Sobering Thoughts About Social Drinking, Part 2

Exercise and Alcohol. What about alcohol's influence on physical exercise? Does drinking offset the benefits of exercise and, if so, can exercise still reverse it? Yes. Here are medical findings explaining how exercise can overcome the bad effects of alcohol:

Blood, with its nutrients and oxygen, is pumped by the heart through its network of arteries and capillaries. Aorta is the largest artery, measuring an inch in diameter. The smallest capillary, in contrast, is so narrow that only one blood cell can pass through it at a time. Five million red blood cells fill one cubic millimeter--about the size of a pinhead.

In order for the oxygen and nutrients to reach the tissues, they must be released by these tiny capillaries. If the capillaries are blocked by alcohol, the surrounding tissues will die from suffocation.

The muscles, including the heart, require more oxygen during physical exertion than when resting. And when blood flow is hindered by alcohol, glucose and oxygen, reaching the muscles is restricted--causing fatigue.

Another factor relating alcohol to fatigue is that alcohol increases the body's supply of lactic acid, which has long been associated with muscle fatigue. However, there is still some discussion as to whether fatigue is the cause or result of this natural chemical.

Alcohol affects the body, weakening the immune system, as disease does. A fit person can resist the effects of alcohol the way he resists disease. While it is not possible to restore brain cells destroyed by alcohol, exercise is helpful in minimizing arterial clogging.

Nutrition and Alcohol. It is an accepted premise that alcoholism leads to malnutrition, but the renowned biochemist, Roger J. Williams, Ph.D., says that "malnutrition is the cause, not the result of alcoholism...no one who follows good nutritional practices will ever become an alcoholic."

Although all who imbibe will realize physiological damages, according to their thirst, it is only those drinkers "whose appetite mechanisms are deranged (that) become alcoholics," Dr. Williams says.

"When we consume calories in the form of alcohol, we eventually crowd out of our diet about the same number of calories we would be getting from wholesome food. There can be no doubt that a prealcoholic--as he passes down the road toward alcoholism--becomes progressively worse off nutritionally month by month. As he consumes more alcohol, he not only gets less good food, but he also gets increased effects of alcohol poisoning," concludes Dr. Williams.

If you drink, bear in mind that no safe level of alcohol has been established. Even moderate amounts will crowd out nutritional calories with empty calories, destroy brain and organ cells, and plug capillaries.