FROM avoiding temptation to blitzing your home of booze, there are a number of ways we’re advised to cut back on alcohol.
But now a new study has offered up a surprising new way to diminish your dependence on drink, which could boost your mental and physical health at the same time.
If you struggle with your drinking, giving up alcohol can feel like an impossible task.
Research carried out by scientists at Xinjiang Normal University found that exercising helped alcoholics cut down on drinking and significantly reduced their dependence on booze.
Working out also helped combat participants’ anxiety, depression and stress, as they reaped the benefits on their physical fitness.
“Exercise intervention as an adjunct to the treatment of alcohol use disorder patients is significantly effective,” researchers said.
Alcohol use disorder is the medical term for alcoholism or alcohol addiction.
It describes a strong, often uncontrollable desire to drink – even if it’s harmful to your health, putting your safety at risk and damaging relationships.
It’s estimated that over 600,000 people in England are dependent on alcohol, according to Alcohol Change UK – but only 18 per cent of them are receiving treatment for it.
For people that do seek treatment for their problem drinking, the risk of relapsing is as high as 90 per cent, study authors noted.
“Physical activity has been shown to affect alcohol use disorder both psychologically and physiologically,” they wrote in a paper published to the journal PLOS ONE.
“Physiologically, exercise can increase beta-endorphin levels, which are associated with post-exercise euphoria, and exercise may also mitigate the negative effects of ethanol intake through cellular-level mechanisms.
“At the same time, physical activity can improve mental performance and increase self-confidence, as well as bring about a relaxing and calming effect, helping to reduce psychological dependence on alcohol.”
The Chinese research team conducted a review of 17 trials that included a total of 1,905 patients with alcohol use disorders, who were asked to work out for a minimum of two weeks while receiving treatment.
Their review included a number of different types of exercise – from slow walking, jogging and swimming, to resistance resistance training, yoga, Pilates, and basketball.
Workout sessions could be between 15 and 75 minutes long, and most participants gave the “exercise intervention” a go for about 12 weeks.
They compared people’s dependence to booze – as well as their mental and physical health – to a control group who didn’t exercise while receiving treatment.
Researchers looked at how many drinks people had daily or weekly and used the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) to calculate people’s dependence to booze.
To assess participants’ physical health, researchers looked at how much oxygen their body consumed while exercising, as well as their resting heart rate.
For mental health, anxiety, depression and stress levels were assessed.
How to cut back on drinking
If you're concerned about your drinking, a good first step is to see a GP.
They’ll be able to give advice and support on how to manage your drinking habits and cut back safely.
This might involve counselling, medicines or detox services.
Being dependent on alcohol means you feel you’re not able to function without it and means stopping drinking can causes physical withdrawal symptoms like shaking, sweating or nausea.
If you have these symptoms when you don’t drink, it could be dangerous to stop drinking too quickly without proper support.
There are also many charities and support groups you can join or speak to, as well as helplines:
- Drinkline national alcohol helpline on 0300 123 1110
- Alcohol Change UK
- Alcoholics Anonymous helpline on 0800 9177 650
- Al-Anon Family Groups helpline on 0800 0086 811
Tips to quit
When you’re ready to stop, the following tips and techniques can make it that little bit easier.
- Tell family and friends that you’re aiming to stop drinking alcohol and explain why – reminding yourself and the people close to you why you want to stop drinking can help keep you on track, and may even encourage someone else to give up or cut down with you.
- Identify triggers avoid avoid situations where you may be tempted to drink, at least in the early stages – from after work pub quizzes to boozy dinners.
- Keep busy in the times you’d usually drink by trying something new – get active or meet a friend at the cinema.
- Reward yourself as you make progress and don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up every once in a while – it can be helpful to give yourself short-term goals.
- Notice how your body feels without booze – you might find that you have more energy, are sleeping better or have lost weight.
Source: Drinkaware
They found that engaging in any form of exercise significantly decreased the amount of drinks participants consumed on a daily and weekly basis.
Those who worked out to curb their alcohol cravings also had lower AUDIT scores – the lower the score for the 10-question screening tool, the lower the person’s risk of alcohol related issues.
Participants who exercised also had an improved resting heart rate and reported lower levels of anxiety, depression and stress.
“This study revealed that since most alcohol use disorder patients have poor physical functioning and lower-than-average physical fitness due to chronic excessive alcohol consumption and a lack of exercise,” researchers said.
They pointed out that several of the studies’ participants chose to do yoga alongside treatment.
“Yoga is a mind-body exercise that integrates breathing and mental training while practising physical postures,” they wrote.
“This study demonstrated that yoga exercise is a good intervention to complement alcohol use disorder treatment.”
The authors called on future studies to “carefully differentiate between the types of exercise and exercise intensity and to analyse the effects of exercise of different natures on alcohol dependence more deeply to develop the most suitable exercise prescriptions for the clinical treatment of alcohol use disorder”.
Signs you might have a drinking problem
It can be tricky to spot the signs of alcohol dependence.
Doctors often tend to look for these specific signs:
- Impaired control over alcohol use – not being able to control how long a drinking session is, how much alcohol you consume when you do drink, how frequently you drink, being unable to stop drinking once you start, or drinking on inappropriate occasions or at inappropriate places.
- Giving increasing priority to alcohol – giving precedence to drinking over other daily activities and responsibilities, drinking is becoming more important to you than looking after your health, or carrying on drinking despite negative consequences for your health or life.
- Unwanted physical or mental effects from drinking – showing signs of increased tolerance to alcohol (having to drink more for the same effect), experiencing withdrawal symptoms, or using alcohol to prevent or alleviate withdrawal symptoms.
If you think you may be drinking too much, or that your drinking is beginning to have a damaging effect on your life, Drinkaware also has a quick online test that can tell you if you should be concerned.
Source: Drinkaware
