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.






00:00 Intro  

02:23 Sarah's Mission  

02:52 Sarah's Education and Experience  

03:40 Issues With Addiction Treatment in the Modern World  

04:31 What Is Addiction?  

05:48 What Things Are Capable of Being Addictive?  

06:47 Physiological Dependence vs. Addiction  

07:25 Scale of the Problem: Why Should People Care?  

08:59 Is Society Getting Better or More Addicted?  

09:32 Substance-Related Deaths During the Pandemic  

10:22 What Drives People to Use Substances?  

12:24 Substances' Effects on the Brain  

14:29 Does Trauma at a Young Age Increase Addiction Risk?  

16:36 The Opposite of Addiction Is Connection  

18:11 Why Addiction Matters to Sarah  

19:02 Living With a Family Member Struggling With Addiction  

20:43 Who Is Sarah Trying to Save?  

22:57 Change Happens When the Pain of Staying the Same Is Greater Than the Pain of Change  

25:53 Misconceptions About Alcohol  

28:15 Is There a Healthy Level of Alcohol Consumption?  

28:50 Is One Drink a Day Safe for Health?  

30:38 Link Between Moderate Drinking and Cancer  

33:23 Types of Cancer Linked to Alcohol Consumption  

34:51 Cancer Risk Among Heavy Drinkers  

35:31 Heavy Drinking and Comorbidities as Cancer Risk Factors  

36:20 How Alcohol Drives Cancer Mechanisms  

38:00 Alcohol and Weight Gain  

38:54 The Role of the Liver  

42:07 Liver's Ability to Regenerate  

46:37 How Alcohol Causes Brain Deterioration  

47:23 Other Organs Affected by Alcohol  

48:00 Alcohol's Impact on the Heart  

49:08 Body Fat Percentage and Alcohol Tolerance  

50:05 Does High Alcohol Tolerance Prevent Organ Damage?  

50:46 What Is a Hangover?  

52:14 Balancing the Risks and Benefits of Alcohol  

53:47 Is Rehab Effective for Addiction?  

56:50 Psychedelic Therapy for Addiction  

57:36 GLP-1 Medications for Addiction Treatment  

59:03 Ads  

59:59  Celebrity Addictions  

1:02:24 Stigma Around Addiction  

1:04:41 Addiction Cases That Broke Sarah's Heart  

1:12:43 Is Empathy Positive Reinforcement for Addicted Individuals?  

1:15:34 Setting Boundaries With an Addicted Person  

1:18:57 Motivational Interviewing to Support Recovery  

1:22:19 Finding Motivation for Positive Change  

1:26:03 Habits to Support Addiction Recovery  

1:29:12 Ads  

1:30:18 Can the Brain Recover From Addiction?  

1:34:55 Unexpected Sources of Addictive Behavior  

1:35:35 How Sarah Copes With Difficult Addiction Cases  

1:37:10 Importance of Language Around Addiction  

1:41:40 How Labels Limit People's Potential  

1:46:05 Sarah's Upcoming Book  



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



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Research document: 

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



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