Why I did alcohol-free “Dry January” (and might not bring alcohol back into my life…)

Articles

Feb 6

By Casey Means

Recent research suggests that there is no safe amount of alcohol. In the past, people have thought that a moderate amount of alcohol might help with heart health, but more and more data is saying… maybe not. I have a lot of goals for this time in my life: great mental health, daily learning, healthy future pregnancy, spiritual development, and being a dependable and strong member of my family and society. From my understanding of the literature (and my personal experience), alcohol can negatively impact all of these goals. This is why I’ve been slowly moving away from it. This is a struggle for me, because I love a good cocktail. I love a great glass of wine and dry champagne. I love fancy stemware. I love the ritual of a nice drink after a long day with a friend or loved one. I love the wine country! With all this said, there is something deep inside of me that feels that it is prime-time in life, and I want to be able to fire on all cylinders. So for me, my relationship with alcohol needs to shift. At this moment, I don’t know if that will mean abstaining forever, but I feel confident that it as least means a shift towards radically more intentionality around it, like a special celebratory drink perhaps 5-10 times per year. This blog post shares about my recent thoughts and journey with alcohol.

Before diving in, a few considerations that make the alcohol discussion more complicated:

Quantity: It’s important to remember that a standard serving of alcohol (and the definition used in the literature) is often MUCH smaller than we think. We might call a margarita “one drink,” but the technical definition of “one drink” is 1.5 ounces of spirits (or 5 ounces of wine or 12 ounces of beer). So, if you have a standard margarita with 1.5 ounces of tequila and 1 ounce of orange liqueur - that’s closer to two drinks. And the typical recipes for a classic martini, Negroni, or old-fashioned make them two full drinks - as each has 3 ounces of spirits. So, for a woman, a single Negroni is almost halfway to eight alcohol units per week - which is the threshold for what is considered “heavy drinking” in the scientific literature. Eek!
Addictiveness: Alcohol is an addictive substance - both in terms of “psychological addiction” and physical dependency. I find that when I abstain completely, which I’ve done at a few periods in my life, I tend to eventually forget about it. But when I start back even moderately, it gets its little fingers into the craving centers of my brain and the desire for an end-of-day alcoholic beverage can be intense and pick back up quickly…
Industry forces: The restaurant and alcohol industries (which are between $500 billion and $1 trillion industries in the US alone and employ millions of people, and are businesses with one priority: growth) are desperate to make us think drinking is healthy, normal, and fun. Even though alcohol is considered by some reports to be the most lethal and societally damaging drug around (more than heroin, meth, and crack cocaine), it is totally normalized. Which makes you wonder, who is actually benefitting from this? While our society gets sicker, has progressively worse sleep, and becomes more depressed and infertile (all associated with alcohol), someone is getting rich.
Actual rates of drinking: While alcohol seems ubiquitous, only about 50% of American adults 18 years or older have drank in the last month. This is less than I would have guessed, and helps normalize a reduction in my own drinking.

Here are the 7 main reasons why I’m personally moving away from alcohol at this time in my life:

1. Spiritual development

I’m at a point in my life where I can say with clarity that my purpose in this life is spiritual exploration and development. Exploring the miraculous and mystical dualistic relationship between the material body and the spirit world is my top priority. This awe pervades everything I do, from eating to relationships to work.

When I’m doing my “wellness behaviors” — like eating healthy, sleeping well, getting morning sunlight, minimizing alcohol and being in nature regularly — it seems to me that I’m able to tap into my sense of spirituality so much easier. If my physical body is like a unique “radio tower” for channeling spirit, the healthy behaviors seem to help me “tune” the frequency to that “channel” if spirit a bit more. When I’m tuning into that state more clearly, it seems that my footing is more solid in everything in my life: my relationships, my work, my creativity, and my peace are easier. For me, regularly alcohol use seems to dull this…

