Hot topic: Why Dry January is here to stay

There’s a temptation to think we won’t need Dry January or Love Your Liver Month initiatives in the future. 

After all, alcohol consumption is declining across the West and has been doing so for the last two decades. 

Gen Z teens rebel against their Gen X parents by not drinking – and castigating their elders for their unhealthy ways. 

In the UK only 7% of today’s teens now drink alcohol regularly, down from 25% in the aptly named “Noughties”, when Britain hit “Peak Booze”. 

But such a rosy reading of the situation would be wrong. 

Firstly, this trend might not last. Today’s abstinent teens and young people may yet turn to drink in their later years. 

Secondly, alcohol-related liver disease remains a major problem. Many middle aged and older people still drink heavily.  

Thirdly, and contrary to popular myth, liver disease is not caused by alcohol alone. While it’s the single most important cause, there are others.  

An increasing proportion of liver disease is caused by overweight and obesity; carrying too much fat can result in a fatty, unhealthy liver – although diagnosing this problem early enough is difficult. 

A third of the US adult population is thought to have metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which is often a precursor to the more serious metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). The latter can lead to liver scarring (cirrhosis).  

There is emerging evidence that GLP-1 weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro can control and even reverse fatty liver disease – but the fact remains most adults in richer countries (and increasingly, middle-income countries) are still overweight or obese. 

Additionally, hepatitis infection is a continuing major cause of serious liver disease, particularly in poorer countries. 

In the UK alone, there are now over 12,000 deaths from liver disease a year – more than the number of fatalities from breast cancer. Estimates suggest around 55% of premature deaths due to liver disease in the UK are caused by alcohol – making it the biggest single reason, but not the whole story.  

So, it’s highly likely we will continue to need initiatives like Dry January, which draw attention to bad alcohol consumption habits and do help people to put a lid on it, in the future. 

And we also need to recognise that liver disease is not the result of alcohol alone. If you want to Love Your Liver, cutting down on booze is not necessarily enough.