London - Forget resting in bed nursing a hangover: the morning after the night before.
Nia Woolcock, 33, is much more likely to be hitting the gym.
On a weekend night out she might manage around four pints of beer, plus a cocktail or two, and any number of shots of spiced rum. But come Monday morning, she’s working out.
“I’m really conscious of my health and I watch what I eat and care what I look like,” explains Nia, who lives in Neath, South Wales, with her husband Robert, 33, and their two children, James, 11, and Menna, six.
“That doesn’t change just because I like a drink. Going out with friends on the weekend and having a good time is part of my social life. But I have to be in the gym four or five times a week without fail or I feel I’m not staying on top of things.”
Nia, a local government administrator who sticks to just the “odd gin and tonic” during the week, is one of a new breed of drinkers who believe that they can cancel out the health risks of alcohol by lifting weights or running on the treadmill.
“The way I see it, those hours spent in the gym have to undo some of the damage that drinking causes,” she says.
A report published recently reveals that people who drink more than the recommended maximum limits are much more likely to exercise regularly than teetotallers and those who drink moderately.
The Way We Drink Now, an independent survey of 1 250 men and women aged 18 and over from across the UK, backed by charities Alcohol Concern and Drink Wise Wales, found that 27 percent of people classed as “possibly dependent” on alcohol - women who drink the equivalent of two-and-a-half standard glasses of 12 percent strength wine per day (five units) or men who drink the equivalent of four pints of three to four percent strength lager a day (seven-and-a-half units) - exercised four or more times a week. This was far more than teetotallers or moderate drinkers.
Meanwhile, just nine percent of people who are heavy drinkers say they never exercise, compared to 26 percent of people who drink moderately or not at all.
As Jackie Ballard, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, explains: “Many people think you can ‘bank’ good behaviour at the gym and credit it against bad behaviour in bars, but life doesn’t work like that.”
Mark Holmes, an alcohol nurse and addiction specialist based in Nottingham, adds that for many, exercise is also a way to expunge the guilt when they’ve been drinking too much. “You misuse your body at the weekend and then the penance is spending time in the gym on Monday.”
And many of the men and women who are trying to outrun the impact of alcohol on their health are well-educated professionals such as Nia who see themselves as health-conscious and responsible.
Studies show that heavier drinkers are now more likely to be higher earners and well-educated with university degrees, while around half of the “possibly dependent” drinkers described themselves as “fairly normal” drinkers, according to this week’s report, commissioned by pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck.
Lee Cuggy, 40, a beauty salon owner from Neath, is proud of her flat stomach and toned upper arms and credits them to working out and watching her diet - but she isn’t about to give up her pinot grigio.
Over the years, she has been a regular at her local gym, going almost every day to use the running machines and spinning bikes. “I was addicted at one time. I couldn’t wait until it was time for my workout,” she says.
Lee, who lives with her partner Dominic, who runs a local livery, is now more likely to saddle-up - she rides four or five times a week, often with her 13-year-old daughter Jazz - but she still visits the gym for regular boxercise sessions.
Lee agrees that working out is a good way to dampen any feelings of guilt due to drinking. “I can easily polish off a bottle of wine if I’m out with friends on a Friday or Saturday night, although I tend to stick to a few glasses or a cocktail or two if it’s a week day.
“As long as I exercise the following morning, despite feeling lethargic and tired, the guilt will be gone.”
What Lee, and many others, may not realise is that far from making up for an extra glass of wine or three, sweating through a hangover can actually cause more health problems. Studies have found that exercising between bouts of heavy drinking puts extra strain on the heart and can lengthen recovery time of muscle injuries.
This is partly due to dehydration caused by excessive drinking - alcohol is a diuretic - meaning the heart has to work harder to push thicker blood around the body. Exercise and sweating just makes dehydration worse.
Heavy drinking can lead to serious health problems such as liver disease, heart disease and mental illness - being fit is no protection against alcohol damage. “More needs to be done to tell people about the dangers - otherwise there is a tendency just to think it’s a simple swap between exercise and alcohol,” says Holmes.
Women who drink to excess may develop an apple shape, regardless of exercise, which is associated with a greater risk of heart disease and diabetes.
A 2009 study by researchers at University College London found that female “binge” drinkers (who drank more than a bottle of wine at a sitting) gained around four extra inches to the waist over a three-year period, compared with just two inches gained by men who drank similar amounts.
Long-term consumption of alcohol may affect bone density, too. This is because alcohol can interfere with the movement of calcium between the bloodstream and bones.
And toned abs could hide the tell-tale signs that you are drinking too much. “Sometimes, I wish the liver was outside the body so people could see how much damage they were doing to this crucial organ,” says Holmes.
“It doesn’t have any nerves so it doesn’t hurt, but this doesn’t mean it isn’t being traumatised.”
It doesn’t help that there is widespread confusion about how much is too much - that glass of wine could contain a lot more alcohol than you think.
“People may not actually be aware that wine is a stronger alcoholic drink than it used to be,” says Dr Steve Brinksman, a GP based in Birmingham and clinical leader of Substance Misuse Management in General Practice.
According to Nritish government data, a small glass of wine (125ml) contains 1.5 units of alcohol; a standard glass contains two units (175ml) and a large glass of wine three units (250ml), based on the wine containing 11 percent Alcohol By Volume (ABV). Yet many popular wine varieties today actually contain 14 percent ABV, as they tend to come from the New World, where the hotter climate means grapes ripen with a higher sugar content, which in turn means higher alcohol levels.
One way of tackling the problem would be to take the message into our gyms. “Personal trainers are in an ideal position to have conversations with gym members about their nutrition and alcohol intake,” says Ballard.
Another worrying finding in today’s report is how adults who drink heavily are more likely to live in households with children than people who drink moderately or not at all. The more you drink, the more likely you are to live with children.
So while only 26 percent of the lower-risk drinking group reported that they lived in a household with children, this increased to 29 percent of the next group (hazardous drinkers), 44 percent for the group that was drinking at harmful levels and shot up to 54 percent of the possible dependent group.
The reasons for this can only be guessed at, but it could be linked to the added stress of childcare, suggests Mark Holmes.
There is also the problem that the drinking culture starts at the school gates, as Alison Wheeler, director of Drink Wise, explains: “We are seeing an emerging culture among some moms who see it as a way to socialise and relax after the school day. It used to be a cup of tea, now it’s a glass of wine at 3.30pm instead.”
This culture could be related to the rapid increase in alcohol consumption among young women which started in the Nineties. “Bridget Jones has grown up and has children of her own, but she’s still reaching for the chardonnay at wine o’clock when the kids have gone to bed,” adds Holmes.
Studies have found that children exposed to excessive drinking in the home are more likely to drink to excess themselves later in life. “If children are around adults who are consuming alcohol excessively, it normalises the process,” says Dr Brinksman.
Interestingly, after pubs and restaurants, schools are the third biggest group of premises licensed for serving alcohol. One way to address this “normalisation” of drinking could to be to limit the granting of temporary alcohol licences.
“On the one hand, schools are there to give a health message about drinking. On the other, they set up temporary bars at school fetes and open days. This gives the wrong signals,” says Holmes.
Daily Mail