Doctor shares 10% alcohol method which may be more effective than Dry January

It's only the second day of the new year, so how's your attempt at Dry January going?

Some of us failed in the first seconds of 2024 as we toasted in the new year, though perhaps it only really counts from the point you actually wake up on New Year's Day.

Doing Dry January does have a rather pronounced impact on your body and once you get through the initial withdrawal symptoms you ought to feel a whole lot better.

The first three days are likely to be the toughest but if you can hang on then you might experience a bit of weight loss, clearer skin and even a more fruitful relationship with sleep.

It can also give your immune system a chance to recover, making you more resistant to the coughs and sneezes that go around during the winter.

However, a doctor has suggested that instead of doing Dry January if you want to do something about your alcohol consumption this month you ought to try a different method.

TikToking health professional Doctor Daniel G. Amen has instead suggested an alternative method which could dodge the difficult withdrawal symptoms.

He said: "If you're drinking a lot cut it down by 10 percent over 10 days, that way you're probably not going to go into withdrawal.

"That's important, if you're gonna go into withdrawal then you need to be under medical supervision because DTs, Delirium Tremens, potentially fatal for some people.

"Begin to see alcohol not as your friend, that's sort of the biggest thing, I want you to begin to see the bottle and a small brain, see the bottle and more fat on your body, see the bottle with more brain fog and cognitive problems."

The doctor also suggested that you should make a list of your friends who drink alcohol a lot and see if they appeared to have more problems or not.

After cutting down on the alcohol intake he suggested that you 'find something to replace it with', essentially encouraging people to find non-alcoholic drinks they enjoyed so they could still quaff happily.

His advice is pretty similar to those suggesting 'Damp January' as opposed to Dry January.

While Dry January involves going cold turkey and giving up alcohol for a month, with all the potential difficulties and withdrawal symptoms that entails, Damp January suggests just cutting down the intake instead of eliminating it altogether.

The gist of that is to pencil a number of 'dry days' into the January calendar where you don't drink and on the days you do make a clear effort to reduce consumption.

Featured Image Credit: TikTok / @‌docamen / Getty Stock Photo

Topics: Health, Food And Drink

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker