YOU BOOZE YOU LOSE BY STEVE STIEFEL Muscle, that is. Don’t let alcohol blur your training edge. The good news is you don’t have to abstain to still gain. Here’s how You know the feeling — throbbing headache, dry mouth, queasy stomach, raised body temperature, achy body. You may not remember everything you did last night, but it feels like you were dragged behind a car after swallowing the contents of your dustbin. And it’s your own damn fault. Sure, you rationalised it: you had a great workout, you were overstressed, you needed to let loose. So you did, drinking to excess. Now the question is: are there any muscle-building benefits, or are the results just as miserable as the way you feel? Alcohol’s negative next-day effects are all too apparent, and most drinkers know that long-term heavy drinking can lead to health problems like cirrhosis of the liver, cancer, obesity and a host of addiction-related problems. On the other hand, regularly drinking small amounts of alcohol is associated with reducing cholesterol and decreasing the risk of heart disease. So what’s a social musclehead to do? The best course of action is probably to avoid alcohol for the most part, particularly if you’re young. But, for those aged 40 and older, having a small daily drink may help stave off a heart attack. ALL ABOUT ALCOHOL Alcohol is by no means considered a performance-enhancing substance, and it has numerous deleterious effects associated with its use, says Gary Wadler, professor at New York University School of Medicine. These short-term effects depend on a number of factors, including how much and how fast you drink, your size and how much food is in your stomach. Alcohol’s effects are directly related to the concentration (percentage) of alcohol in your blood; however, the effects vary among individuals and even in the same individual at different times. Other factors that affect alcohol’s influence include age, gender and physical condition. “Ethanol is the intoxicating agent in fermented and distilled liquors,” explains William Kraemer, professor and director of research in the department of kinesiology at University of Connecticut, and fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). It’s also used in medicines, colognes, cleaning solutions and rocket fuel. Alcohol has been around for thousands of years, and its abuse is a major public-health problem. “Alcohol is a very simple molecule,” Kraemer adds. “When you have a drink, the alcohol is distributed to all the organs and fluids of the body, but it exerts the most effect on the brain, depressing the central nervous system. “Some alcohol you drink is absorbed from the stomach, but most continues on, where it’s absorbed through the wall of the small intestine. The heart pumps blood throughout the body, which is how the alcohol reaches the brain and other organs. Your liver oxidises alcohol at a rate of about 15 ml per hour, converting it to water, carbon dioxide and energy. Yet it can take up to 48 hours for the full effects of even 30 ml of alcohol to completely clear your body.” In low doses, alcohol produces a relaxing effect, reduces tension, lowers inhibitions, slows reflexes, impairs concentration and reduces coordination. In larger doses, it slurs speech, causes drowsiness and alters emotions. In high doses — your classic stag party binge with your mates — it can induce vomiting, breathing difficulty, unconsciousness and even coma. “A single dose of alcohol, if large enough, can be lethal…and the lethal dose is uncomfortably close to the usual social dose,” Kraemer warns. “Death from alcohol usually results from respiratory failure because of alcohol’s depressive effect on the respiratory centre. Fortunately, we either vomit or pass out before we kill ourselves. The trick is not to do the two things simultaneously — otherwise you risk going the rock-star route of choking to death on your own vomit.” MUSCLE EFFECTS Potent potables are known to have a negative effect on weight training. Drink too much the night before, and you know you’re not going to be at your best the next day at the gym. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that having crummy training sessions is one of the best ways to derail your muscle growth. THE UPSHOT The effects of alcohol on bodybuilders and athletes are well documented. “The ACSM’s stance on alcohol consumption is that there are few or no beneficial effects on metabolic or physiological responses to exercise,” Kraemer says. If you’re searching for a silver lining around your cocktail glass, you might hang your hat on this: recent studies indicate that alcohol may have some potentially minor benefits: Short-term boost in free testosterone. Drinking alcohol can cause a rise in testosterone, but bodybuilders may not find this response all that desirable. “The rise in testosterone levels due to alcohol consumption is not associated with muscle stimulation,” explains Kraemer. “It’s more of a stress response to the ingestion of a foreign substance and the neural effects that come with it.” Increased glycogen uptake. A recent study indicates that drinking a small amount of alcohol with a post-exercise carbohydrate and protein drink may better restock glycogen stores. DOWN THE HATCH While you really have to stretch to find a good reason to recommend alcohol for athletes, the negatives are fairly obvious: Decreased performance. Kraemer says that athletes suffer all of the following detrimental effects from drinking: impaired balance, reduced reaction time, slower information processing and impaired motor skills. Wadler adds, “Alcohol may impair temperature regulation during prolonged exercise in the cold, and in the heat, its diuretic effect may lead to dehydration.” Decreased next-day performance. Baseball legend Babe Ruth may have been able to play a hell of a game the day after a bender, but just imagine what he could have done un-hungover. “Poorly appreciated is the fact that athletes who consume excessive alcohol the evening after a practice or a game may subsequently have impaired athletic skills for as long as 14 hours,” Wadler states. Hangovers can result in headache, nausea, diarrhoea, fatigue, dehydration and body aches that diminish athletic performance. Inhibition of protein synthesis. The last thing you want is to reduce the efficiency of protein consumption. “Excessive drinking can inhibit protein synthesis, affect hormonal responses related to quality sleep and ultimately reduce your body’s ability to recover from training,” Kraemer reports. So in addition to feeling crummy, you may also be working against your efforts to add muscle mass. HEALTH EFFECTS While young athletes should ideally steer clear of alcohol, the benefits of drinking moderate amounts accrue as you get older. Reducing cholesterol and enhancing your cardiovascular health become more important as you head into your 40s, 50s and beyond. Drinking at a more mature age also tends to lead to fewer incidents of injury through accident — the greatest risk to drinkers under the age of 30. (See “Drinks for the Ages” for more on how much you can safely consume for health benefits.) BOOZE BENEFITS Alcohol serves as a blood thinner, and as such, is often recommended in moderation to: Reduce the risk of diabetes. A 10-year study found that those who drank one drink a day were 58% less likely to develop diabetes than those who didn’t drink at all. Those who drank two drinks a day were 250% less likely to develop diabetes. On the other hand, heavy drinking increased the risk of diabetes. (Archives of Internal Medicine, June 9, 2003.) Help fight high cholesterol. We’ve known for years that alcohol can have a beneficial effect on cholesterol levels, and recent research indicates that red wine may have additional cholesterol-fighting ingredients. In addition to resveratrol, the antioxidant known to help reduce cholesterol levels, red wine also contains saponins, glucose-based plant compounds that are believed to bind to cholesterol, preventing its absorption. Best sources include red zinfandel, syrah, pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon, all red wines. One glass has up to half of your daily dietary intake of 15 grams of saponins. Reduce heart disease. “While it’s clear that heavy drinking is very unhealthy, there is also evidence that light alcohol consumption can decrease the probability of death from ischaemic (loss of blood supply) heart disease,” Kraemer notes. “But there’s a catch: it depends on how old you are. For people under 35, any benefits are negligible because this age group is involved in the vast majority of car accidents caused by alcohol. For light drinkers over 35, there is less heart disease than in nondrinkers, but there’s more cancer. Yet the reduction in heart disease is much greater than the increase in cancer, so there appears to be a net benefit.” Reduce obesity. New research reports that those who imbibe 1–2 drinks per day have a significantly reduced risk of obesity compared to both nondrinkers and heavy drinkers (defined as four-plus drinks per day). ALCOHOL-ICKS While the benefits are often disputed, or at least considered only moderately beneficial, the risks, particularly of regular heavy drinking, are clearly established: Addiction. Chronic drinking can lead to dependence and addiction to alcohol and to additional neurological problems. “Typical symptoms of withholding alcohol from someone who is addicted to it are tremors, sleep problems and nausea. More severe withdrawal symptoms include hallucinations and even seizures,” Kraemer says. Brain damage. “Chronic alcohol use can damage the frontal lobes of the brain,” he adds. “It can cause an overall reduction in brain size and increase the size of the ventricles.” Vitamin deficiencies. “Because the digestive system of alcoholics is unable to absorb vitamin B1 (thiamine), a syndrome known as Wernicke’s Encephalopathy may develop,” explains Kraemer. “This syndrome is characterised by impaired memory, confusion and lack of coordination.” Increased risk of cancer. Alcohol increases leptin levels, which can be a good thing for bodybuilders. But excessively increasing leptin levels can also increase the risks of cancer. Birth defects. Pregnant women are discouraged from drinking any alcohol due to the increased risk of birth abnormalities. Drug interactions. Prescription, over-the-counter, illicit and unrecognised drugs all have potential reactions with alcohol. One should be aware of the additive and synergistic effects when these drugs are mixed with alcohol. Other problems include: chronic alteration of brain and nerve function, weakening of heart muscle, testicular shrinkage and male breast enlargement, impotency, elevated triglycerides, fat deposits in the liver, cirrhosis and liver failure, blood-clotting abnormalities, pancreatitis and chronic skin alterations. BARRED FOR LIFE If you’re like us, all this depressing news about the country’s favourite depressant makes you want to drown these sorrows in a good stiff drink. No one believes that warnings and future risks will turn people away from this all-too-favoured vice. The best-case scenario is that you consider what you’re putting into your body when you step up to the bar. Alcohol’s benefits are negligible for bodybuilders and other athletes, especially those under the age of 35. As you age, you can better balance alcohol’s risks against its heart-health benefits. In the meantime, don’t be afraid to have a drink or two. M&F Steve Stiefel is nutrition editor at FLEX magazine.