Alcohol and Exercise

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Right I drink about 3 times a week only 1 of those nights are really heavy drinking nights, I also goto the gym 5 times a week and play rugby on a saturday so thats 6 days of good fitness. My girlfriend and I have been debating how alcohol effects your liver. I understand that its not helping at all and is slowly causing damage to it, but i tried telling her that me being active 6 times a week surely reduces the effect/damage done by drinking? I'm not sure if it would reverse it but fitness must help?

My Girlfriend seems to believe that no matter what I do it will damage at the same rate and unreversable(she's a nurse), I disagree.

For example you stop smoking at a certain age and all the effects of smoking will be completely reversed(in time). Cells constantly regenerate and reproduce if I stopped drinking for the rest of my life would my liver not be fully restored?

Now unlike me my girlfriend won't just believe peoples opinions from a forum so if someone has some good links which could help my side or her side of the case it would be most welcome(Your opinions do count for me :) ).

Thanks

Hybrids
 
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Regardless of your excerising, your liver will still be damaged by excessive alchohol.

You are right that your liver will repair the damage if you quit drinking, but this is down to circumstance whether your liver is indeed damaged or not, and how badly damaged etc

Some smokers can recover a lot of lung capacity back, but some heavy smokers who have been smoking for decades do not fully recover from it, there is only a certain amount of abuse the human body can take before irreversible damage is done.
 
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iCraig said:
Regardless of your excerising, your liver will still be damaged by excessive alchohol.

You are right that your liver will repair the damage if you quit drinking, but this is down to circumstance whether your liver is indeed damaged or not, and how badly damaged etc

Some smokers can recover a lot of lung capacity back, but some heavy smokers who have been smoking for decades do not fully recover from it, there is only a certain amount of abuse the human body can take before irreversible damage is done.

So if my Liver is damaged then it wont recover, are we saying that drinking alcohol doesnt necessarily damage your liver everytime? I only get durnk once a week would that be enough to damage my liver?

Does excerising slow down the damage process?

Hybrids
 
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Excercising will not slow down damage to your liver in any way.

Liver damage depends on how drunk you get. If you start getting to the stage where you can't remember things, that's likely to be causing damage.
 
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Hybrids said:
So if my Liver is damaged then it wont recover, are we saying that drinking alcohol doesnt necessarily damage your liver everytime? I only get durnk once a week would that be enough to damage my liver?

Does excerising slow down the damage process?

Hybrids

Depends on your age, what type of alchohol you consume, and other aspects.

But as a whole, excersising won't affect how your liver processes the alchohol.

If you want your liver to be healthy and strong make sure you eat plenty of vitamin B and iron. Logic would dictate that a stronger liver will last longer against alchohol abuse.
 
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Alcohol in moderation will do no harm to your liver its the binge drinking and drinking to excess that causes the problems.

It has been known for hundreds of years that red wine in moderation is good for the stomach but too much will make you ill.

As for excerising slowing down the process. I would say NO! a big fat NO. The quantity of aolcohol in your blood stream is what causes the damage and no amount of excerising will make it better. thats what your liver is there for.

the key point is alcohol in moderation in other words not going mental and drinking somuch you cannot stand up. but also what is classed as a moderate session?

If you want to help your Liver recover after drinking sessions. Drink lots of water and i mean lots 3ltr+ aday for over a week. to properly flush your system.
 
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Your liver is the organ that performs the function of removing many toxins from the bloodstream. Alcohol is one of those toxins. If you constantly overload with alcohol then you are constantly overloading your liver and will cause permanent damage. Exercise will help a little (as you will be overall more helathy) but the difference is negligible.

As an asside, people regularly underestimate the damage that can be done to the liver. A common way people give a 'cry for help' is by overdosing on paracetemol and alcohol. Next morning they wake up feeling hung over but otherwise fine. Go to the hospital thinking 'better get myself checked out' only for the doctor to tell them that there is a strong possibility that they have killed (litteraly) their liver and may well die. Do not abuse your liver; dialysis and transplants are not always successful. :(
 
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Humpty said:
Your liver is the organ that performs the function of removing many toxins from the bloodstream. Alcohol is one of those toxins. If you constantly overload with alcohol then you are constantly overloading your liver and will cause permanent damage. Exercise will help a little (as you will be overall more helathy) but the difference is negligible.

