The government recommends that 14 units off alcohol a week is the maximum you should be drinking — 14 units is equal to 6 pints of beer, 1.5 bottles of wine, 7 double whiskies, or 9 glasses of champagne.

Give up alcohol for a month and you will benefit from better sleep, better skin and a slimmer waistline. Giving up alcohol permanently will help boost your mood in the morning, cut the risk of liver disease and the risk of seven different kinds of cancer, eliminate the dreaded hangover, and getting a good night’s sleep!

Ironically, although alcohol helps you get to sleep, it also disrupts an important stage in the sleep cycle — the important Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep, leaving you feeling tired the next day, regardless of what time you eventually get up.

While alcohol will initially help you feel relaxed, it can also contribute to feelings of depression of and anxiety. Alcohol is a depressant which interferes with vital chemicals in the brain, and so can cause anxiety and affect mental health. In fact stress and anxiety are easier to deal with without alcohol!

Alcohol can trigger psoriasis, a condition which causes flaky skin, and rosacea, which causes redness on the face and nose. This is because alcohol is a diuretic which encourages the body to pass urine. When you drink, your skin misses out on fluid and nutrients it needs to stay healthy.

After just two weeks without alcohol, your skin will improve, because drinking can dehydrate the skin, making you look bloated and generally washed-out. So giving it up can improve your appearance and leave skin looking healthier. If you limit the amount of alcohol you drink, or better still, give it up altogether, you’ll soon notice your skin looking brighter.

If you regularly drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week, especially without any drink free days, you run a serious risk of harming your liver, and this can cause jaundice — a yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes — which is a sign of severe alcohol related liver disease. Alcohol has been linked with seven different types of cancer including bowel cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer and mouth cancer. Giving it up will have a significant impact on your health, in particular, increasing the risk of cancer and liver disease.

Alcohol has an extremely high sugar content — about seven calories per gram, the same number of calories in pure fat — so it’s no surprise that quitting will help you lose weight, and losing it without any additional exercise.

A pint of beer contains more than 200 calories and a standard 175ml glass of wine is more than 150 calories — the equivalent to a sugary doughnut or two chocolate biscuits. A pint of lager contains the same number of calories as a slice of pizza, and a large glass of wine the same as an ice cream sundae. So if you’re overweight and drinking alcohol regularly, you should find that your weight falls noticeably after you stop.

The job of the liver is to filter toxins from the blood, regulate sugar and cholesterol, and to fight infection and disease. Giving your liver a break will give it a chance to repair itself and resume it’s proper functions.

Although the liver is quite resilient and can recover after physical damage, the risk of developing cirrhosis or liver cancer starts with low levels of alcohol and increases the more you drink. Every time it has to filter alcohol, some cells will die, and the more alcohol you drink the harder it is for the liver to regenerate new cells. Some liver damage from drinking is irreversible, but giving up alcohol can prevent further damage and illness. Stopping for just one month gives the liver a chance to repair itself and regenerate its cells.

So the message is clear — the less you drink the lower the risk.