Dr. Allan Horowitz, published newspaper article, Richmond Hill Liberal, Copyright October 31, 1990

Dear Dr. Horowitz:

You may think this letter is a joke, but I assure you it is not. I am a 25 year old who plays hockey in a men’s hockey league in Toronto. I have played hockey most of my life and I am quite good at it, once being drafted by a National Hockey League team.

I really do not think I have a problem with alcohol, but my wife (of six months) insists that I get some help.

I have one or two beers a day, sometimes three, sometimes nothing at all. I don’t drink anything else and I go through a case of 24 beers in about two to three weeks. She doesn’t argue with that.

She is concerned with the fact that I always like to have a few beers before I play hockey. I may have two before a game, but sometimes I might have five or six before a game. I know it is strange, but I really don’t enjoy it as much after the game, when everyone else is usually having a few “cold ones.”

I seem to be more relaxed in my skating, more loose and I enjoy myself more if I have had a few drinks first. What is your opinion?

Answer:

            I don’t want to say if you do or do not have a problem with alcohol, as 24 beers consumed in a two-to three – week period does not seem to me to be excessive alcohol consumption.

The question is your alcohol use before your hockey games. There is no question that alcohol acts to dull your reflexes and senses, throws your timing off, alters your balance and decreases your reaction time. All of these factors will combine to make you much more susceptible to injury.

I can’t explain why you enjoy the feelings of playing hockey while under the influence of alcohol. Yes, it may relax you, but hockey is a game of speed, strength and finesse and all of these should be depressed, not enhanced by your alcohol consumption.

I would go out on a limb and say that you may even be a much better player if you refrained from the beers before a game. Have you tried it?

The American College of Sports Medicine states that the acute ingestion of alcohol can exert a deleterious effect upon a wide variety of psychomotor skills such as reaction time, hand-eye co-ordination, accuracy, balance and complex co-ordination.

The alcohol may also impair body temperature regulation during prolonged exercise in a cold environment (such as a hockey rink). Alcohol may decrease strength, power, local muscular endurance, speed and cardiovascular endurance.

These are the effects of alcohol in sports. I have said nothing about the effects of alcohol in general, such as liver, heart, brain and muscle damage.

There is something called Anstie’s Rule, which gives a guideline for safe drinking limits. This rule states that no more than 0.5 ounces of pure alcohol per 23 kg. of body weight should be consumed in any one day.

Therefore, for a 68 kg.person (150) pounds) the maximum intake would be three bottles of 4.5 per cent beer, three four-ounce glasses of 14 per cent wine, or three ounces of 50 per cent whiskey.

These intakes are the recommended maximum and have nothing to do with athletic performance. In your case, I think you should stop drinking before hockey games before you end up with a serious injury.

You have been a good, and lucky player up until this point. Don’t press your luck.