{"id":65688,"date":"2015-12-18T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=36061372b640b5057ad5fc33523ef9d8"},"modified":"2015-12-18T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T09:00:00","slug":"press-release-alcohol-weary-brits-admit-they-need-a-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=65688","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Alcohol weary Brits admit they need a break"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>A new Public Health England (<abbr title=\"Public Health England\">PHE<\/abbr>) campaign urges drinkers to take a break and have a Dry January in light of the fact that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Booze Black Friday is the biggest drinking day of year, with more alcohol set to be sold tonight than on any other night and emergency services on high alert<\/li>\n<li>Brits make 165 million trips to bars, pubs and clubs in December, spending \u00a32.31 billion on alcohol in these outlets alone \u2013 with far more spent in shops<\/li>\n<li>2 in 5 (40%) of those who drink more than they usually would over the festive break admit that excessive festive drinking makes them feel in need of a break from alcohol<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tonight marks one of the biggest drinking days of the year, but new figures from <abbr title=\"Public Health England\">PHE<\/abbr> and Alcohol Concern show that 2 in 5 of us, who drink more than usual during the festive season, feel they need a break from alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>Last year\u2019s Friday before Christmas saw sales of alcohol rise in Britain\u2019s pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels by 142% &#8211; and this does not take into account that the majority of alcohol sales are from shops. <\/p>\n<p>Despite feeling ready for a break, social pressures mean many will continue to drink and:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>more than half of us (53%) drink alcohol over the Christmas period even when we don\u2019t necessarily want to<\/li>\n<li>of those that drink more than they usually do over the festive season, 1 in 4 (27%) agree they feel guilty for drinking more and nearly a third (30%) agree that they feel run down as a result of drinking<\/li>\n<li>1 in 5 (21%) of us are tired of drinking alcohol by Christmas Eve<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>People are being encouraged to take a break from booze and to consider having a Dry January in the New Year to reset their drinking habits. Research carried out earlier this year showed 67% of participants had sustained reduced levels of drinking 6 months after completing Dry January.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Yvonne Doyle, London Regional Director of <abbr title=\"Public Health England\">PHE<\/abbr> said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The festive period often sees people drinking much more than usual, which as well as being damaging to our health also sees the NHS and police dealing with more drinking-related accidents and emergencies.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not surprising that many of us feel ready to take a break from alcohol. A period of abstinence could help encourage less harmful, better drinking habits in the long term &#8211; even 6 months later, evidence from Dry January shows that more than two thirds of participants are still drinking less.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">As the festive season continues, we\u2019re urging people to take a break and get their 2016 off to a positive start by signing up for Dry January.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Jackie Ballard, Chief Executive of Alcohol Concern said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In the run up to Christmas, many people start drinking more than usual as they celebrate the festive season with parties and get-togethers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Dry January is an incredible opportunity to give the body a break and gain some great health benefits such as; lower blood sugar, lower blood pressure, improved sleep, losing weight and feeling more energised.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Doctor Chris van Tulleken, who has previously taken part in an experiment that demonstrated the detrimental effect of drinking on the body, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Taking a month off alcohol is one of the easiest and most effective things you can do for your health in January, it also gives you a real sense of achievement and on top of all that can save you money too.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>To sign up for Dry January and register for tips and tools to make the most of the month, people should visit <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dryjanuary.org.uk\">www.dryjanuary.org.uk<\/a>. <\/p>\n<h3 id=\"background-information\">Background information<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/phe\">Public Health England<\/a> exists to protect and improve the nation\u2019s health and wellbeing, and reduce health inequalities. It does this through advocacy, partnerships, world-class science, knowledge and intelligence, and the delivery of specialist public health services. <abbr title=\"Public Health England\">PHE<\/abbr> is an operationally autonomous executive agency of the Department of Health. Follow us on Twitter <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PHE_uk\">@PHE_uk<\/a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PublicHealthEngland\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Alcohol Concern is the leading national charity working on alcohol issues. Their goal is to improve people\u2019s lives through reducing the harm caused by alcohol.<\/li>\n<li>Dry January is a campaign by Alcohol Concern, supported by <abbr title=\"Public Health England\">PHE<\/abbr> in 2016, aimed at the social drinker, encouraging them to give up alcohol for a month. It is not a medical detox programme. Find out more at <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dryjanuary.org.uk\">www.dryjanuary.org.uk<\/a>, follow the campaign on Facebook <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DryJanuary\">www.facebook.com\/DryJanuary<\/a> or Twitter <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dryjanuary\">@dryjanuary<\/a> and use the hashtag #dryjanuary.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>For further information, images or interviews, please contact either:<\/p>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_2901\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>freuds<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:jo.evans@freuds.com\">jo.evans@freuds.com<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Telephone<\/span><br \/>\n              020 3003 6399\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Out of hours telephone<\/span><br \/>\n              07958 461540\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_2902\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Alcohol Concern Press Office<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:CBarrett@alcoholconcern.org.uk\">CBarrett@alcoholconcern.org.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Telephone<\/span><br \/>\n              020 7566 9803\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"comments\">Cara Barrett<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PHE encourages drinkers to take a break from alcohol as many admit they need a break as festive season hits peak on \u2018Booze\u2019s Black Friday\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}