Drinking alcohol and your breathing
How long can you hold your breath? One minute? Two maybe? How about 24 minutes and 3 seconds? That's the world record, set by Spanish free diver Aleix Vendrell earlier this year. Now, you may not be shooting for a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records with your lung capacity, but you don't want to have trouble breathing. Well, it turns out that if you're over-imbibing or binge-drinking, you may be damaging your lungs.
A new study published in the journal Chest found that people who qualify as binge drinkers (men having five or more drinks during one occasion at least once a month and women having four or more at once at least once a month) or excessive drinkers (more than four drinks a day or 14 a week for men and three a day or seven a week for women) have lower levels of nitric oxide in their breath. This indicates that drinking doesn't just affect your liver, it seems to damage the lungs, too. That, as the researchers noted, "has clinical implications in multiple airway diseases." Other studies state that lower levels imply uncontrolled or deteriorating airway inflammation.
Scientists are continuing to find out all the ways that excess alcohol harms the body. Now you can add breathing problems to the list that includes a higher risk of many cancers, high blood pressure, stroke, heart and liver disease.
But hey, one w(h)ine a day is OK: "Why can't ice cream be added-sugar- and calorie-free?"
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
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