What Are the Benefits of Alcohol Recovery

What Are the Benefits of Alcohol Recovery Addiction Coping and Recovery Personal Stories Print 6 Bonus Benefits of Alcohol Recovery Living without alcohol simply feels better By Buddy T facebook twitter Buddy T is an anonymous writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Learn about our editorial policy Buddy T Updated on August 18, 2019 Hero Images / Getty Images More in Addiction Coping and Recovery Personal Stories Methods and Support Overcoming Addiction Alcohol Use Addictive Behaviors Drug Use Nicotine Use When you quit drinking after years of alcohol abuse, not only will your body begin to reverse the effects of excessive alcohol, you will simply feel better, too. Heavy drinking can take a heavy toll on your physical and mental health, upping your risk of the following conditions:   Arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat)StrokeHigh blood pressureAlcoholic hepatitisFibrosisCirrhosisPancreatitisCancer: head and neck, esophageal, liver, breast, colorectalAnxietyDepressionDigestive issuesDementiaHearing lossSexually transmitted disease Research shows that some of the damage caused to your brain, liver, cardiovascular system, and gut will begin to slowly heal as you stop drinking and enter recovery from an alcohol use disorder. As the alcohol leaves your system and you begin to establish some healthy habits, you will begin to feel betterâ€"perhaps better than you have in years. Especially after you get past the temporary discomfort of alcohol withdrawal symptoms, youll notice increasing improvements in your physical and mental health. Benefits of Recovery From an Alcohol Use Disorder Here are a few of the many benefits of recovery: Better-Looking Skin Did you ever hear the term alcoholic face? This is the phrase used to describe the negative effects alcohol abuse can have on your skin, including dehydration, inflammation, reduced collagen levels (which results in loose, saggy skin), and with chronic, long-term abuse, jaundice. When you stop drinking, you gradually restore elasticity to the skin and the redness and yellowing of the skin and around the eyes slowly disappears. Improved Sleep Alcohol abuse and poor sleep are bedfellows. This is because alcohol interferes with your sleep-wake cycles, making it more difficult to fall asleep (and stay asleep) throughout the night. It also relaxes the muscles in the throat, making you more prone to sleep apnea and snoring. While you can expect some sleep troubles in early recovery, the longer you abstain from alcohol (and relearn good sleep hygiene), the greater improvements in your sleep quality.   A Healthier Weight Alcohol robs your body of essential nutrients and it also derails your metabolism. In addition, alcohol is filled with sugars and empty calories. If you binge drink, you can easily consume 600 calories or more in just one night. A big part of alcohol recovery is not only learning to quit drinking but learning to live a healthier lifestyle, which includes proper nutrition and exercise. While everybody differs, regaining a healthy weight is a realistic goal for many people who stay sober for the long-term. The National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse defines binge drinking as a pattern of alcohol consumption that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels to 0.08 g/dLiâ€"in a short period of time (about two hours). This typically occurs after five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women. Regained Hobbies and Passion One of the symptoms of an alcohol use disorder is giving up the social activities and hobbies you once enjoyed to focus on drinking. A sober life means having more time to rediscover yourself and your passion and build a new, exciting alcohol-free life. Improved Mental Health Developing an alcohol-free lifestyle and achieving long-term sobriety takes a lot more effort than merely not drinking anymore. If youve stopped drinking and began on the road to recovery, congratulate yourself. As you achieve your sobriety goals (small and big) and work toward a healthier you, you will begin to notice an improvement in your mental health. This may include increased self-confidence and self-respect and decreased anxiety and depression, especially if you are struggling with a co-occurring mental health issue. Better Immunity Alcohol interferes with your immune system, preventing it from producing enough white blood cells to fend off germs and bacteria. This is why many long-term, heavy drinkers tend to struggle with bouts of pneumonia and tuberculosis. When you give up drinking, you will also be giving up the many colds and flu and illnesses that you may have been unable to ward off due to chronic drinking. A Word From Verywell These benefits are just beginning. The longer you go without alcohol, the more health improvements you will experience. This will include for-the-better changes in your overall health, relationships, job or schoolwork, finances, and more. Try your best to have patience as your mind and body heals and you relearn a life without alcohol. And take pride in how far youve already come. You deserve it.

