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Exercise more, drink more

Beer and Wine

Beer and Wine
Do you like to go out for a beer after a long run with friends? You’re not alone, according to an odd new survey done by Northwestern Medicine.

Previous looks at links between physical activity and alcohol consumption found that those who are more active tend to also drink more, but the new research, which followed similar methods but looked a bit closer at the results, found something else. The researchers found that those who partook in more physical activity didn’t drink more than others, but that generally people who are active also drink more on days they exercise.

There were 150 participants who, on three occasions, reported each day for 21 days, their daily physical activity and alcohol consumption. They found that Mondays through Wednesdays people both exercise and drink less. Thursday through Sunday people who are regularly active do more of that and also drink more.

“We zoomed in the microscope and got a very up-close and personal look at these behaviours on a day-to-day basis and see it’s not people who exercise more drink more. It’s that on days when people are more active they tend to drink more than on days they are less active,” said David E. Conroy, who led the study. “This finding was uniform across study participants of all levels of physical activity and ages.”

It may be simply that people are more likely to exercise towards the end of the week as well as more likely to drink towards the end of the week, but Conroy noted at this point they are unsure.

“Perhaps people reward themselves for working out by having more to drink or maybe being physically active leads them to encountering more social situations where alcohol is consumed — we don’t know.”

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