How Alcohol Rewires Your Brain and Increases Cancer Risk by 40%! The Alcohol Doctor, Dr. Sarah Wakeman from The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

DOAC

Episodes

How Alcohol Rewires Your Brain and Increases Cancer Risk by 40%! The Alcohol Doctor, Dr. Sarah Wakeman

1 hour 48 minutes Posted May 22, 2025 at 5:00 am.

Intro

Sarah's Mission

Sarah's Education and Experience

Issues With Addiction Treatment in the Modern World

What Is Addiction?

What Things Are Capable of Being Addictive?

Physiological Dependence vs. Addiction

Scale of the Problem: Why Should People Care?

Is Society Getting Better or More Addicted?

Substance-Related Deaths During the Pandemic

What Drives People to Use Substances?

Substances' Effects on the Brain

Does Trauma at a Young Age Increase Addiction Risk?

The Opposite of Addiction Is Connection

Why Addiction Matters to Sarah

Living With a Family Member Struggling With Addiction

Who Is Sarah Trying to Save?

Change Happens When the Pain of Staying the Same Is Greater Than the Pain of Change

Misconceptions About Alcohol

Is There a Healthy Level of Alcohol Consumption?

Is One Drink a Day Safe for Health?

Link Between Moderate Drinking and Cancer

Types of Cancer Linked to Alcohol Consumption

Cancer Risk Among Heavy Drinkers

Heavy Drinking and Comorbidities as Cancer Risk Factors

How Alcohol Drives Cancer Mechanisms

Alcohol and Weight Gain

The Role of the Liver

Liver's Ability to Regenerate

How Alcohol Causes Brain Deterioration

Other Organs Affected by Alcohol

Alcohol's Impact on the Heart

Body Fat Percentage and Alcohol Tolerance

Does High Alcohol Tolerance Prevent Organ Damage?

What Is a Hangover?

Balancing the Risks and Benefits of Alcohol

Is Rehab Effective for Addiction?

Psychedelic Therapy for Addiction

GLP-1 Medications for Addiction Treatment

Ads

Celebrity Addictions

Stigma Around Addiction

Addiction Cases That Broke Sarah's Heart

Is Empathy Positive Reinforcement for Addicted Individuals?

Setting Boundaries With an Addicted Person

Motivational Interviewing to Support Recovery

Finding Motivation for Positive Change

Habits to Support Addiction Recovery

Ads

Can the Brain Recover From Addiction?

Unexpected Sources of Addictive Behavior

How Sarah Copes With Difficult Addiction Cases

Importance of Language Around Addiction

How Labels Limit People's Potential

Sarah's Upcoming Book

0:00

1:48:26

Download MP3

Share at current time

Show notes

Are you unknowingly damaging your brain and raising your cancer risk with just one drink? Discover the alarming truth about alcohol from Dr. Sarah Wakeman, what every adult needs to know now.

Dr. Sarah Wakeman is senior medical director for substance use disorder at Mass General Brigham healthcare system, the number one research system in the U.S. She is also the Medical Director of the Mass General Hospital Addiction Consult Team and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

She explains:

How alcohol is hijacking your dopamine system.

Why no amount of alcohol is good for your brain.

The shocking truth about moderate drinking.

How doctors are failing addiction patients on a daily basis.

Why 1 in 3 people will struggle with alcohol.

You can find out more about Dr. Sarah’s profile, here: https://bit.ly/4mxu191

Ready to think like a CEO? Gain access to the 100 CEOs newsletter here: ⁠bit.ly/100-ceos-megaphone⁠

The 1% Diary is back - limited time only:

https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt

The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition):

https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb

Get email updates: https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt

Follow Steven: https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb

Research document:

https://stevenbartlett.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/DOAC-Dr-Sarah-Wakeman-Independent-Research-further-reading.pdf

Sponsors:

Ekster - https://partner.ekster.com/DIARYOFACEO with code DOACLinkedin Ads - https://www.linkedin.com/DIARY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

← See all 820 episodes of The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett