Too Much Exercise

After a few months of having some unusual symptoms (muscle twitches and muscle cramps), I went to my general practioner who ordered a series of blood tests. When nothing unusual came up, he referred me to a neurologist. The neurologist performed a series of test in the office, ordered an EMG and and MRI. In the meantime, my gait (walking motion) changed, and I developed drop foot. Fearing the worse (ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease), yesterday I went to my follow-up with the neurologist. He said (to my relief) that the results of the EMG didn’t indicate ALS, but the MRI did show cervical stenosis (narrowing of the channel that the spinal cord passes), and that could cause some of the symptoms that I was experiencing, but not so much to the lower extremities. Based on my history of regular nightly cocktails before dinner, and a couple of glasses of wine, and exercise levels (I have been doing about 60 minutes of aerobic exercise on the elliptical machine or biking a day, and my heart rate averages 145 and maxes out in the 160’s), he recommended that I completely curtail my consumption of alcohol, and significantly reduce my level/duration of exercise. He stated that at my age (a few months shy of 60), as a reason to cut back on my exercising. So I’ll give it a shot, and see what happens. Of course I will have to cut back on my calorie intake, since I make up for all those calories I burn (I was averaging around over 4000 calories burned per week), or I will be gaining a pound a week, though eliminating alcohol will make up a good portion of those calories.