Alcohol and Health: How Can Alcohol Affect Your Health and Fitness?

With all of the buzz surrounding weight loss supplements and "miracle diets", many people often forget that there are real-life ways to lose weight and keep it off. But, unfortunately, drinking too much alcohol has a similar impact on our health and fitness, as do many weight-loss scams. Therefore, it is essential to understand how alcohol affects our bodies. And, importantly, how it relates to our fitness goals.

One thing that's quickly clear when you consider the impact that alcohol has on your body-your pulse rate. Over-the-counter stimulants such as Ritalin raise your heart rate beyond its average level and can cause physiological changes in your body. This can include the impact on your muscular activity, reaction time, digestion and overall health that can have severe implications for how alcohol affects your health and fitness.

On the other hand, when you consider how can alcohol affect your health and fitness, you also need to understand how the interaction between alcohol and exercise relates. Exercise, when done correctly, can have positive health benefits. When you get more exercise, your body works harder and produces more energy that fuels your activity. This means you burn more calories that result in weight loss, especially if you take part in regular physical activity.

Reduce Resting Metabolism

However, if you choose to drink alcohol, the impact is the same. Excessive alcohol consumption has been shown to reduce your resting metabolism and deplete energy levels. When you're tired, the only solution is to lie down, which ironically makes you more dehydrated and makes you less effective at physical activity. The adverse health effects of alcohol consumption directly translate into reduced fitness.

Affects Circulation

The impact of alcohol on your fitness level can be seen in the way it affects your circulation. Alcohol reduces your resting metabolism, so you become tired much faster. In addition, the alcohol reduces your ability to relax properly, which also affects the release of chemicals into your bloodstream. These chemicals, in turn, impact your heart rate and overall blood flow to muscles.

Body Breakdown

How can alcohol affect your health and fitness? The answer is simple: if you continue to drink it, your body will start to break down and waste because your blood will be congested with toxins resulting in fatigue, palpitations and even seizures. Drinking too much can even lead to brain damage, liver failure and possible death.

The second thing that happens when you consume too much alcohol is how does it affect your sleep? Drinking alcohol interferes with your R.E.M. (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, crucial to good health and an active lifestyle. When you don't get enough R.E.M. sleep, you'll be tired, sluggish and probably feel fatigued for days to come. Not only that, your muscles will become more tired than they usually would be due to decreased R.E.M., which is also essential to proper muscle maintenance.

Affects Mental Health

Lastly, one of the worst ways to affect your health and fitness is how it affects your mental state. When your mind is constantly bombarded with negative thoughts about yourself and your life, you become less focused and energetic. This can affect your body, such as fatigue, lack of concentration and even causes you to have anxiety attacks. All of this is bad for you and only makes you look and feel worse than you are.

Tips on reducing or stopping from drinking alcohol:

Now that we know the answer to the question "How can alcohol affect your health and fitness?" it is time to find out how you can reduce or stop drinking so that you can start leading a happy and healthy life again. 

• One of the best things that you can do is to drink a lot of water. Water flushes out any toxins in your body, including alcohol, which causes you to feel sick and exhausted. Make sure that you also get a lot of exercises and eat a high protein diet.
• Protein is essential for building muscle tone and maintaining your healthy organs. You might also want to think about taking a fish oil supplement if you consume a lot of alcohol or drinking coffee. Fish oil contains nutrients that are particularly good for maintaining liver health and functioning normally, which is why many bodybuilders and athletes use them.

If you are planning to drink, make sure you have a designated driver and don't let other people drink while you are out. And remember, if you have a lot of alcohol in your system at one time, you may experience symptoms like nausea, vomiting, sweating and others. This is why it is better to take action before it gets worse and affects your health and fitness. So, next time you ask yourself, "How can alcohol affect your health and fitness?"