On alcohol, a healthy lifestyle, and “Damp January”

Happy new year! Welcome back to Harvard Public Health Weekly. We’re excited to bring you a lineup of fresh insights and ideas from new and returning authors this month. First up, we’re talking about alcohol, Dry January, and how we all might benefit from being a little more moderate in our pursuit of moderation.

As always, if you like what you’re reading, please share!

If Dry January makes you feel parched, try “Damp” January instead…

A few years ago, I had to take antibiotics every day for six months. They’re hard on the liver, so I couldn’t drink alcohol. In a few weeks I felt fine, and my husband and I went on a long hike. Afterward, we stopped at a brewery for a burger and some fries. My husband ordered a beer. I wanted one. Badly. So, I found the lowest alcohol brew on the menu and ordered it. A 3.5 percent dark lager.

The next day, wracked with guilt, I called my doctor and confessed. He chuckled. “One drink every once in a while isn’t going to hurt you,” he said. That’s not what the big, scary red label on my pill bottles said: “DO NOT CONSUME ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES.”

Risk is relative, he told me. And as a healthy young person with no pre-existing conditions that would affect my liver, the occasional drink wasn’t likely to harm me.

Every year when Dry January rolls around, I think about that, especially now that we’re seeing reports about the dangers of alcohol ratchet up social anxiety around drinking. Like my medicine bottle, headlines such as “No Amount of Alcohol is Safe for Brain Health” and “No alcohol safe to drink, study confirms” might scare anyone off from a beer. But are they true? Yes, but the health risks of mild to moderate alcohol use are small, says Aaron E. Carroll, a pediatrician and researcher who has written extensively about the medical literature on alcohol.

Instead of Dry January, I’ll be going “damp” this month—meaning I’ll have a lower-proof beer or glass of wine a few times this month. I spoke with Carroll about alcohol, our health, and of course, whether he’s participating in a Dry, or perhaps Damp, January.

Read the full conversation.

In case you missed it…

We have recommendations for your winter public health reading list.

And don’t miss our top 10 stories of 2022.

Around the web…

Hospitals are overwhelmed by a flood of severe respiratory illness in children, in part because of a decades-long disinvestment in pediatric health care. | Why Saving Kids is Bad Business in America | New York Times Opinion

U.S. pharmacies can now sell abortion pills without a prescription. | BBC News?

Misinformation will still plague public health in 2023. | Kaiser Health News

See you next week.

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See you next week,?

Christine