that's alcohol.
It causes inflammation, you see it in people's faces, it causes rosacea, skin issues.
Also You get more stable mood, less anxiety swings.
And then finally, week four, you get a lot of additional metabolic and immune benefits, more
insulin sensitivity, so your body's able to lose weight.
You have a stronger immune response.
You're not getting sick as much.
You have better deep sleep, balanced hormones, especially cortisol and testosterone.
And you see a big change in energy, confidence, and focus.
So what are the takeaways?
What are the benefits?
Here's a quick recap of the key benefits we just covered with the body.
Improve liver detoxification and function, lower inflammation of blood pressure, better
metabolism and digestion.
With your brain, you get better mood, better focus, better sleep quality, less anxiety and
depression.
And long term, you're gonna have a recalibrated relation with alcohol, which is great.
So you don't have to be stuck with it, you can make a choice.
So the question is how do you make more mindful choices?
How do you set yourself up for success when cutting out alcohol?
Well, there's some real challenges, both physical and the mental.
Well, social pressure, obviously.
Just have one drink.
Come on, what's the big deal?
I call those drug pushers.
Cravings happen and willpower.
So what's the best way to navigate those challenges?
Well, social pressure, maybe just say, hey.
I'm taking a reset this month.
Just kind of normalize a choice.
For cravings, you can modify that by eating protein, hydration, and certain adaptogens, and
herbs, and even nutrients like theanine, which is a relaxing molecule from green tea, or
magnesium glycinate, which is also helps you detoxify.
Sleep disruption can initially be a problem, but it'll improve with things like magnesium,
Epsom salt baths, or meditation.
Mindset, focus on curiosity, not deprivation.
So it's not all or nothing.
Right?
Just kinda learn what's going on in your body.
Listen to how you feel.
Pay attention to the change in your life when you stop drinking.
Really important.
So your body has an incredible ability to heal.
And often, it just needs you to take your foot off the gas and give yourself a break from the
things that are making it not feel well.
Try it for thirty days.
You're gonna be amazed at how different you feel.
If you love that last video, you're gonna love the next one.
Check it out here.
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