Atleti e non atleti allo stesso modo consumano alcool come mezzo per festeggiare, rilassarsi, alleviare lo stress o ridurre le inibizioni. Quando un atleta sceglie di consumare alcool, anche solo un drink può avere un effetto deleterio sulle sue prestazioni.

Short-term effects:

• Hydration: alcohol is a diuretic that can lead to dehydration. Rehydration from one alcoholic drink requires consumption of twice as much water.
• Motor skills: slower reaction time, decreased hand-eye coordination and impaired balance.
• Strength: decreased grip strength, jump height and speed.
• Aerobic performance: faster fatigue, increased ventilatory stress and decreased lactate threshold.
• Sleep: disrupted REM sleep= hormonal suppression = impaired muscle synthesis and performance.

Long-term effects:

• Weight gain: alcohol has low nutritional value with one drink containing an average of 100-150 empty calories. The body will store alcohol as fat by converting alcohol sugars into fatty acids.
• Nutritional deficiencies: decreases vitamin and mineral absorption, utilization and excretion (e.g.thiamin (vitamin B-1), vitamin B-12, folic acid and zinc).
• Disease: long-term, heavy drinking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, anemia, liver damage, depression and dementia.
• Illness and injury: depresses immune function and contributes to delayed healing. Injury rate for drinkers = 54.8% vs. non-drinkers = 23.5%.

Other physiological effects:

• Cancels out muscle gains: decreases testosterone and growth hormone, and enzymes important in supporting muscle growth.
• Depletes energy sources: affects the ability to produce fuel for muscle contraction, resulting in loss of energy and poor endurance.
  Hormones:
• Increases glucocorticoids (most notably cortisol) - stress hormones that influence metabolism and development.
• Decreases human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone—critical to muscle development and repair.

A healthy body is critical to achieving optimal performance for all athletes: it’s important for the athlete to consider these consequences and how it will affect future training sessions, games and competition.

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