AWhile a lot of people do know that excessive drinking can affect your liver, most people don’t know that it has a lot of adverse effects on your body, including reducing the size of your brain.
We need to take a moment and think about our health
The holidays are a time for celebration, spending time with friends and family, and just having fun. For others, their idea of having fun would be to go out drinking with their friends, however excessive drinking has a lot of negative effects on our health, so we really do need to take a moment and think about our health, and think about our habits that can have a negative impact.
Drinking moderately actually means drinking either 12 ounces of beer, five ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits like gin, vodka, or whiskey in a single day. Some people confuse drinking moderately with simply “not getting drunk.” This can be very problematic as studies have shown that anything beyond the moderate amount can damage our livers.
Additionally, the more alcohol we drink, the smaller our brains get. The dendrites, or signal receivers in our brains, are directly affected whenever we drink alcohol. The more booze we drink, the more connections are lost in the brain.
Our health is very important
This is why we need to think about our alcohol intake, most especially during times of celebration or during the holidays. There are a lot of other ways wherein we can celebrate the holidays with our loved ones while avoiding drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.
We simply have to enjoy the company of our friends, family, and all of our loved ones during the holidays. Because after all, that’s what the holidays are for.
Go to the next page to learn more about quitting drinking.
Quitting drinking and staying sober
A lot of people suffer from an addiction to alcohol. Others might have some control over their alcoholism, but there’s no denying the impact that excessive drinking can have on your health, as well as your relationship with other people.
Here are some steps that you can take if you wish to quit drinking alcohol:
- Tell people. The first thing would be to tell people that you have decided to stop drinking. That way, people will be aware of the choice that you’ve made and they’ll know your restrictions and limitations when it comes to alcohol consumption.
- Avoid temptation. Avoiding temptation is one of the more difficult things to do when it comes to quitting alcohol. You need to have a lot of self-control and willpower in order to make sure that you don’t regress back to drinking.
- Don’t rush it. Quitting alcohol isn’t always as simple as just stopping it. You’ll inevitably have some trouble, but the important thing is to take it one day at a time. No one’s rushing you, and so long as you take it slow, you’ll be able to do it.
- Enjoy yourself. For a lot of people, consuming alcohol is how they enjoy themselves, but since you’ve decided that you want to quit, then you can start trying to look for other hobbies or things that you can do instead of drinking. You can take up a sport, start being more active, or read a book.
- Reward your progress. Reward yourself once in a while with a nice meal, or you can watch a nice movie. Don’t forget to appreciate the effort that you’re doing so that you can quit drinking. It helps keep you happy and motivated so that you can stay on track and focus on your goal.
READ: Drinking one glass of wine a day is actually bad for you, scientists warn
Sources: huffingtonpost.com, health.gov, wexnermedical.osu.edu, drinkaware.co.uk
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