When I’m off my healthy habits, and drinking regularly, it feels like the mystical realm harder for me to access: I am more heavy. More anxious. I dream less at night. There seems to be more static in the connection between “me” and the universal field. We know that alcohol induces inflammation and oxidative stress in the body and brain, and I wonder whether those cellular processes are related to that feeling of static. I so eagerly want to thin that veil between me and the spiritual dimension, so for me, I think alcohol needs to take a lesser role in my life. It’s starting to feel counterproductive to me that I would invest time in meditation, therapy, coaching, spiritual reading and lectures, sleep supplements, etc, — all to open the channel — and then add something in that for me seems to blur the channel (i.e., alcohol).

Some spiritual traditions say attachment is the root of suffering. Cravings are a form of attachment, and therefore a form of suffering. I feel this in my life. Therefore, I feel that anything I can do to cut off the relationship between myself and addictive substances is a step forward on my spiritual journey… towards the nirvana that is peace and equanimity in the present and what is.

I want my choices to be a signal to the spirit world that I am doing everything I can to connect. To me, at this moment in my life, limiting alcohol feels like it is part of that journey. I also can’t help nut wonder about whether there are dark forces in the universe that want us to destroy our bodies and minds so we can’t as effectively connect with our spirit, and therefore keep us stuck in the illusion that we are limited mortal beings, rather than the limitless eternal spiritual beings that we very well might be.

I believe that when humans are stuck in the ultimate fear cycle rooted in existential dread about mortality and post-death oblivion, we may be more likely to turn to consume products and services that in some way mitigate our anxiety. I believe that the healthcare industry, processed food industry, and alcohol industry understand this and very well may be playing into these dynamics for profit. I want to opt out of this. Less alcohol is part of that journey for me. One of the ways that not drinking has been much easier for me this past month is just to regularly ASK the spirit world for help in reducing cravings. I share this request for help in my morning meditation and prayer. I think it’s hard for us to ask for help sometimes, but if this approach resonates with you, it might be something to try. In my worldview, believe the spiritual dimension is eager to help us, and sometimes it’s as simple as asking.

2. Immune system

I was sick for over 3 weeks in the fall, and it was really annoying. It seems like everyone is sick right now. One of the best things we can do for the immune system is NOT to regularly drink. Routine alcohol consumption is one of the most immune-suppressing things we can possibly put in our bodies - it stunts the activity of our immune cells. It is an immunosuppressant.

So, what happens to our immune system when we drink regular alcohol?

Reduction of T cells and Natural Killer (NK) cells, which are vital for immune response
Disruption of the balance of the different types of T cells in our body
Impaired T cell activation and functioning, leading to the promotion of T cell death
Loss of B cells, while increasing anti-liver antibodies that can promote liver damage
Impaired response to vaccinations
Exacerbated cancer risk

Alcohol consumption also makes us more vulnerable to COVID-19, among so many other diseases and mental health disorders.

It is a priority of integrity for me to be as resilient as possible at this time in my life — I’m 36, I’ve been blessed with a healthy body, and I want to honor this monumental privilege and opportunity of health by supporting my functioning and avoiding picking up bugs when I can. To support my immune system, I’m aiming to sleep well, eating immune-supportive nutrients like zinc, selenium, protein, omega-3s, magnesium, vitamin C, and more, keep my blood sugar stable, move regularly (exercise is anti-inflammatory), honor when my body and mind need yin periods of rest, wash my hands with non-toxic soap many times per day, support my microbiome with fiber and polyphenols, and… avoid alcohol.

3. HEART health, heart attack risk, and arRhythmia risk

Heart disease is the number 1 cause of death for both men and women. Coronary artery diseases causes one in five deaths. It is almost entirely preventable. Alcohol raises triglycerides and blood pressure, which are two of the most important risk factors for heart disease and heart attacks. A recent study shows that people who routinely drank even just small amounts of alcohol – i.e., a single drink – saw blood pressure measurements rise more than those who drank none at all. (The results were small, but statistically significant).

As for arrhythmias, while it has been known that heavy drinking is a key risk factor for the arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation, recent research has found that it’s the frequent drinking (even in small amounts) that is also a significant risk factor for new-onset atrial fibrillation. It appears that the regularity of drinking is problematic, and even just drinking 1.2 drinks a day habitually has shown to be associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation.

From the paper: “Alcohol is an established direct cardiotoxin.” Cardio = heart. Toxin = poison. I don’t want to poison my heart.

4. Fertility

I hope to have babies in the next couple of years and a lot of what motivates me in my health behaviors right now is an eager and earnest wish to make my body as incredible of a palace for a baby to grow as possible. The baby will be miraculously self-assembling into form and consciousness within my core, and so I want to do what I can to create a lovely environment for that magic to happen! I get excited about BEING the biochemistry lab for this physical and spiritual alchemy to happen… to BE the 3-D printer of a baby that can go on to channel consciousness and spirit. It thrills me!

So as I’m eating and living in this pre-conception period of life, I’m thinking a lot about all the ways I can support this: I want my nervous system to be regulated, I want my nutrient and amino acids stores to be stocked, I want my insulin levels to be low and healthy, I want my omega-3:omega-6 ratio to be solid, and, I want to protect my cells from toxins of all kinds… like alcohol.

One of the wildest things I’ve learned as I’ve dived into the world of preconception optimization is that alcohol use before conception (in either parent - dad or mom!) is a major risk factor for all sorts of heartbreaking birth-related outcomes like infertility, miscarriage, heart defects, behavior problems in childhood, and more. We think of “fetal alcohol syndrome” being a result of drinking during pregnancy, but more research is showing that it might actually be related to epigenetic changes related to preconception drinking as well.

Here are some of the stats (Note: some of these studies are in MICE only, not humans):

Alcohol is “genotoxic,” meaning it affects DNA integrity. It also negatively impacts hormone health.
When drinking alcohol, an individual’s body experiences significant oxidative stress. Oxidative stress damages sperm DNA and egg quality.
Maternal alcohol consumption (Note: this study is in mice!) before pregnancy led to higher post-meal glucose levels during pregnancy in the mother and insulin resistance, large baby size (fetal macrosomia), reduced fertility rate, and oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in maternal livers during pregnancy. Given our rising rates of infertility and gestational diabetes, this lends to the idea that preconception reduction in alcohol could be helpful.
“The more a man drinks before providing sperm, the lower the chances of his partner becoming pregnant – in some cases, by almost 50%.”
Sperm carry lots of epigenetic information - these are folding changes to the DNA that can change rapidly (whereas our genetic code cannot) and change the way genes are expressed, and which strongly influence fetal development and child health. Alcohol affects these epigenetics in a major way.
Semen from men who regularly consume alcohol impacts placenta development, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)-associated brain and facial defects, and even IVF outcomes.

A father’s sperm are still negatively impacted after stopping, in the “withdrawal” process, so this means it could take a lot longer for sperm to return to normal after stopping drinking than one might think.
A recent study shows that paternal pre-conceptual alcohol consumption “may affect sperm function; cognitive and emotional responses in newborns, hyperactivity disorders, motor skill disruptions, hearing loss, endocrine, and immune alterations; reduced physical growth, placental disruptions, and metabolic alterations in offspring.” There is also another study that found that this promoted anxiety and depression in mice.
Pre-conceptual alcohol consumption alters “brain nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) synthesis and release.” These are the hormones that help neurons grow and wire properly.

It seems like a good strategy for both partners to stop drinking at least 3 months prior to conception, ideally longer, to give the body time to make epigenetic modifications, have a few sperm lifecycles (average of 74 days) and ovulations, and allow for the hormonal, nutrient, and neurologic systems to get back to a non-alcohol state.

