Exercise Protects Liver From Booze, Maybe

It’s definitely good news for some readers: exercise appears to prevent the liver against alcohol-related inflammation and injury. We know that because researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine used rats bred for high activity, or “runner rats,” to test if increased metabolism protected the liver against fatty deposits and inflammation. A U of Missouri news release reports that one group of rats was exposed to chronic alcohol use for six weeks and compared to a second group that was not exposed to alcohol during the same time period. Unsurprisingly, the researchers found that fatty deposits were greater in the livers of the chronic alcohol group, but they also found that chronic alcohol ingestion did not cause significant inflammation in the liver. The suggestion: Higher physical activity levels seemed to protect against the metabolic dysfunction that eventually leads to irreversible liver damage. The researchers also found that chronic alcohol ingestion caused no increase in free fatty acids, triglycerides, insulin or glucose in the blood of the group exposed to alcohol as compared to the control group.