Physical exercise can affect alcohol consumption

People who exercise regularly and have good aerobic capacity tend to consume a surprising amount of alcohol, according to a new study (well suited for the end of the year) on the interaction between fitness, exercise and alcohol intake.

The study, which involved more than 40,000 adult Americans, found that physically fit men and women are twice as likely to drink moderately or heavily as people who are out of shape. The results add to growing evidence from previous studies — and much from our bar accounts — that exercise and alcohol often go hand in hand, with implications for the health effects of each.

Many people, and some researchers, may be surprised to learn how much physically active people tend to drink. In general, people who adopt a healthy habit, such as exercising, tend to practice other healthy habits, a phenomenon known as grouping of habits. Active, physically fit people rarely smoke, for example, and generally eat healthy diets. So it might seem logical that people who exercise frequently consume alcohol rarely.

But several studies in recent years have found close links between exercise and drinking. In one of the oldest, from 2002, researchers used survey responses from American men and women to conclude that moderate drinkers, defined in this study as people who drank one drink a day, were twice as likely to exercise regularly as they were. than people who didn’t drink. Later studies found similar patterns among college athletes, who drank substantially more than other students, a population not famous for restraint.

In another revealing study from 2015, 150 adults kept online diaries about when and how much they exercised and consumed alcohol for three weeks. The results showed that on days when they exercised the most, they also tended to drink more.

But these and previous studies, while consistently linking more physical activity with more drinking, tended to be smaller or youth-centric, or used somewhat casual accounts of what people told researchers about their exercise and alcohol intake, which may be notoriously not very reliable.

So for the new study, titled “Fit and Tipsy?” (Conditioned and Staggering?, free translation) and recently published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers at the Cooper Institute in Dallas and other institutions have turned to more objective data on tens of thousands of adult Americans. All were part of the Cooper Center’s large and extensive Longitudinal Study, which examines cardiovascular health and its relationship to various behavioral factors and other medical conditions.

Study participants visited the Cooper Clinic in Texas for annual exams and, as part of those exams, took treadmill tests of their aerobic capacity. They also filled out extensive questionnaires about their exercise and drinking habits, and about being concerned about their alcohol consumption.

The researchers obtained records from 38,653 participants of age who reported drinking at least once a week. The authors left the teetotalers out of the study because they wanted to compare people who drank a lot or a little.

As in previous studies, the more physically fit people were, the more they tended to drink.

The most fit women were approximately twice as likely to drink moderately as women with low aerobic capacity. Moderate drinking meant that women drank between four and seven glasses of beer, wine or spirits in a typical week.

The fittest men were more than twice as likely to be moderate drinkers—up to 14 drinks a week—than the men who exercised less. The researchers took people’s reported exercise habits and adjusted them for age and other factors that could influence the results, and the odds remained consistently higher.

Men and some conditioned women were also slightly more likely to drink heavily—defined as eight or more strong drinks a week for women and 15 or more for men—than their less conditioned peers. Interestingly, conditioned women who drank heavily frequently reported concerns about their level of alcohol consumption, whereas conditioned men in this category rarely did.

What might these results mean for people who exercise regularly to try to stay in shape?

While they clearly show that fitness and increased drinking go hand in hand, “most people probably don’t associate physical activity and alcohol consumption as related behaviors,” said Kerem Shuval, executive director of epidemiology at the Cooper Institute, who led the new study. So people who exercise should be aware of their alcohol consumption, he said, even recording how often they drink each week.

Doctors and scientists cannot say with certainty how many drinks might be too many for our health and well-being, and the total is likely to differ for each person. But talk to your doctor if your drinking is a concern for you (or worries your husband, wife, friends or training partners)

Of course, this study has its limits. It involved mostly white Americans and showed only an association between fitness and alcohol consumption, not that one causes the other. He also can’t tell us why exercising can lead to excessive drinking, or vice versa.

“There are probably social aspects,” Shuval said, as teammates and practicers toast with beers or margaritas after a competition or exercise session. Many of us probably also put a halo of health around exercise, making us feel that physical activity justifies an extra drink—or three.

And, intriguingly, some animal studies show that exercise and alcohol light up parts of the brain linked to the reward process, suggesting that if each alone can be pleasurable, doing both can be doubly attractive.

“We need a lot more research” into the reasons for the relationship, Shuval said. But for now it’s worth bearing in mind, especially at this festive time of year, that our jogging, cycling, or gym workouts can influence how often and how enthusiastically we bring to the New Year.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves