You might want to get some exercise before your next beer. A new study shows that moderate exercise can offset the risk of cancer death caused by drinking alcohol. Likewise, exercise can reduce the risk of other deaths caused by drinking alcohol.

Emmanuel Stamatakis, senior author of the British Journal of Sports Medicine and associate professor of medicine at the University of Sydney, said that alcohol has a high status in Western culture. "Despite the adverse effects on personal health and society as a whole, many people still drink alcohol." ”Also, policies limiting alcohol consumption have not been very effective, Stamataki added. Because people continued to drink, the realist researcher and his colleagues decided to study whether exercise could counteract the harm of drinking.

Stamatakis and colleagues collected health survey data from England and Scotland. A total of 36,370 people were studied, all aged 40 and above. The researchers divided them into three groups: the first group did not exercise much, the second group exercised moderately, and the third group exercised more frequently. Next, the researchers observed the subjects' drinking habits.

Over the next 10 years, a total of 5,735 people died. Researchers analyzed the data and found that excessive drinking was associated with an increased risk of death compared with lifelong non-drinkers. Researchers defined hazardous drinking as 8-20 standard drinks per week for women and 21-49 standard drinks per week for men.

The more you drink per week, the greater your risk of developing cancer—even if you don't exceed the recommended weekly limit. The recommended amount of alcohol per week is 8 drinks per week for women and 12 drinks per week for men.

When researchers added motion into the equation, however, everything changed.

Specifically, the researchers looked at the impact on adults of the recommended weekly amount of exercise, which is 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) states that aerobic exercise includes brisk walking, swimming and mowing the lawn. The DHHS also recommends strength training that targets major muscle groups twice a week.

Completing the recommended amount of exercise "seems to completely erase" the increased risk of cancer death from drinking alcohol, Stamataki said. Likewise, exercise can reduce the risk of other deaths caused by drinking alcohol. The more you exercise, the better the results will be.

The only thing that cannot be reduced by exercise is the risk of death from hazardous drinking, defined as more than 20 drinks per week for women and more than 28 drinks per week for men, Stamataki said.

Research results suggest a link between occasional drinking and a reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease among active people.

I would have expected that exercise would have a greater modulating effect on cardiovascular disease than on the risk of cancer death, Stamataki said. ”

Michael Hyek, senior director of the McConnell Heart Health Center in Ohio, said that because the study was observational, the results only show that there is a relationship between exercise, drinking and health. The researchers relied on self-reported lifestyle factors, so they may not be very reliable. They did not examine other factors such as dietary habits and medication habits, which may also have affected the study results. Hyek was not involved in the study.

However, Stamataki still believes that his research gives everyone another reason to exercise, promotes the improvement of the exercise environment, and encourages people to sit less and move more. He asked: "How many reasons do we need for everyone to pay attention to sports?" ”

Hyek did not dispute this. He said: "Appropriate exercise can reduce stress, prevent, control and treat diabetes, and is also beneficial to blood pressure, weight and depression." ”

“Exercise is good for almost all chronic conditions,”Hyek said, “No matter what your condition is, exercise is good for your body. ”

(Translator: Wang Yunqi; Editor: Cui Puyu)