152: The Relaxback UK Show with Mike Dilke - Episode 152152: The Relaxback UK Show with Mike Dilke - Episode 152
UK Health Radio Podcast
Professor David Nutt speaks with host Mike Dilk about the harms of alcohol and how GABA-based botanical drinks like Sentia and Cask aim to provide relaxation and sociability with fewer risks. The discussion covers brain chemistry, safety, taste, cost, and a future where pubs routinely offer functional alcohol alternatives.
35:54•20 Jan 2026
Safer Sips: Professor David Nutt on Alcohol Alternatives and GABA-Based Drinks
Episode Overview
- Alcohol is described as the second leading cause of death after tobacco, responsible for over 3 million deaths a year and being the leading cause of death in men and women under 50 in the UK.
- Professor David Nutt explains that alcohol’s early relaxing effects are due to enhancing the brain’s calming transmitter GABA, while higher doses trigger dopamine and endorphins, increasing craving and harm.
- Gaba Labs has created botanical drinks such as Sentia, Cask and Gabiere that aim to enhance GABA for relaxation and sociability without the same liver, heart and blood vessel damage linked to alcohol.
- These drinks use established herbs like ashwagandha, damiana and passionflower, blended to balance effect, taste and short duration of action, with an emphasis on avoiding intoxication.
- Nutt argues for pubs and licensed venues to offer functional alcohol alternatives alongside traditional drinks, so people can choose lower-risk ways to relax and socialise.
“Alcohol globally is responsible for over 3 million deaths a year, which is twice all the other drugs put together.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This conversation on The Relaxback UK Show digs into that question by looking at both the huge harms of alcohol and a new attempt to offer something different. Host Mike Dilk chats with Professor David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist and psychiatrist based partly at Imperial College and partly at Gaba Labs.
Nutt lays out the scale of the problem in stark terms: “Alcohol globally is responsible for over 3 million deaths a year, which is twice all the other drugs put together,” and explains that alcohol is the leading cause of death in men and women under 50 in the UK.
From there, you’ll hear a clear, easy-to-follow explanation of how alcohol works in the brain, especially through the calming neurotransmitter GABA, and why it’s so hard to treat alcohol problems by simply blocking its effects. Nutt shares how this led him and colleagues to switch tack and try to “just replace it” with safer GABA-based alternatives.
He outlines Gaba Labs’ botanical drinks such as Sentia, Cask and Gabiere, which aim to give people the relaxing, sociable effects they enjoy from alcohol without the same level of physical toxicity. The chat covers what plants are used (think ashwagandha, damiana and passionflower), how the drinks taste, why they don’t aim to induce intoxication, and early observations around gut relaxation and the microbiome.
The episode also touches on cost, drink-driving concerns, legal and licensing questions, and Nutt’s vision of pubs offering "functional alternatives" alongside traditional alcohol so people can make a more informed choice. If you’re sober, sober-curious, or just keen to cut down without feeling left out, this is a relaxed but seriously informative listen that might change how you think about your next drink. Could a GABA-based drink one day sit where your pint or glass of wine used to be?
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