What a year without beer really does to your body
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Julian, aged 52, has a fondness for beer. His social life centres around the local pub. Currently, he holds a position as a senior team leader at a prominent pharmaceutical corporation.
When he wasn't occupied with work, he liked to indulge in a drink, often at one of his previous four residences which all had bars.
He was the heartbeat of the social gathering. He hardly touched spirits and wouldn't describe himself as the epitome of an alcoholic, reaching for hard liquor first thing in the morning. He described himself as being 'mentally dependent' and drank, on average, between 70 and 80 units each week, sometimes exceeding 100. The ongoing impact of this heavy drinking was taking its toll on his health.
Today, apart from two unfortunate instances where he accidentally had a sip of his wife's rum-laced drink and was mistakenly served a regular Becks instead of a non-alcoholic one, he has managed to resist drinking for almost four years.
Unlike many teetotallers, he doesn’t try to downplay the difficulties of being sober. There are certain things he misses and certain things he has had to give up. His social life has suffered and his friendships have changed. "There are one or two negative aspects," he admits. "But I could mention 20 advantages to not drinking alcohol. It's not perfect, but with the exception of a few things, my life is 95 per cent better."
bad cholesterol levels.
Julian drank every day.
“On evenings when I had dinner at home, I'd have a beer. Ashamedly, I'd have another while I was cooking, and then either a beer or a bottle of wine, which I'd finish off. On a Wednesday, I'd be having five or six pints at the pub. My weekend drinking would kick off in the pub on Friday after work, then continue into the afternoon and evening of Saturday.”
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He was mates with everyone he met at the local pub.
Throughout this period, Julian was an avid gym enthusiast, exercising multiple times a week and incorporating regular running into his routine. However, despite his physical activity, he continued to put on weight, eventually reaching a weight of nineteen and a half stone by the age of forty-eight.
The training had no effect, and I never experienced any benefits," he says. "By the time I was 30, I was 68 kilos overweight and it dawned on me that something needed to be done, but the weight just kept creeping up and up, and I felt absolutely disgusted with myself.
Julian had been a moderate drinker. There were no frightening or dramatic collisions. "I recall one incident where I had a few pints, jumped on a bike, and ended up lying in the middle of the road in front of a car," he recollects. "During my uni days, there was the time at a Christmas dinner when I sneaked up behind everyone and set their Christmas hats on fire. However, on the whole, I never got drunk. I'd get tired before I got too intoxicated."
Health concerns started to manifest in his late 40s.
I've noticed you're someone I regularly interact with, I'm afraid I haven't seen you take any of the advice I've offered seriously. You truly need to consider making some significant lifestyle changes, as it's likely you'll experience a heart attack in the next five years if you continue as you are.
Later in 2020, he discovered he had polycythaemia, a form of blood cancer, where the bone marrow was overproducing red blood cells.
“It increases your likelihood of suffering a stroke or heart attack,” Julian states. “The haematologist cautioned that the condition won’t prove fatal overnight, but if you don't make better lifestyle choices, it will eventually have serious consequences.”
Anxiety and depression after drinking.
I'd wake every morning feeling awful, thinking to myself, why do I keep doing this? Can't I just take one day off? The hangovers weren't just a persistent headache, but a deep-seated feeling of depression - waking up thinking, I've gone and done it again. I spent every night lying awake with anxiety, feeling absolutely miserable. Morning after morning, I'd tell myself I'd have a clear head and not touch a drop of alcohol, but by the time tea time rolled around I'd already got myself a pint in hand.
Julian and his wife Sharlean, who had long encouraged him to reduce his intake, have two adopted daughters.
“Honestly, I wasn’t being the husband and father I should have been, I was really AWOL.”
It was while experiencing a bout of nighttime anxiety that Julian spent some time on his mobile phone and came across One Year No Beer (OYNB), a group which provides support, guidance and coaching programmes to help people give up alcohol. The organisation offers subscription packages and Julian chose a one-year plan.
It was precisely what he was looking for, and he's now a keen supporter of the programme.
“Right from the start, I was completely committed to it,” he says.
He came to the conclusion that moderation was not a viable option, therefore, with the aid of strategies and the backing of the OYNB support network, he gave up drinking in June 2021.
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He claims to have suffered no physical withdrawal symptoms.
It would be misleading to claim that social life hasn't suffered, it has," he continues. "Relating to a lot of my friends has altered due to not attending the pub as frequently anymore, but in truth, this area of my life has been supplemented with many more engaging pursuits.
And although Julian cannot promise himself he'll never drink at all again, he does not feel the urge to try and cut down.
I'd do it," he concludes. "But in alcohol-free communities you see people who believe they can be moderate, and then six months down the line, they find themselves right back to square one.
The advantages of a life without beer
Weight
At his heaviest, 6ft Julian tipped the scales at 19 and a half stone.
"He tells me that he was getting bigger and bigger," he says, now 13 stone 3 pounds. A body fat analysis measures his total body fat content at 14%. His waist size has reduced from 42 inches to 32 inches.
Heart health
No further occurrence of atrial fibrillation. His left ventricle is now back to its normal dimensions.
'I'm completely normal,' says Julian. 'My pulse has dropped from a resting heart rate of 72 to 52.'
Liver
Julian says: "I was given a diagnosis of a fatty liver condition. Thankfully, I'm no longer living with that issue. My cholesterol levels, in particular, the bad kind, have decreased by half."
Blood cancer
Julian was diagnosed with polycythaemia, a blood condition that makes him more likely to get blood clots, a stroke or heart attack. He has to have blood taken out of him every three months to reduce the amount of blood in his body. Thankfully, he no longer needs this treatment, and his blood test results are now normal.
Before he stopped donating blood his red blood cell count was 56 per cent; a normal level is between 40 and 45 per cent. It is now at 42 per cent.
Sleep
Julian was previously sleeping poorly, averaging around six hours a night, interrupted by bouts of anxiety. However, since 2024, he managed to average eight hours and 25 minutes of sleep every night, which is a significant improvement of at least 25% more sleep than before.
Mental health
Julian no longer experiences depressive episodes.
He admits he used to wake up in the middle of the night and spend two hours overthinking, crippled by self-loathing and anxiety.
Fitness
His 10k time has been lowered from 76 minutes to 49 minutes. His 5k time now is 23 minutes and 35 seconds, a decrease from 30 minutes previously. His half marathon time was 136 minutes, it is now 117 minutes. Unfortunately, I do not have the information about the number of running medals.
He attends the gym every day except one, six days a week. "I get a thrill from achieving more in the gym, lifting heavier weights and seeing just how far I can take it," he says.
Family life
Sharlean says: "We now spend quality time with him, not just having his presence. We've become a team, just like a regular family, without the constant influence of booze. He's taking his fair share of driving duties and we don't need to go to the pub to see him at the weekends. He no longer puts us second and actually engages in conversations, rather than just belting out drunken 80s tunes. He actually listens to what we have to say."
Lexi, 15, says: “He's not overweight now.” Grace, 17, says: “We get to see him more often because he's not spending so much time in the pub. He appears to be more mentally alert. He's more available to me; I feel safer.”
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