Wanna be footballer Calvin Schmidtke has been dropped from Washington State because of the pending criminal charges against him. It is totally beyond me America’s obsession with wanna be sports starts like Calvin Schmidtke. I say wanna be because any committed sportsman wouldn’t be doing drugs and alcohol in the first place.

Anyone who has attempted to do a physical activity during or after a session with alcoholic drinks know that their performance plummets. There’s really nothing more unpleasant than trying to take part in cardiovascular exercise with a hangover: you are already dehydrated so pushing your body is just going to make it worse - much worse.

Alcohol does have some health benefits too though: though here we are talking about a few glasses of red wine (for the antioxidants) rather than a night out binge drinking with the boys as our mate Calvin Schmidtke has probably had one too many of. The WHO organization recently reported that people who were moderate drinkers had improved cholesterol levels and a general overall risk of chest pain due to too little oxygen getting to the heart during exercise. So drinking moderately may actually reduce your risk of stroke, though too much may lead to arrhythmia, an irregular heart beat.

To be honest between the things you are supposed to do and not do for your health the only one that really stands out as a no-brainer to avoid is smoking. For almost every other so-called vice you can probably find and argument for or against. And I am firmly on the side of whoever it was that said that you could give up alcohol and live 5 years longer :but would you really want to. I mean at the end of the day I should probably be living on (organic) lettuce leaves, poached chicken (skin removed of course) and filtered water. Give me a break! I think our judgmental attitude to alcohol leads to the regular headlines that someone like Calvin Schmidtke makes :we prevent anyone under the age of 18 or 21 or whatever from drinking and then are surprised when they consume it with gusto. Compare that to somewhere like France where children drink watered wine from the age of 6 or 7 and the drinking age is 14 or lower with parents. France has none of the binge drinking culture typified by Calvin Schmidtke and his ilk: wine is part of the culture not a forbidden fruit which kids cut wild on

London's recent booze ban on the underground train (tube) and buses has sparked riots. The London Booze Ban was brought in saw people arrested and closed down tube stations while revelers took the last chance to drink