Alcohol and Exercise

Alcohol and Athletes

Alcohol abuse is intertwined with social practices, and sports participants and athletes are not exempt from the tendency to abuse alcohol. In collegiate sports in particular, alcohol misuse is probably underreported, as many studies have confirmed that the problem exists but is often regarded as “normal behavior” by college students.

Studies show varying patterns of alcohol use among the different sports. For example, athletes who play rugby, cricket, hurling, soccer, and Gaelic football have the highest percentage of alcohol consumption. In contrast, the percentage of alcohol consumption among athletes in horse racing, cycling, and tennis is low.

Acute alcohol consumption adversely affects psychomotor skills, and therefore, performance suffers. Acute consumption also reduces the body's ability to adapt to cold environments.

Alcohol and Musculature

Chronic alcohol consumption decreases the vascularity of muscles, and this has been hypothesized to be the cause of its detrimental effects on muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle weight, along with DNA and RNA content, decreases with continuous alcohol use. Alcohol-induced alterations to the normal metabolic processes in muscle tissue, as well as damage to nerves, result in muscle atrophy.

Some studies show that athletes have a higher rate of alcohol consumption immediately prior to their sporting events, and that a significant number of them are chronic alcohol consumers. This situation may be a reflection of the athletes being uninformed [Page 26]about alcohol's detrimental effects, and perhaps the lack of monitoring and education by exercise specialists, training specialists, fitness trainers, coaches, physical therapists, and sports physicians.

In the recovery period after exercise, blood homeostasis, or the ability of blood to maintain normal function, is affected adversely by alcohol consumption, particularly due to alcohol's effects on some clotting factors and hormones. Specifically, blood clotting becomes exaggerated in the recovery phase. There are implications that these alcohol-induced effects on blood homeostasis, along with conventional risk factors such as age, smoking, and abnormal lipid profiles, lead to higher atherosclerosis rates.

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