Exercise can help reduce brain damage caused by alcohol

According to new research carried out at the University of Colorado Boulder, regular aerobic exercise such as walking, running and cycling may help in reducing the damage alcohol can do to the brain's 'white matter' and even help prevent damage. The study, Alcoholism:-Clinical & Experimental Research, used, 60 moderate to heavy drinkers who all underwent a modified type of MRI scan to enable researchers to follow the position and path of water molecules travelling parallel to nerve fibres in the white matter as they travelled through the brain. "What our data suggests is that, beyond just giving people a different outlet for cravings and urges for alcohol, exercise might also help to repair the damage that may have been done to the brain," explained Angela Bryan, co-author of the study. "It might even be a more promising treatment approach for alcohol problems because it is both a behavioural treatment and a treatment that has the potential to make the brain more healthy." However she warns, "it is not our intention to suggest that a person can erase the physiological damage of heavy drinking by exercising.