Keeping fit will not reduce alcohol-related health risks, IAS says

Increasing physical activity and trips to the gym will not help counteract the damaging effects of alcohol consumption on health, according to experts.

New figures from the Department of Health show that 20 per cent of Brits are drinking more than double the NHS recommended limits, with over a quarter admitting to exercising in order to make up for their alcohol intake.

Andrew McNeill from the Institute of Alcohol Studies commented: "At the moment there is an epidemic of liver disease for which alcohol is the main cause. The age at which it hits you is coming down, it's also affecting women as well as men.

"The government has just launched a healthy liver strategy because the numbers are growing so much. Alcohol will damage more or less any part of the body."

NHS statistics also reveal that in 2007 13 per cent of men and seven per cent of women claimed to drink alcohol every day.

Men are advised to not regularly exceed three to four units of alcohol, while the limit for women is between two and three.

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