Eating When Rehabbing from an Injury

Finn Melanson [00:00:14]: Hello, fellow runners. I'm your host, Finn Mollanson, and this It's the Run to the Top podcast. The podcast dedicated to making you a better runner with each and every episode. We are created and produced by the expert team of coaches at runnersconnect.net where you can find the best running information on the Internet as well as training plans to fit Every runner and every budget. Recovering from an injury is an uphill battle from day 1. You're frustrated and likely depressed that you can't run, worried about your diagnosis or lack thereof, In trying to put together the best rehab program you can. On top of all that, you'll likely need to rethink the way you eat since your level of activity is lower than normal, You want to make sure you're eating foods that maximize your recovery. Do you eat less to offset training less? Do you eat more to give your body Extra nutrients to aid in the recovery process? What about anti inflammatory foods? Do they help or do they hinder? And are there any supplements that can help? In today's episode, we're bringing you a never published episode we recorded with the late professor Kevin Tipton.

Finn Melanson [00:01:24]: Kevin was a Senior lecturer in exercise metabolism in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Birmingham and An assistant professor, department of surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Sadly, Kevin passed away last year, but we still wanted to share this episode with you since it's so helpful and packed with valuable information all runners can use when they are injured. Kevin's passion for his work, his dedication to science and research, and most importantly, his compassion and caring for others shines through in this interview. We hope that you enjoy and walk away with some actionable advice so that food can be an asset and a source of pleasure rather than a source of stress during an already trying time. With that, let's dive in. Metabolic profiling, sometimes referred to as MET pro, is an advanced methodology created by transformation specialist, Angelo Poli. MetPro analyzes a person's specific response to diet and activity and adjusts based on their personal needs and goals. We'll talk more about it in detail later in the show.

Finn Melanson [00:02:34]: But if you're interested in seeing how it works and getting a free consultation, Check it out at metpro.coforward/rtt. That's metpro dotcoforward/rtt. If you're looking for the most effectively dosed electrolyte drink for runners, check out Element. It's loaded with everything you need to replenish your electrolyte balance, and you can get a free sample pack by going to drinklmnt.com forward slash runners connect. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Guest [00:03:14]: I am Professor. My official title is professor of sport, health, and exercise sciences, and I'm I'm the lead Of the physiology exercise nutrition research group here at the University of Sterling. My main research focus has to do with nutrition and exercise, particularly in muscle. And a lot of it's Revolve around protein metabolism and and protein nutrition. You know, otherwise, I do what You do at universities, you know, have been doing a lot of marking here today. It's into the term, and doing a lot of dissertation marking and that sort of stuff, a lot they go on the board meetings and all that stuff

Finn Melanson [00:04:05]: too. How can malnutrition and certain deficiencies increase one's risk for injury?

Guest [00:04:11]: I mean, it's gonna have to be, yeah, pretty pretty good deficiencies really. They're they're the the one that comes to mind the most quickly, of course, is calcium. And, you know, you could argue that, efficiency of calcium could possibly lead to bone problems and, You know, in the type of bone injuries that you get with overuse overuse injuries. And, I mean, I don't I don't know that you can find data to directly, you know, you can't do the Proper studies. Right? You can't say, okay. We're gonna put you on a calcium efficiency. We're gonna see how many how many fractures you get. But I think at least anecdotally, I'm pretty sure there's some, you know, sort of epidemiology that that would support that with different injuries.

Guest [00:04:58]: Other connections with directly with injuries and and nutrition I'm not aware of of At least the deficiencies, you can certainly put together a story and say a deficiency of this or that's gonna, You know, leads to this, which could possibly lead to an injury. But, again, you can't really get any direct evidence, so it's gotta be kind of, You know, you deduce and and try to avoid those things. But the fact is don't wanna have malnutrition. You don't wanna have a deficiency anyway. So I I think that that's, That's probably the main consideration.

Finn Melanson [00:05:40]: Is attempting to dramatically reduce inflammation through the use of anti inflammatory medication actually inhibit recovery? And and if so, why is this?

Guest [00:05:50]: Yeah. It's possible. There there are animal studies suggesting that that's true that, For example, if if you there are a couple studies showing that if you take a rat, you you injure them and then Put them on anti inflammatories if they don't heal as quickly. There are there are also studies that refute that. So, it's a little bit controversial but, the inflammatory process is a is a necessary process to the healing. And in fact, I think, if I remember correctly, a lot of, A lot of the the the what you'd say in the states is per you know, the training the athletic training, kind of thing is going away from the ice as much as they were in the past because it it inhibits, possibly inhibits things too much. So so, yeah, I think it makes sense that That you the natural and plant point process is part of the deal. It's it's there for a reason, you know, neutrophils, etcetera.

