Exercise may help boozers’ brains

HEALTH • Walking, running or other aerobic exercises might protect your brain’s white matter if you’re a heavy drinker, according to a University of Colorado Boulder study.

White matter is made up of bundles of nerve cells that facilitate communication between parts of the brain. Heavy alcohol consumption has long been linked to damage of it.

However, “we found that for people who drink a lot and exercise a lot, there was not a strong relationship between alcohol and white matter,” said Hollis Karoly, lead study author.

But, for heavy drinkers who don’t exercise, white matter was compromised in several areas of the brain.

“It basically means white matter is not moving messages between areas of the brain as efficiently as normal,” says Karoly.