Effects of early-life alcohol consumption and aerobic exercise on aging outcomes

Chronic alcohol consumption has been linked to several negative physiological effects including mitochondrial dysfunction, disrupted protein synthesis, increased cancer risk, and accelerated aging. However, aerobic exercise training has been shown to target many of these and at young ages may counteract some of the deleterious effects of concurrent alcohol consumption. Alcohol’s effects on lifespan remain variable due to dose and duration differences as well as variations in control groups used, as some studies use “ex-drinkers” or those that aren’t currently drinking but might have many years ago, as a comparison group, but whether this group represents a true control is debated. The objective of the current study was to determine how a period of early life alcohol, thereby creating “ex-drinkers”, influenced aging and whether exercise training during the period of alcohol intake altered the hypothesized acceleration in functional decline and shortened lifespan caused by early life alcohol use. METHODS: Female C57BL/6Hsd mice were randomized into four groups: Control sedentary (CON SED; n = 8), control exercise (CON EX; n = 10), alcohol sedentary (EtOH SED; n = 9), or alcohol exercise (EtOH EX; n=10). From ~12-18 weeks of age, all mice consumed a liquid diet with EtOH groups consuming up to 32% kcal alcohol/day. During this 6-wk period, exercise groups received 2 hrs. of access to cage running wheels. After 6-wks all mice resumed chow/water diet and sedentary behavior. At ~1year later, EchoMRI and glucose tolerance testing was performed, and grip strength and frailty were measured every 10 wks. Survival curves were generated to analyze longevity. Two-way ANOVA and t-tests were performed with significance set to p=0.05. Results: At ~5 months after cessation of EtOH and exercise, EtOH SED weighed more than EtOH EX and CON SED mice, but fat and lean mass were not different across groups. At ~15mo of age, glucose sensitivity and grip strength were similar across groups. EtOH SED treadmill run time to fatigue was shorter than CON SED. There was a main effect of treatment for frailty scores over time, although there were no significant differences for specific time points. Finally, lifespan tended to be shorter in EtOH SED compared to CON EX (p=0.09) and CON SED (p=0.05), while survival was greatest in CON EX. CONCLUSION: Early-life alcohol consumption, even after a period of abstinence, has detrimental effects on health and aging although concurrent exercise may be beneficial for longevity in both CON and ETOH consumers. ACSM doctoral student grant to ALT. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.