Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:49     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
My question is that if you have spent decades drinking heavily every day, how much cancer risk does quitting provide? Isn't the damage to the DNA already done?

Also, what about continuing to smoke weed? That's has risks, no?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:45     Subject: Re:I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
I stopped for dry January and I have much more energy, wake up easier in the morning, sleep better, I'm much more clear headed and my anxiety is much better. I won't swear off drinking completely, but I really like all that comes with no drinking.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:42     Subject: Re:I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:I kind of feel the same, OP. I don’t drink much during the work week but probably go to at least one happy hour (2-3 drinks) and have 3-4 drinks on each of Friday and Saturday. I’ve stopped doing that this month and haven’t noticed any discernible benefit either. I will probably go back to my normal pattern next month.


If you're a woman, this is a lot of drinking. The benefit might be not getting breast cancer someday.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:41     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:I am surprised about this waking up to pee thing. Do most people do that? I’m mid 40s and drink 5-10 drinks/week. I don’t typically wake up to pee and haven’t ever noticed a connection between drinking & the occasional times when I do. (Except the 2-3 occasions/year where I have more than I should at a wedding or similar and wake up feeling dehydrated/hungover/having to pee... but I always assumed that’s because I had more liquid than usual, not alcohol per se.)


I don't drink but a handful of times a year, and I wake up to pee every night. Any drinking absolutely wrecks my sleep in other ways though.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:40     Subject: Re:I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I never did either.

I eat healthy and always have exercised 6 days a week.

Giving up drinking made no difference.


Same. I stopped my 4-5 night a week drink or every so often two habit about 18 months ago. Zero benefits. No weight loss. Blood pressure the same. I will still have a drink or two on Friday nights, but giving up that drinking only made me think, as a recent empty nester, "well, there's just one more thing gone from my life that I enjoyed." I mentioned to my husband that I miss having a glass of wine with dinner when we go out. He berated me, saying "you don't need alcohol to have fun." I agreed, but reminded him that food and drink in fact is one of life's enjoyments. Done in moderation, it's a nice thing. Not having it anymore is just one less thing to enjoy in life.


Why did you give up drinking? The only problem with one drink a night is expense.


I hit post-menopause, and even though I make sure to get very healthy foods and exercise every single day, combining a long run 6 days a week with weight training and pilates an additional 3 days a week, the weight just started piling on. I hate the way it makes me feel. Plus, all these news stories just started making me paranoid. So I figured cutting out all those alcohol calories would help physically and mentally. Neither is true. I just feel more depressed.


Something is wrong with you if you eat well, exercise rigourously every single day, dont drink and you are still gaining weight.


Sorry. I should have been more clear. I did stop gaining. But I haven't lost the weight I did gain. This is typical of post-menopause--and by the way, exercising and eating healthy are things I have done my entire life. I am former professional athlete, so it's just how I'm built. But thanks for trying to stress me out.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:37     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
I am surprised about this waking up to pee thing. Do most people do that? I’m mid 40s and drink 5-10 drinks/week. I don’t typically wake up to pee and haven’t ever noticed a connection between drinking & the occasional times when I do. (Except the 2-3 occasions/year where I have more than I should at a wedding or similar and wake up feeling dehydrated/hungover/having to pee... but I always assumed that’s because I had more liquid than usual, not alcohol per se.)
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:31     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I drink 1-2 glasses of wine most evenings. So moderate to heavy. I read things like that I had to pee at night or woke up at night because of the alcohol. I read that alcohol caused weight gain and if you quit drinking, it just falls off. Relationships improve, they say.

None of this has happened for me. Possibly, I may experience less anxiety. But that's hard to tell for sure and hard to pinpoint causation.

I'm not going to reverse course, I'm kind of stuck with not drinking due to a medical reason. But, I do want to say that people are kind of overhyping the immediate benefits. If you're doing dry January, do it for the mental discipline, do it for the hot chocolate. The rest of it is kind of misleading.


I think you are probably not the norm, and that lots of people do experience benefits. It's also true that there is evidence that drinking is associated with many more health risks than not drinking. It's pretty irresponsible to say that the health stuff is wrong because you don't "feel" different, OP.


I didn't say it's wrong. I acknowledge that there may be a statistical improvement in health outcomes. I'm strictly discussing the experiential aspect of it, and how it's falling short of the promises.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:29     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Have you tried going to the gym?


I work out daily. Avid runner plus weight training. There's been no adjustments to my workout routine so I don't consider it a variable that would impact anything.


Maybe that's the problem, the workout has to adjust as well. More weights, less cardio.


