Exercise May Help Repair Alcohol-Damaged Brain Cells

On the off-chance that it might encourage some healthful new year's resolutions (exercise more, drink less), psychiatrist Paul Steinberg writes on the New York Times Op-Ed page about the long-term damage that can be done by binge drinking. The good news, Steinberg reveals, is that exercise has been shown to stimulate the regrowth of normal neural tissue that has been damaged by alcohol. It's true, unfortunately, that this kind of regrowth has only been observed in mice. On the other hand, the neurogenesis was greater in the exercising former drinking mice than that induced by exercise in the control group that had never been exposed to alcohol. Read about more evidence that exercise improves memory.