Guest [00:06:50]: So I I think that's there, but, obviously, too much information or too prolonged, and that's Gonna be a negative, but the natural one is is not a negative. It's it's necessary, so Reducing it too much is gonna be an issue. What that really means in practice is very difficult, I think. So I Think it needs to be a little bit, maybe common sense to try to do that from a practical standpoint. But but the concept, I think, is clear. You don't wanna Inhibit inflammation too much, and then that's where the challenge is, what is too much. In the 1st review paper I wrote on this a few years ago, I I think I stepped that through. Essentially, the the gist of it is that, you know, the you're getting inflammation because you're you're increasing the blood flow to that area to bring in, Components that are are there macrophages and neutrophils that are gonna come in and and, You know, to be overly simplistic, you know, sort of take care of some of the damaged tissue and And to to try to get the healing process started, so to speak.

Guest [00:08:03]: So that inflammation is at least partially because Just increase blood flow. That's why it turns red. Right? You know, you get an injury area, it turns turns really red. So so that's the gist of it, I think.

Finn Melanson [00:08:16]: You've said the worst thing for an injured runner to do is to become inactive. How does inactivity affect protein synthesis, insulin resistance in other body processes.

Guest [00:08:29]: Alright. Well, I'll I'll just even expand and say, I think the worst thing anybody could do is be inactive. So, But but but, obviously, when when someone's injured and and believe me, I know what's I've had more than my share of injuries throughout my, You know, not so spectacular in your athletic career, but, the temptation, of course, is to not do much, especially if you're If you if it's a lower limb injury, when walking becomes difficult, or, you know, even if you're on crutches or something, so the temptation is just to do less. So, obviously, if, let's say, a limb is immobilized, you you know, in a cast, etcetera, The net limb by definition has to be inactive. And so, obviously, people everybody knows if you go into a cash, you're gonna lose muscle. But even just inactivity itself will will lead to, problems. For example, Lee Green did a study a few years ago, had had people just reduced their step count. So they dropped their step count by 75%, and that led to a decrease in the muscle's ability to respond to anabolic stimulation.

Guest [00:09:43]: So it led to the muscles inability to respond to, to protein ingestion, Not inability to respond, a reduction in the ability to respond to protein in just 2 weeks of of less walking. So if you You have to extend that. And when you talk about research around injuries in nutrition, we always have to there are very few direct Studies on that problem. There are very few studies on injured athletes. So we we tend to try to extrapolate from other models. And so that's one model that you can go with. Now if you immobilize a limb, we know for sure that that antibody resistance comes quickly, but then they showed that it just has to be a reduction in the step count. Now the follow-up to that study this is all done at Stu Phillips' lab in Canada.

Guest [00:10:32]: And the follow-up to that was by Mikaela DeVries, and she Then had people reduce their set count but then, also 1 group then did some weight lifting along with that, and that that defended That muscle the muscle's ability. So suggesting if you put all that together, that suggests that the inactivity the the lower activity, it Leads to problems, including insulin resistance. Insulin sensitivity went down and we study as well. And but then having it's just doing some exercise along with it will will help defend that loss. And so, you know, you put that together to suggest that you, you know, you wanna try to do other things as much as possible even when you're injured. Now Just to be clear, those studies are done in older people. So there is some questions how quickly whether younger people would We'd have a problem so quickly, but we do know that in younger people, if you mobilize a little bit ago, yeah, if you put somebody in a bed rest that The antibiotic resistance shows up in young people as well. So, that but that's total of an activity rather than just reduced.

Guest [00:11:44]: But still common sense would say, if you're an injured athlete that you don't wanna just start sitting around and doing nothing to try to heal. You wanna do other things. And I think Probably most athletes would want to do that anyway because that's you know, the worst thing about being injured is not being able to do what you wanna do. Right? And then then you could really if you really want to try to extend this, there is some evidence that there's a crossover kind of effect with If you have an injured limb and you exercise the opposite limb that there's a there's sort of a a neural crossover that you're gonna get a little bit of stimulation in the And it's when it's not being exercised now, again, I think it's very difficult to make a real strong conclusion about that think, but, hey, why not? Right? It's it it might might help. And there are certainly a good argument for that, and I definitely have seen that argument made very Very vociferously, but I've also seen the other side say no, it doesn't work. And then There's some data out of, Luke Beloane's lab and mastering and showing that electrical stimulation of the limb that's injured can help defend some of the loss of muscle. So, again, suggesting that you wanna activate that that muscle somehow So you can actually make some inroads into defending your muscle loss if with electrical stimulation. So that's another option people might wanna think about.

