Journey to the Sunnyside

If you’ve been reaching for a drink to take the edge off back pain, sore joints, or help you sleep through the night, you’re not alone. For many, alcohol feels like the only thing that works. But new research shows it may actually worsen pain over time. In this 10-Minute Monday, we unpack what’s really happening in your body—and better ways to find lasting relief.

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ABOUT SUNNYSIDE: Sunnyside is the #1 alcohol moderation app that helps you drink less without any shame, guilt, or pressure to quit. Optimize your alcohol habits to achieve benefits like sleeping better, losing weight, feeling more energy, and saving money. We know that an all-or-nothing approach doesn’t work for everyone, so we focus on helping you set your own goals, celebrate small wins, and build a lasting system of accountability. As a result, 96.7% of our members see a big drop in their drinking after 90 days.

Disclaimer: This podcast is not intended as medical advice, and the views of the guests may not represent the views of Sunnyside. If you’re concerned about your health or alcohol use, please consider seeking advice from a doctor.

Creators and Guests

Host
Mike Hardenbrook
#1 best-selling author of "No Willpower Required," neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert.

What is Journey to the Sunnyside?

Journey to the Sunnyside is a top 1% podcast, reaching over 500,000 listeners every week. It’s your guide to exploring mindful living with alcohol—whether you're cutting back, moderating, or thinking about quitting.

While Sunnyside helps you reduce your drinking, this podcast goes further, diving into topics like mindful drinking, sober curiosity, moderation, and full sobriety. Through real stories, expert insights, and science-backed strategies, we help you find what actually works for your journey.

Hosted by Mike Hardenbrook, a #1 best-selling author and neuroscience enthusiast, the show is dedicated to helping people transform their relationship with alcohol—without shame, judgment, or rigid rules.

This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the leading platform for mindful drinking. Want to take the next step in your journey? Head over to sunnyside.co for a free 15-day trial.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in our episodes do not necessarily represent those of Sunnyside. We’re committed to sharing diverse perspectives on health and wellness. If you’re concerned about your drinking, please consult a medical professional. Sunnyside, this podcast, and its guests are not necessarily medical providers and the content is not medical advice. We do not endorse drinking in any amount.

Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, welcome back to one of these ten minute Mondays. And today I want to talk about something that has often come into my inbox questions around pain management and alcohol. If you've ever used alcohol to take the edge off of your pain, whether it's for your back after a long day, maybe you have stiff joints from arthritis, an old injury that flares up now and then, or sometimes even a pounding headache. You're actually not alone. I get this question often and it's usually people that just feel like they're at the end of their rope.

Speaker 1:

It's the only way they seem to be able to find ways to manage their pain. Most people in that moment, unfortunately, in that predicament, they're not drinking to celebrate. They're actually drinking to cope, to cope with the pain, to quiet the aches in their bodies and usually to make it easier to fall asleep. Finally get a break from that discomfort when nothing else seems to work. And for many people, it's the only reliable tool left.

Speaker 1:

But to be totally fair, it does work in the short run. You have a couple of drinks, you start to feel better. I know that I've had a lot of injuries over the years. I suffer from low back pain, tightness in my hips and yeah, I've definitely noticed that alcohol can relieve that pain and it's easy to see why alcohol becomes part of that pain routine when other options have fallen short. But today I want to cover a question worth asking.

Speaker 1:

Is alcohol truly helping to relieve the pain or could it actually be making it worse once the night is over? So that's what we're going to be unpacking today. Okay, alcohol works on several levels all at once, which makes it feel pretty powerful. So first of all, it's a central nervous system depressant. It slows down the firing of neurons, which means that the pain signals don't travel to the same intensity.

Speaker 1:

So that aching lower back or those stiff hips genuinely feel a little bit more less painful. Second, alcohol increases the releases of dopamine and endorphins. So these are your body's natural painkillers and mood elevators. So for a little while, alcohol mimics the effect of pain medication by boosting these chemicals. And that's why even the sore joints might feel a little bit more sense of ease or comfort after having a couple Third is alcohol enhances the activity of GABA.

Speaker 1:

This is a neurotransmitter that calms the brain and this is why you might feel more relaxed and your muscles feel more relaxed after having a drink. And then finally, as we've probably all know, alcohol is sedating. So if you've ever laid awake because your back throbbed or your knees were killing you, sometimes a few drinks can make falling asleep more possible. And for many, this is the single biggest reason that alcohol becomes a default tool for pain because it feels like the only way to sleep through the night without pain getting you up. So when someone says, hey, listen, alcohol is the only thing that works for me.

Speaker 1:

That might not actually be an exaggeration. It's how the body and the brain register alcohol in that moment. And the relief, it's real. But the relief is in the moment. It doesn't mean recovery in the long term.

Speaker 1:

The critical question is, does it help or does it set you up for more pain later? Okay, here's what the research shows happens once alcohol leaves your system. First one is inflammation rebound. Alcohol increases inflammatory chemicals that are directly involved in things like joint swelling, muscle soreness and arthritis. That means the alcohol isn't just numbing the pain.

