Real Men Drink Beer (or does beer make men real?)
The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on the Urinary Testosterone/Epitestosterone Ratio
By Dr Simon Davis B.Sc., Ph.D.
Summary
Intoxicating beverages contain a number of different forms of alcohol, the major constituent of which is ethanol. When a beverage is consumed the ethanol content passes through the stomach wall and digestive tract into the blood stream. Once the ethanol enters circulation it begins to alter the bodies' biochemistry. One such reaction is to differentially increase the rates of testosterone (T) and
epitestosterone (E) metabolism. The overall effect of this reaction is
to increase the ratio of T to E excreted in the urine.
It has been reported that ethanol consumption can increase urinary T/E ratios by 30% - 277% in healthy individuals. Observed changes in plasma T/E ratios can occur with the consumption of less than 2 pints of lager. The ingestion of ethanol by an individual will increase the T/E ratio observed in a urine sample.
It follows that if the effect of ethanol on T/E ratios is calculated relative to urinary E concentrations, it can be seen that increases in the ratio are exponential as E concentrations decrease. Individuals with naturally low E concentrations could, therefore, experience increases in T/E ratios of 940% greater than increases experienced in an individual with normal E concentrations. Calculations estimate that in individuals with low urinary E concentration, ratios of 17 to 1 or higher could have resulted from ethanol consumption without any administration of exogenous T.
The current T/E ratio test as performed by Kings College Laboratory and approved by the UK Sports, the IWF and IOC cannot discriminate between a 13 to 1 T/E ratio resulting from ethanol ingestion or a 13 to 1 ratio resulting from endogenous T administration.
Editor's Note: There also appears to be a question of the T/E ratio test validity.
posted by Lorri Lee Lown -- velogirl @ 7/27/2006 11:42:00 AM
9 Comments:
Maybe Floyd had more than one beer?
he would have had to have the beer just before his test.
I'm not really good at reading all this e ratio blah blah, but it sounds as if the effect is only while the alcohol is in the bloodstream?
Pulling at straws, I guess.
pesky little editor's note
maybe someone slipped some testosterone into his beer
That explains the hair on my chest...
Hey - maybe Flandis made a big show about the beer just cuz he KNEW about this beer/testosterone thing!!
Gotta love a good conspiracy theory.
I was thinking the same thing, EChick! I mean, who cares if you have a beer? You don't exactly call a press conference about it. But he mentioned it in a bunch of interviews. Maybe he was coverin his butt....err balls!
you've been quoted!
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