Guest [00:13:10]: And in fact, To be fair, that there are similar results from the eighties that that suit had made a similar suggestion. So All I put together and it's not difficult to argue that you wanna keep your limbs active. On a whole body level, you can defend, you can defend Sort of overall instant sensitivity anabolic resistance. But in the injured rim itself, It's very difficult, but possibly some transference from the other limb and or maybe electrical stimulation could be important. What is anabolic resistance? Anabolic resistance is a concept where in which, A muscle becomes resistant to the stimulation from an anabolic stimulant. So For example, the most common is protein or amino acids. Normal muscle will respond pretty robustly to to protein ingestion. And, but if if a muscle is compromised somehow, for example, with inactivity, Then or it happens in aging, but I I argue that aging anabolic resistance is at least partially if not entirely due to Less activity, but, so the muscle becomes, resistant to that stimulation.

Guest [00:14:39]: In older people, it's also seems to be the simulation from exercises as robust either. So let's say if you give someone protein And their muscles have often inactive let's say, it'll increase by 50 to a 100% the rate of protein census in the muscle, But it would only it would only go up to say, by 30% or something like that if it's If it's anabolic resistance. So you get a stimulation, but it's not as much. So it's resistant. It's it's it's similar to the concept of The body becoming the muscles especially becoming resistant to insulin stimulation resulting in glucose uptake.

Finn Melanson [00:15:21]: Runners often dramatically increase their calorie intake to quote unquote makeup for, the decrease in the calories they burn while injured. I'm curious. Does this affect recovery time, and and are there any other consequences of this?

Guest [00:15:38]: Well, I yeah. I definitely again, it's very common as you say that for people to just automatically back off of what they're eating. And probably, it's almost certainly gonna be necessary to back off a little bit, especially if someone a runner is someone who's doing you know, back in the day, I used to do 40, 50 miles a week. And so if you All of a sudden aren't running, that that's a big change in your energy intake or energy expenditure. So, yeah, probably, it's not a bad idea to cut down Intake, but the trick is don't back down too much. Up a reduced energy intake will result in lower Rates of muscle protein synthesis. And so if you are in a cast, if you are immobile, well, you're liable to accelerate the rate of muscle loss if you aren't eating enough. So the trick is to to balance that.

Guest [00:16:28]: And, you know, for most Most runners who who aren't, you know, supported, like, at the elite level, that's gonna be difficult. It might have to be some trial and error, But reducing it too much is is a problem. Now the argument would be, Okay. So I'm just gonna I'm just gonna eat enough then. If I put on a little fat while while I'm, You know, inactive. No big deal. When I start training again, I can I can lose it and get back into shape? And to a point, that's probably not too bad, but it but, we do know that energy excess also will lead to enhanced or increased muscle loss in some situations. There are bed rest studies suggesting that that's true.

Guest [00:17:17]: So Oh, too little and too much energy when you're injured is bad thing. So the trick is to try to balance it as best you can. Really aim for balance. And that again, that's that can be a challenge. The easiest way would just be to keep an eye on the scale. Now the trouble with that, of course, is if you're losing muscle or gaining fat, then your scale won't change. So your your weight won't change. So it may not be quite so clear.

Guest [00:17:44]: Plus, if you're If you are deciding you're gonna cut carbohydrates, well, you're probably gonna lose water, so you go and just wait that way and and things. But The simplest way would be sort of trying to just make sure you're not putting on weight or or losing too much weight. And just And if you do have a way to assess body composition, somehow that would be a bad idea either just to try to then factor that in with the weight loss. And, of course, it depends on how long it is. If it's only for a couple of weeks, it's you know, the shorter duration is the the less of an issue you got. But it's long term, then, yeah, you want to you want to be careful. But, yeah, I mean, there's no magic to it. You know, it's pretty straightforward.