Speaker 1:

It's actively feeding the processes that actually cause it. And I can tell you from my own experience, I wasn't drinking to numb out the pain, but things like my muscle soreness, my lower back, my hips, that all got much worse the next day after I over drink. So I would have some of the worst days in pain for my muscles and aches and just getting through the day. Sometimes even standing for long periods after that was really, really painful normally when it wouldn't be. So I know from personal experience how this inflammation can cause muscle soreness.

Speaker 1:

Next is the trap. So this creates a really tricky cycle. So as I mentioned before, at night, feels like it turns off to pain or even completely off for some people. But the next morning, all of a sudden you're feeling like that pain is really bad. And in contrast, it convinces your brain alcohol is the solution when in reality it was driving it behind this rebound.

Speaker 1:

So you feel like, you know, all of a sudden, oh man, I felt so good when I was drinking and now the next day it's so bad. It's so bad. I need to have another drink to be able to handle it. And the same mechanism is well studied with stress and anxiety because alcohol mutes them for a while. But that rebound effect, as we all know, makes it much worse the next day and pain works the same way.

Speaker 1:

Next is sleep disruption. So the sedating effect of alcohol makes it easier to fall asleep as we all, but that prevents restorative sleep, deep slow wave sleep and REM where the muscles actually repair, inflammation is controlled and the pain sensitivity resets, but alcohol suppresses them both. So you might sleep seven, eight hours, but it's not high quality sleep. You wake up feeling sore, more inflamed than you went to bed. Next is nutrient depletion.

Speaker 1:

So as we all know, alcohol is a diuretic. It flushes water, magnesium, potassium and B vitamins out of our system and that magnesium in particular is critical. It regulates nerve firing and muscle relaxation. So low magnesium is tied to cramping spasms, even headache. So each night of drinking not only blocks recovery, it also strips away the nutrients your body needs to calm the nervous system and manage pain.

Speaker 1:

And then finally, the nervous system rebound. When the depressant effects of alcohol wears off, your nervous system overshoots. Pain signals are amplified. Yesterday's manageable ache becomes today's sharp discomfort. Like I said, in my own experience.

Speaker 1:

So if you put this all together, the pattern becomes clear. Alcohol gets short term relief, but it sets the stage for more pain tomorrow. So if we run down the list, a pattern becomes clear. It causes inflammation. It disrupts your sleep.

Speaker 1:

It depletes nutrients and it sensitizes the nervous system. So the relief that you get in the short term is real, but the cost is a higher pain in the long run. Now, of you listening might be like, yeah, I get it, Mike. Everything and for many people, alcohol does become the fallback because nothing else has seemed to work. Maybe they've tried stretching, hot packs, medication, maybe physical therapy and their doctor, but relief is always short lived or incomplete.

Speaker 1:

So when alcohol is reliably dulling the pain for you in the evening, it really does feel like it's the only dependable option. But the problem is that alcohol doesn't treat pain. It distracts it. It shifts the focus. It dampens the signals and it sedates the mind, but it doesn't correct the underlying causes.

Speaker 1:

And that's why pain is back. It's often worse and this creates that vicious loop. You don't necessarily want to drink, but you feel cornered into it. So what do we do about that? Well, I think the first step is to realize that alcohol does not fall under the pain management category.

Speaker 1:

If you're dealing with ongoing back pain, arthritis, headaches, injuries, whatever it is, the next step is first of all, to always be under your doctor's care. And if your answer to me is, yeah, I've already been doing that. Why do you think that I'm having drinks? Because nothing that they tell me is working. And if your primary care doctor hasn't found the answer, you don't have to stop there.

Speaker 1:

And please don't take this as advice, but this is information. But sometimes the source is nutritional deficiencies in things like vitamin D, magnesium, B vitamins, they can show up as pain. And what's really important is to get comprehensive blood panels. There are so many that are affordable out there, some with hundreds, even 500 biomarkers that you can test for. And maybe some of those can reveal the underlying causes.

Speaker 1:

Other approaches include naturopathic doctors, you have acupuncture, rolfing, functional medicine specialists. They all can uncover things that conventional medicine might have missed. The long term solution is out there and alcohol only adds another layer of problems, worse pain, disrupted sleep, more inflammation. And on top of that, regular and heavy use of alcohol is going to cause a cascade of medical problems. So we have to find another way.

Speaker 1:

Okay, to wrap it all up here, alcohol isn't an effective pain management strategy. It numbs for a night, but it amplifies inflammation. It blocks recovery and sleep, and it leaves you more sensitive to pain the next day. So if you feel at a loss, don't stop searching, get exams, get blood work, explore options beyond your primary care if you need to. The solution is out there and realize it is not alcohol.

Speaker 1:

Okay. I hope this helped some of you. Thanks for hanging out with me this week. I hope you have a beautiful day and cheers to your mindful drinking journey.