5. Brain health

A study on middle-aged men and women showed that even just moderate alcohol use is associated with decreased brain volume, and there have been associations found between moderate alcohol consumption and higher iron levels in the brain - which leads to numerous neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Alcohol has also been found to hurt our sleep and make us more at risk of depression.

Alcohol is a neurotoxin. This means that when we drink alcohol, regardless of the amount, we are literally putting a toxin on our brain and dulling our cognitive abilities now and in the future.

6. Cancer

My mom died of cancer. There are multiple people in my close network and family suffering with cancer. Cancer is up 80% in the last 30 years. What people don’t realize is that alcohol is the third biggest risk factor for cancer other than smoking and obesity. It is “genotoxic,” meaning toxic to our DNA. Even 1 drink per day can increase the risk of some cancers. Alcohol turns to acetaldehyde, which damages DNA and causes cancer in animal studies. Cancer rates are rising sharply among all ages, including young people. Our “war on cancer” is targeting the wrong things (namely, a relentless focus on CURE, which is VERY important, but not at the near-total expense of an investment in prevention research and advocacy). It is estimated to up to 70% or more of cancer cases are preventable. The easily modifiable lifestyle factors of alcohol, diet, and smoking contribute to so many cancer cases we’re seeing. We’re truly insane if we just keep poisoning every element of our environment (air, food, water, homes) with man-made synthetic chemicals we know are toxic to DNA and then scratch our heads when cancer rates rise. We’re better than that! Cutting down majorly on alcohol is a part of my mission to pay respect to those I’ve lost to cancer.

7. PMS

PMS affects over 90% of menstruating women and can include emotional symptoms and mood changes, headaches, bloating, and cramps. This is caused due to the dramatic fall in hormones like estrogen and progesterone when an egg is not fertilized during the ovulatory cycle. This is most likely to affect women in their 30s. Hormone levels and diet are intimately related, as the liver and gut are where we process and excrete many of our sex hormones.

It is been an incredible journey to get off of all exogenous hormones over the past few years as I have learned more about the horrifying health risks of hormonal birth control on the female mind and body. As I have gotten off hormones, I have been able to become much more in tune with my feminine nature and more in touch with my menstrual cycle, and now I am so intensely grateful for it. It keeps me connected with my role as a life-giving force of nature and a period is the ultimate biofeedback tool.

With that said, having a cycle again has brought PMS symptoms back into my life - mostly emotionality at day 26 of my cycle as progesterone nosedives. While it’s normal, it’s important to me that I do what I can to keep my hormones as healthy as possible… Which involves abstaining from alcohol. The research shows that alcohol seems to make PMS much, much worse. From the research: A meta-analysis from 19 studies showed alcohol use was related to an increased risk of PMS by 45%, and 79% if women were heavy drinkers. Note: “Heavy drinking” in this study was just ONE or more drinks per day. PMS is rough. I’d prefer the emotional symptoms of PMS to be mild. (My incredible boyfriend would probably prefer it to be mild, too!). My coworkers would prefer it to be mild. If I can lower the intensity by not drinking, I’m in.

So, what am I drinking during Dry January?

Here are my low-sugar alternatives to drinking:

🍺 Kvass: I have been drinking organic Kvass with organic probiotic-rich persimmon vinegar and lavender bitters. I love Biotic Ferments, as I mentioned last time in one of my previous newsletters!
🍷 Non-alcoholic aperitifs: I love Ghia and Seedlip - both are low sugar, organic, and non-alcoholic.
✨ Fun sparkling beverages: I love Sound water, Beeya magnesium powder, and Rishi Tea & Botanicals.
🍾 Green juices: I love drinking Farmers Juice green juices served in a wine glass.

💡 Tips: Who says wine glasses are only for wine? Serve everything in champagne or wine glasses with fun ice cubes! Keep your favorite non-alcoholic beverages handy so you always have something fun to drink. Cheers!