TN50#171_Alcohol – The 4th Macro _22 July_2024

Hi Team,

I don’t know about you, but for me a lot of good things have happened because of alcohol. For instance, I worked with a few amazing commandos who joined the Army because of drinking. Yep, some really thoughtful judge said, “you can join the Army or get another DUI”. Oh, and here’s one: I was visiting my hometown back in the late 90’s and went out for a beer with my buddy Paul and guess who I ran into!? I ran into an old crush from high school who became my wife 25+ years ago.  Ok, ok, ok I’m being extra cheeky and cheesy because honestly the rest of this content today is boring. Boring, but necessary for those of you who consume alcohol and/or care about other peeps who do.

Happy Monday and welcome to The Next 50 #171. I like to think of personal performance in 3 components: physical, mental and emotional.  My frameworks focus on 4 Buckets: Eat, Sleep, Move and Think.  This blog is my sandbox for sharing information that you might find useful for your personal performance.

A gram of alcohol has 7 calories, almost double that of protein and carbs (both have 4 calories, a gram) and a little less than fat (1 gram has 9 calories). I teach my people to think about alcohol, like they think about the other macros.  I teach it as the 4th macro, so my clients understand the role it plays in their EAT frameworks right alongside the other 3 – and that’s just a starting point.  If you drink alcohol, you should understand how it affects you – physically, mentally and emotionally.  So please read on!

Wow, Rhonda Patrick, PhD released a 3 hour and 24 minutes podcast on the consumption of alcohol, it is the most complete resource on the topic I’ve listened to; this link will take you to the podcast page and incredibly detailed notes.

Here are 2 completely new things I learned:

  1. Consuming fruit when you drink can accelerate the clearance of alcohol from your body – considerably. Of course, this causes a spike in blood sugar.
  2. Light to moderate drinking (1 – 14 drinks a week) may reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s by up to 26% for older adults. And, as your dementia risk goes down, your cancer risk goes up!

I’m sure most of you will listen to the whole thing, the links right above here!  Ha, ha. (-;

I realize this is a bridge too far for most of you, so please pick and choose based on what matters to you.

  • 00:20:02 – Why you should up your intake of zinc and magnesium if you regularly drink
  • 00:42:09 – Alcohol’s detrimental effects on brain volume loss
  • 00:44:16 – Why alcohol facilitates thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, deficiency — and how this might increase levels of iron in the brain
  • 00:46:17 – How alcohol causes neuroinflammation via gut-brain axis disruption
  • 00:47:17 – The nuanced relationship between alcohol consumption and dementia & Alzheimer’s disease risk
  • 01:01:12 – Should you drink red wine for the resveratrol benefits?
  • 01:14:10 – Strategies for minimizing alcohol’s adverse sleep effects
  • 01:20:56 – Which drinks cause the worst hangovers?
  • 01:22:22 – Why consuming fructose with alcohol could mitigate hangover symptoms
  • 01:25:05 – Why higher intake of zinc and vitamin B3 might correlate with less severe hangover symptoms
  • 01:26:06 – Why you should avoid taking NSAIDs like Ibuprofen or acetaminophen to reduce hangover symptoms
  • 01:26:46 – The best hangover cures (or lack thereof)
  • 01:38:54 – Is alcohol responsible for longevity in Blue Zones?
  • 01:43:33 – How 1-3 drinks per day can double the risk of breast & colon cancer in men & women, respectively
  • 01:49:59 – Why consuming 5 drinks a week could be like smoking 10 cigarettes a week for women
  • 02:22:58 – How alcohol impacts your waistline and visceral fat, which can contribute to harmful systemic inflammation
  • 02:25:22 – Are certain types of alcohol better than others when it comes to avoiding fat gain?
  • 02:28:37 – The detrimental effects of alcohol on male & female fertility
  • 02:39:03 – Why mothers and fathers should probably abstain from alcohol for at least 3 months before trying to conceive
  • 02:43:28 – The impact of maternal & paternal alcohol consumption prior to conception
  • 02:56:08 – Does alcohol really “blunt your gains”?
  • 03:01:22 – Why exercise may lessen alcohol cravings
  • 03:07:32 – Alcohol damage control tactics

If you’d like an even more dialed in outline with hyperlinks go to the episode “timeline” page this is an incredibly detailed timeline.

A lot of the knowledge we need to live our best life is boring or in some cases, a little scary.  This doesn’t mean you get a pass on understanding alcohol if you drink, IMO.  So scroll back up and dive in to some or all of this material.

Who do you know that could use this information? I bet you can think of a couple folks before you click the next email, please share the post with your team and anyone who might find it useful and let me know what you think!

Have a good one,

Alex

PS. If you have question regarding your personal performance? Let me know at: alex@fpp.llc

PPS. If you’re new to First Principles Performance Coaching, here’s a one stop shop for my stuff.

PPPS. Ready to improve your Executive and Human Performance, email me so I can introduce you to my first ever Better Basics Program – Team Coaching opportunity!  alex@fpp.llc