Scientific Research Tested in the New MCAT

So you know about organic chemistry, sociology and physics. But how are your â€Å"scientific inquiry and reasoning skills†? When the AAMC revamped the MCAT in April 2015, there was a lot of discussion and hype surrounding new subjects on the exam: biochemistry, sociology and psychology. While those new topics are important, the AAMC actually added another new topic to the exam that most students are unaware of: the design and implications of scientific experiments. Questions that require students to identify pieces of an experiment or explain abnormal results have been a part of the MCAT for decades, but never before has this aspect of the sciences been so overtly tested and so important to a student’s score. The two new â€Å"scientific inquiry and reasoning skills† on the exam – â€Å"reasoning about the design and execution of research† and â€Å"data-based and statistical reasoning† – comprise between 35 and 40 questions on the new exam. How important does this make these new skills? There will be more points hinging on these skills on your exam than organic chemistry, sociology or physics. New Skills Tested These new skills will test your scientific analytical ability by determining if you can â€Å"do† scientific research. This includes demonstrating your understanding of important components of experimental procedure. This is a trait medical schools want in their students because modern medicine combines disciplines from across the natural, physical and social sciences to research and extend medical knowledge. These questions could ask you to identify how scientists control complex biological variables to test their theories. They could ask you to think about the ways medical researchers take their measurements. These questions could ask you to spot flawed research logic or point out the limitations of the research methods employed by the scientists. You may also be asked to recognize factors that might confound the conclusions drawn from the experimental results. These are all skills you will use in abundance during your third and fourth year clinical rotations in medical school. Example of an Experimental Design Question Let’s look at an example so we can see what the AAMC actually means when they talk about testing experimental design: Question: Researchers performed a series of experiments to test the transport rate of the Na+/K+ ATPase pump in nerve cells. Which of the following results would be least helpful to draw conclusions about pump activity? A. A plot of intracellular [Na+] over the course of the experiment B. A plot of ATP hydrolysis over the course of the experiment C. A plot of ΔG of [Na+] transport over the course of the experiment D. A plot of membrane potential over the course of the experiment Explanation: This question requires us to identify the least appropriate measurement/result to draw reliable conclusions about the goal of the experiment. The experiment was designed to test the activity of the Na+/K+ ATPase pump, which we should know for test day is an ion pump that hydrolyzes 1 ATP molecule in order to have the energy needed to export 3 Na+ ions from the cell and import 2 K+ ions into the cell. The most direct way to measure pump activity is to measure the changes in Na+/K+ ion concentration inside the cell (eliminate choice A). The movement of ions into/out of the cell will also directly affect the membrane potential of the cell (eliminate choice D). The pump activity is also tied directly to the rate of ATP consumption (eliminate choice B). This leaves us with choice C, which mentions measuring the free energy (ΔG) of the system during the experiment. The free energy of a system may be used to study its thermodynamic properties (e.g. stability, equilibrium concentrations, spontaneity)   but it will not tell the researchers anything about the dynamic activity (i.e. transport rates) of the pump. Thus, choice C is the least useful measurement to use, and is the correct answer. Understanding Analysis Controls These research questions will require a good mix of content and experimental analysis. In addition to proper measurements, research design involves looking for proper controls. Every experiment has to have proper controls if researchers want to detect if a treatment had any effect. A common control test in scientific research is the baseline measurement, against which future measurements can be compared.   While this experimental consideration is not new for the MCAT, the degree to which it is being tested is. We also need to be aware of the difference between positive and negative controls. A negative control is how we typically think of a â€Å"control group.† That is, a group that gets no treatment at all. Researchers need to see what happens when we don’t use the treatment or experimental effect. By contrast, a â€Å"positive† control is a group that does get a treatment, but not an experimental one. The positive control group gets a treatment that we already know works. For example, researchers testing a new analgesic drug could use the effects of Tylenol as a positive control. Researchers need to do both positive and negative controls when doing biomedical research, especially when the research has a psychosocial component. On the MCAT, test takers would be expected to look for some sort of discussion of these control groups in the passage. If the discussion is missing, then there’s a pretty serious flaw in the study. How Do I Practice these Skills? The only way to develop the comfort and expertise you need for test day is to practice, practice, practice! You should start by going to the AAMC website  and picking up a copy of the official exam practice that the AAMC offers. That includes the Official Guide the Sample Test, and the recently released Scored Practice Exam (released November 2015). Most students find, however, that the limited resources offered by the AAMC are not enough. They want the opportunity to practice multiple full exams and full sections under timed conditions. To that end, students often find success with the packages of full length exams available at Next Step Test Prep. hbspt.cta.load(58291, '4f95940b-33ea-46f2-ac5a-b94716840189', {}); Dr. Anthony Lafond is the National MCAT Content Director at Next Step Test Preparation, a company that specializes in 1-on-1 tutoring for the MCAT.  Anthony has taught or tutored students for the MCAT for ten years and has scored a 42 on the test himself.   Related Resources: †¢Ã‚  The Results Are In: Analyzing Your MCAT Diagnostic Exam  [on-demand webinar] †¢Ã‚  MCAT 2015: What You Actually Need to Study [Infographic] †¢Ã‚  Three Reasons to Be Excited about the 2015 MCAT Test Change