Alcohol and Fitness

Food for Thought:

Many individuals like to relax with a drink, especially during the weekend. It can be a way to wind down from the working week. But if you work out regularly or play sports at any level, even a few drinks may have an effect upon your fitness. A study from the American College of Sports Medicine has shown that alcohol can have the effect of impeding athletic performance and certainly does not improve muscular work capacity. The endurance of muscles, along with strength output, can be increased in the very short term by the intake of small amounts of alcohol. However, this will only last for 20 to 25 minutes, after which the problems created by alcohol begin to outweigh the benefits. The liver needs to metabolize the alcohol and is assisted in this task by the kidneys. To perform that function, the liver ignores glycogen (a form of carbohydrate which fuels muscle activity). When the body does not efficiently process glycogen, it leads to increased fatigue, and the cellular functions of the body will not run at optimum efficiency, which will cause a slow down or even loss of muscle growth.

Since alcohol is a diuretic, it can cause dehydration. The kidneys then need to use water from other parts of the body to efficiently process the alcohol, which can have a detrimental effect upon athletic performance, especially when the subject is attempting to increase muscle mass.

The Effects of Alcohol :

Even the occasional use of alcohol can result in inflamed liver cells, which causes an increased release of enzymes from the liver. Metabolizing a 12 ounce beer, which contains half an ounce of alcohol, will take approximately an hour.

Alcohol contains seven calories per gram, but these calories contain virtually no vitamins or minerals and are not converted to glycogen. The calories are stored as fat, initially in the liver after drinking and can have a negative effect upon the metabolic pathways of the liver, causing them to become less efficient in the production of vitamin D.

Since it is a diuretic, the intake of alcohol causes increased urination, which results in an overall loss of fluids from the body, including electrolytes. Additionally, alcohol consumption results in a lower production of ADH, or antiduiretic hormone, which regulates the fluid balance in the body.

Alcohol depletes magnesium, zinc, potassium and calcium from the kidneys. Even a small amount of alcohol will slow reaction times and impair hand-eye coordination, balance and psychomotor skills. It also affects thermoregulation, or heat loss from the body, due to dilation of the blood vessels, which leads to excess sweating in hot weather. In cold climates it can increase the risk of hypothermia.

It takes up to 48 hours after the last drink for the body to completely process the alcohol it has consumed, which means the effects remain within the body for that entire period, creating a negative impact. A Saturday morning workout after even just two drinks on a Friday night will not help with either fitness or muscle mass.

Alcohol consumption requires a longer recuperation period after exercise and greater soreness, due to the inflamed muscle cells. There is also less strength due to a reduction in the interaction between the nerves and the muscles.

According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Research, consuming 24 grams of alcohol has the effect of lowering whole-body lipid oxidation - the rate at which the body burns fat - by 73 percent. A study by the MRC Dunn Nutrition Center found alcohol consumption to be a cause of body fat retention. This is due to the acetate produced after it has been broken down in the liver to become acetaldehyde by the process of alcohol dehydrogenization. The acetate produced by alcohol will be burned by the body before the acetate produced by fat-oxidization, since it is easier for the body to retrieve. The overall effect is that the body stops burning fat.

As a corollary, alcohol increases appetite, resulting in increased food consumption. According to the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, alcohol inhibits the secretion of leptin, the hormone that works as an appetite suppressant, so that the body craves more food.

Since alcohol causes a decrease in type II fiber protein synthesis, it can decrease muscle building by a factor of 20 percent, including a decrease of up to 35 percent for GF-I.

For athletes or bodybuilders, a good sleep cycle is vital, and the consumption of alcohol will affect this. It creates sleep disorders by altering the duration and sequence of sleep states. Drinking alcohol can cause one to take longer to fall asleep as well as a shorter sleeping time, which results in less rest. Testosterone is important to bodybuilders who want to increase muscle mass, but the consumption of alcohol will cause a lowering of testosterone levels in the body. When the body is at its most intoxicated, testosterone levels will decrease by up to 25 percent for up to 24 hours.

Long Term Alcohol Effects

In the long term, the effects of alcohol become progressive, since it is a toxin, or poison. It acts as a depressant on the nervous system, although in the very short term in can be a stimulant. For those visit the gym regularly, this can mean a loss of motivation, which is an important factor in any regular exercise program. Physically, over a long period, the consumption of alcohol will bring a reduction in endurance. It can cause anemia, due to a deficiency in B vitamins. Excess consumption of alcohol will have a long-term detrimental effect on the liver as it tries to remove the toxins in the alcohol. To accomplish this task, it is necessary for the liver to work harder, which can result in the destruction of liver cells.

The short-term inflammation of muscle cells caused by alcohol can translate into long-term damage caused by the destruction of some of those muscle cells, making it harder to accumulate more muscle

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