Pregnant comedian Kim Ji-min says quitting alcohol made her feel '50,000 times better'

Comedian Kim Ji-min has shared the physical changes she has experienced since giving up alcohol. Kim, who announced her pregnancy in July, has reportedly been abstaining from alcohol since she began trying to conceive, and is expected to give birth in early 2027.

On Wednesday, Kim wrote on her Instagram account that she had been alcohol-free "since preparing for pregnancy" and was "feeling so many changes."

"The whites of my eyes have gotten whiter — my eyes look clearer," she wrote. "The puffiness is going down. My body is swelling from the pregnancy, but the puffiness in my face keeps going away." She added that her esophagitis had cleared up, her organ levels had normalized, and her blood pressure was normal every day. "I can feel my gut getting stronger," she wrote. "My overall condition is 50,000 times better."

Kim hinted that the benefits of quitting were far from over, writing that there were "so many more" she would add as they came to mind.

Kim and fellow comedian Kim Jun-ho married in July 2025 and are expecting their first child together a year later. When she announced the pregnancy, Kim wrote: "Last year the two of us became forever, and this year we became the three we always dreamed of. A precious little life has found its way into my small belly."

The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that excessive alcohol consumption is directly or indirectly linked to more than 200 diseases and personal injuries.

Along with tobacco, alcohol is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a WHO body, meaning there is sufficient evidence of its carcinogenicity in humans.

On the blood pressure point Kim raised, relatively recent research has backed up her experience.

According to the Asahi Shimbun in December last year, a research team from Tokyo University of Science, St. Luke's International Hospital and other institutions analyzed health checkup data from about 58,943 people and confirmed that quitting alcohol — even in small amounts — can lower blood pressure, Yonhap reported at the time.

The team found that the greater a person's alcohol intake before quitting, the larger the drop in blood pressure, and that this held true regardless of sex. The findings were published in an American medical journal.

The team analyzed 359,717 health checkup records from those who underwent examinations at St. Luke's International Hospital between 2012 and 2024. The type of alcohol consumed and daily intake were recorded at each checkup. The researchers defined one drink as 10 grams of pure alcohol and examined the relationship between alcohol and blood pressure while accounting for factors including age, body mass index, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, dietary habits and smoking status.

Among women who had been drinking one to two drinks a day, quitting reduced systolic blood pressure by 0.78 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 1.14 mmHg. For men, the reductions were 1.03 mmHg and 1.62 mmHg, respectively.

For both men and women, the greater the alcohol intake, the larger the blood pressure reduction from quitting.

The research also confirmed, in both sexes, that higher alcohol consumption was associated with greater increases in blood pressure.

Meanwhile, according to the National Cancer Center, France and Sweden ban all television and radio advertising for alcohol.

Norway, Finland and Spain prohibit alcohol advertising for beverages with an alcohol content above 15 to 22 percent. The United States bars models under 25 from appearing in alcohol advertisements, while the United Kingdom enforces regulations — including market exclusion — against alcohol companies that engage in excessive marketing.