Well, I'm already quite slender. I'm not trying to lose weight. Based on the hype though, I expected to start wasting away, and you can never be too rich or too thin so I was excited. That may actually be the reason why though- I have very low body fat and I've felt the lack of calories from drinking- I became hungry in the evenings whereas I didn't before. From the responses here, it seems like you only lose weight if you have weight to lose.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:24     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:1-2 glass of wine a night is not heavy drinking. The weight isn't going to fall off because youve only cut out like 400 calories a day. Over time, you'll likely lose weight from cutting out the calories, sugar and carbs from wine.

I'm confused...did you wake up at night to pee? Did your relationship suffer? I have met heavy drinkers due to my job and we are talking a bottle of wine a night and they are the ones whose relationships and overall health and wellness improve drastically when they stop drinking. A glass or two at night probably doesn't cause that much of a disturbance for you.


That's close to a pound a week! That's not nothing!
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:23     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:I drink 1-2 glasses of wine most evenings. So moderate to heavy. I read things like that I had to pee at night or woke up at night because of the alcohol. I read that alcohol caused weight gain and if you quit drinking, it just falls off. Relationships improve, they say.

None of this has happened for me. Possibly, I may experience less anxiety. But that's hard to tell for sure and hard to pinpoint causation.

I'm not going to reverse course, I'm kind of stuck with not drinking due to a medical reason. But, I do want to say that people are kind of overhyping the immediate benefits. If you're doing dry January, do it for the mental discipline, do it for the hot chocolate. The rest of it is kind of misleading.


I think you are probably not the norm, and that lots of people do experience benefits. It's also true that there is evidence that drinking is associated with many more health risks than not drinking. It's pretty irresponsible to say that the health stuff is wrong because you don't "feel" different, OP.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:20     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Have you tried going to the gym?


I work out daily. Avid runner plus weight training. There's been no adjustments to my workout routine so I don't consider it a variable that would impact anything.


Maybe that's the problem, the workout has to adjust as well. More weights, less cardio.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:19     Subject: Re:I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I never did either.

I eat healthy and always have exercised 6 days a week.

Giving up drinking made no difference.


Same. I stopped my 4-5 night a week drink or every so often two habit about 18 months ago. Zero benefits. No weight loss. Blood pressure the same. I will still have a drink or two on Friday nights, but giving up that drinking only made me think, as a recent empty nester, "well, there's just one more thing gone from my life that I enjoyed." I mentioned to my husband that I miss having a glass of wine with dinner when we go out. He berated me, saying "you don't need alcohol to have fun." I agreed, but reminded him that food and drink in fact is one of life's enjoyments. Done in moderation, it's a nice thing. Not having it anymore is just one less thing to enjoy in life.


Why did you give up drinking? The only problem with one drink a night is expense.


I hit post-menopause, and even though I make sure to get very healthy foods and exercise every single day, combining a long run 6 days a week with weight training and pilates an additional 3 days a week, the weight just started piling on. I hate the way it makes me feel. Plus, all these news stories just started making me paranoid. So I figured cutting out all those alcohol calories would help physically and mentally. Neither is true. I just feel more depressed.


Something is wrong with you if you eat well, exercise rigourously every single day, dont drink and you are still gaining weight.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:17     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
The 'benefits' are only apparent if you were a raging drunk. Two drinks a day is nothing.

No weight loss is surprising factor. I switched from beer to whisky and kept the same amount of intake and the weight did literally fall off me, especially around my waist. I lost 6 pounds in the first month.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:06     Subject: Re:I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Your risk of cancer has decreased, so that’s a longer term benefit.


+1


As PP noted to the OP, this is what you believe when you are susceptible to reading headlines, marketing, and propaganda. The fact is, changing moderate drinking to abstinence, according even to the data that is being reported however vaguely, will decrease that risk quite minimally. Moderate to heavy drinking increases a woman's chance of getting breast cancer by a little more than 1%. That's what the data shows. Is it an increase? Yes, but minimal. The surgeon general and MSM reporting are being intentionally vague with the data.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2025 09:05     Subject: I quit drinking and have experienced no discernable benefit
Anonymous wrote:I drink 1-2 glasses of wine most evenings. So moderate to heavy. I read things like that I had to pee at night or woke up at night because of the alcohol. I read that alcohol caused weight gain and if you quit drinking, it just falls off. Relationships improve, they say.

None of this has happened for me. Possibly, I may experience less anxiety. But that's hard to tell for sure and hard to pinpoint causation.

I'm not going to reverse course, I'm kind of stuck with not drinking due to a medical reason. But, I do want to say that people are kind of overhyping the immediate benefits. If you're doing dry January, do it for the mental discipline, do it for the hot chocolate. The rest of it is kind of misleading.


Interesting. I feel sooo much better after dropping this habit - sleep better, skin better, much less anxiety. I guess it affects us all differently.