To Drink Or Not To Drink?

The holiday season is upon us, bringing gallons of mulled wine, eggnog and champagne with it. But, consuming too many festive tipples could affect your sports performance and fitness goals, says PT James Staring

- James Staring

An occasional alcoholic drink won't do longterm damage, however, if you are trying to improve your performance at sports, regular alcohol consumption will hinder progress.

Furthermore, when comparing sexes in terms of the relative impact of alcohol on sporting performance, women have drawn a shorter straw. Alcohol consumption affects women differently due to their body composition and differences in producing the enzymes that metabolise alcohol, as well as how they interact with specific hormones.

Men are also usually larger and weigh more than women, and have a higher ratio of muscle to fatty tissue. Muscle requires more blood than fat tissue and, as a result of having higher blood volume, due to a larger muscle percentage, any alcohol consumed is more diluted in a man's body than the same amount in a woman's body.

What's more, women produce 50 per cent less alcohol dehydrogenase (an alcohol-processing enzyme in the stomach) compared to men breaks Alcohol dehydrogenase down approximately 15 per cent of alcohol in the stomach before it then travels to the small intestine to be absorbed. This means women who consume the same quantity of alcohol as men will absorb more of it into their bodies. This leads to an increased likelihood of more alcohol reaching other organs, which can lead to greater long-term health issues.

Another issue women experience that men don't is having to deal with hormonal fluctuations, thanks to the menstrual cycle, which can magnify the effects of alcohol. For example, during the second half of your cycle, you can become more intoxicated and for longer. This is further magnified by oral contraceptives, which, if you use them, decrease the speed at which alcohol is removed from your body, leading to prolonged effects of alcohol consumption.