What Happens To Your Body When You Stop Drinking Alcohol
The Infographics Show・9 minutes read
Alcohol affects the liver and brain, causing drunkenness and disrupting sleep patterns, but the body metabolizes it within an hour of consumption. Sobriety leads to improved health benefits like a stronger immune system, reduced stress levels, and improved cognitive abilities over time.
Insights
- Alcohol impacts the liver immediately after consumption, filtering out toxins and sugars, while also affecting brain function by binding to neurotransmitter receptors, causing drunkenness.
- Sobriety brings a cascade of health benefits, from improved immune system after 24 hours to reduced cancer risk in the long term, with cognitive abilities, heart health, and organ regeneration showing significant improvements over time.
Get key ideas from YouTube videos. It’s free
Recent questions
How does alcohol affect the liver?
Alcohol affects the liver by filtering out toxins and sugars immediately after consumption. Ethanol in alcohol binds to receptors in the brain, notably glutamate neurotransmitters, slowing brain function and causing drunkenness. The body filters blood and metabolizes alcohol within an hour of stopping drinking, with the time to break down alcohol correlating with consumption. After stopping drinking, the body expends high energy to remove alcohol, leading to fatigue and lingering drunkenness effects.
What are the benefits of sobriety?
Sobriety benefits include improved immune system after 24 hours, reduced blood pressure and stress levels after 3-5 days, and decreased appetite and weight loss after a week. Cognitive abilities improve after a couple of weeks of sobriety, with kidneys repairing themselves and liver regenerating after a month or two. Heart health improves around two months after stopping drinking, leading to financial savings and reduced stress, with long-term benefits including reduced cancer risk.
How does alcohol disrupt sleep patterns?
Alcohol disrupts sleep patterns by increasing alpha wave patterns in the brain, tricking the body into wakefulness. This disruption can lead to difficulties falling asleep, staying asleep, and experiencing restful sleep. Even though alcohol may initially make you feel drowsy, it can negatively impact the quality of your sleep throughout the night.
What happens to the body after stopping drinking?
After stopping drinking, the body expends high energy to remove alcohol, leading to fatigue and lingering drunkenness effects. However, as time progresses, the body begins to repair itself. The immune system improves after 24 hours, blood pressure and stress levels decrease after 3-5 days, and cognitive abilities start to improve after a couple of weeks. Over time, the body experiences various health benefits such as improved heart health, weight loss, and reduced cancer risk.
How does alcohol affect brain function?
Ethanol in alcohol binds to receptors in the brain, notably glutamate neurotransmitters, slowing brain function and causing drunkenness. This can lead to impaired judgment, coordination, and cognitive abilities. The effects of alcohol on the brain can vary depending on the amount consumed and individual tolerance levels.
Related videos
Mel Robbins
What Alcohol Does to Your Body: Harvard’s Dr. Sarah Wakeman With the Medical Facts You Need to Know
Sober Leon
WHY You Need To Quit Alcohol (Jordan Peterson Will Leave You Speechless)
TEDx Talks
How A Sleep Recipe Changed My Life | Tara Youngblood | TEDxCaryWomen
Andrew Huberman
What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain & Health | Huberman Lab Podcast #86
TED-Ed
How does alcohol cause hangovers? - Judy Grisel
Summary
00:00
Effects of Alcohol on Health and Recovery
- Alcohol affects the liver by filtering out toxins and sugars immediately after consumption.
- Ethanol in alcohol binds to receptors in the brain, notably glutamate neurotransmitters, slowing brain function and causing drunkenness.
- The body filters blood and metabolizes alcohol within an hour of stopping drinking, with the time to break down alcohol correlating with consumption.
- After stopping drinking, the body expends high energy to remove alcohol, leading to fatigue and lingering drunkenness effects.
- Alcohol disrupts sleep patterns by increasing alpha wave patterns in the brain, tricking the body into wakefulness.
- Sobriety benefits include improved immune system after 24 hours, reduced blood pressure and stress levels after 3-5 days, and decreased appetite and weight loss after a week.
- Cognitive abilities improve after a couple of weeks of sobriety, with kidneys repairing themselves and liver regenerating after a month or two.
- Heart health improves around two months after stopping drinking, leading to financial savings and reduced stress, with long-term benefits including reduced cancer risk.