As an asside, people regularly underestimate the damage that can be done to the liver. A common way people give a 'cry for help' is by overdosing on paracetemol and alcohol. Next morning they wake up feeling hung over but otherwise fine. Go to the hospital thinking 'better get myself checked out' only for the doctor to tell them that there is a strong possibility that they have killed (litteraly) their liver and may well die. Do not abuse your liver; dialysis and transplants are not always successful. :(

One of my best friends died recently after 3 failed transplants. And to make things worse he didnt drink anyway as it was a hereditary condition :(
 
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As far as I understand, If you only drink as much as your liver can process then it'll be fine full stop. If you drink in excess of that, it damages the liver regardless of whether you only have one heavy night a week.
 
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Ok let my try and sum this up..

-By stopping drinking my liver will eventually recover end get back to full strength(as long as it is'nt severly damaged)
-By taking in lots of vit B and iron this will slow the damage done by drinking
-Drinking in moderation won't damage your liver and only binge drinking will damage it.
-By getting drunk one night and spending the rest of the week drinking lots of water will also reduce the damage done.
-Drinking a few weekends then taking a few out will not overload your liver with toxins thus not damaging it to much.

But one thing that seems constant is that excerise won't reduce or reverse any damage.

Hybrids
 
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Hybrids said:
Ok let my try and sum this up..

-By stopping drinking my liver will eventually recover end get back to full strength(as long as it is'nt severly damaged)

To a limited extent.


Hybrids said:
-By taking in lots of vit B and iron this will slow the damage done by drinking

Perhaps a little.


Hybrids said:
-Drinking in moderation won't damage your liver and only binge drinking will damage it.

Depends how you define 'drinking in moderation' and depends how often your 'drink in moderation'.


Hybrids said:
-By getting drunk one night and spending the rest of the week drinking lots of water will also reduce the damage done.

False.


Hybrids said:
-Drinking a few weekends then taking a few out will not overload your liver with toxins thus not damaging it to much.

False. Taking a few weekends out will slow the rate of damage but not reverse it.


Hybrids said:
But one thing that seems constant is that excerise won't reduce or reverse any damage.

True!

As a very simple analogy, think of your liver as a washing machine that cleans your blood. It copes fine with the usual dirty laundry and should last you 3 score and ten (baring the affore mentioned hereditary conditions). If you spend every weekend running it full cycle on a load of dirty bricks however it will soon get knackered. Drunken weekends = dirty bricks (so to speak :) ).

Don't forget also the damage that alcohol does to the brain. :(
 
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Btw alcohol also inhibits many other things, such as your ability to gain muscle (apparently)


also in random information

Vladamir Putin does drink at all, and hes russian, so if he can do it so can you! He maintains thats why he looks so young, and he does.
 
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Exercise could make it worse if you are regularly de-hydrated by it (e.g. rugby on a hot day).

Cut out the alcohol on the days your not out with the lads, recovery time will help your liver more than anything.

Do you drink those horrible things like wkd? If so change to pints - they have more water in them which helps, also take longer to drink so you'll not have as much in a night.
 
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Telescopi said:
Exercise could make it worse if you are regularly de-hydrated by it (e.g. rugby on a hot day).

Cut out the alcohol on the days your not out with the lads, recovery time will help your liver more than anything.

Do you drink those horrible things like wkd? If so change to pints - they have more water in them which helps, also take longer to drink so you'll not have as much in a night.

I only drink pints :)

When I mean moderation I mean not drunk, tipsy or happy stage(5 pints). I do this once/twice a week which is usually to down my local watching some sport. I went out last night and only had 1 pint. On my main drinking day I would hit 10-12 pints and be drunk but remember the whole night.

Thanks for all the inputs so far :)

Hybrids
 
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