Guest [00:18:27]: But, and there might be others that have have better tricks than I can think of. But, Those would be what I would do. It's just try to keep an eye on on how much weight I'm gaining or losing and then back off accordingly. Obviously, if you have if you have an opportunity At a higher level, if you have access to say some way to assess energy expenditure, then that might be a thing. So if if more elite athletes might be able to get into labs And do a resting energy expenditure assessment, then see how that changes, and then you can maybe try to adjust the energy intake accordingly. So if you have Access to more sophisticated measurements, then you could try those too. But for probably, I'm guessing that a lot of your your runners are are probably people that are just out Try to stay healthy and have a good time and do some races so they might have access to those sorts of things.

Finn Melanson [00:19:22]: Earlier this year, I was introduced to a nutritional methodology called metabolic profiling, which analyzes a person's specific response to diet and activity and adjusts accordingly based on personal needs and goals. In a sport like running where we are constantly fine tuning Our workouts, our long runs, and our recovery efforts inside our training plans based on inputs and outputs, this kind of approach to the nutritional aspect of the sport Just made sense to me. And that's where MetPro comes in. Under this metabolic profiling framework, you are assigned to A personal trainer and nutritionist who works with you based on a series of baseline tests, and it becomes this all encompassing fitness, Nutrition, weight loss, and overall lifestyle program for all types of runners to benefit from. Personally, I have not only benefited from their 1 on 1 nutritional Coaching, but also their app, which keeps the process of tracking your weight, your meals, and workouts very simple. If you're looking for accountability, A way to lose weight and to get stronger as an athlete? The Nut Pro is for you. I'm incredibly impressed with the whole process. And right now, You can get a free 30 minute consultation in metabolic assessment just by heading to metpro.coforward/rtt.

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Finn Melanson [00:21:37]: To get this special offer and to make sure you're hydrating properly this summer, head over to drinklmnt.com forward slash runners connect. Are there any Supplements that are scientifically proven to help facilitate recovery and to, maintain muscle mass during injury?

Guest [00:22:00]: If I were to make a list of everything that's been claimed to do that, then then, you know, that would be, a long list, and you'd be here all day. Obviously, the the first one that comes to mind, of course, is protein. But, you know, I mean, you you're asking specifically about supplements. In this particular situation, I don't see why you would need a supplement. I I you know, you can easily get this with food. A higher protein intake is probably advisable, particularly if you're gonna drop carbs, as you said earlier. So, protein would be 1. There are others that are that are touted, you know, omega 3 fatty acids again.

Guest [00:22:41]: But that's at least partially a lot of the claims are based on The anti inflammatory properties, so, you know, you gotta be careful about that. But there is there is some evidence in rodents that you that And you could piece together the evidence in humans, that omega 3 fatty acids combined with the protein might help you defend the muscle loss. There's a rationale for that. It's never been shown in humans. Although we're doing that study right now, so Give us a few months, so we can tell you whether or not we can see it. But, But that would those would be the 2 that comes to mind most quickly. But you've seen claims for all sorts of things. Vitamin c, vitamin e, antioxidants, etcetera, Mucosamine and all sorts of things.

Guest [00:23:35]: So I I think at best, the evidence for those, you would say, is equivocal, and and At worst, it's a little crap. Yeah. I I would say that the most important cut what I would do if it were me or if I were advising someone, I I get their protein intake up. And We did a study a few years ago. It was in weight loss, but that's a situation, again, where muscle is lost and and, you know, we put the protein up to about 2.3 grams per kilo, And and they didn't lose the weight that guys were on less protein were on. And Stu Phillips has done a couple like that as well. Pretty clear that in a in a situation where muscle is lost, if you keep protein intake high, then it can help. It might not completely eliminate muscle loss, but it it seems to help.

Guest [00:24:20]: And and then we the jury's still out on the omega 3 fatty acids, in humans, but It's possible that those might be helpful too. You could argue that you wouldn't wanna have those omega 3 fatty acids Immediately after the exercise in case that inflammatory process is inhibited too much. But it's hard to say Because you don't you know, if if there is it's not a major inhibition, it's probably not an issue. But we're guessing, you know, again, we don't have enough Direct evidence from humans, and so we have to try to piece things together. But that would be what makes sense to me.

Finn Melanson [00:25:01]: So while inflammation is is good for recovery to a degree, it can be harmful after a certain point. How do you know when to take anti inflammatories is, is what I'm wondering.

Guest [00:25:14]: This is a great question. I I I have no idea. I mean, how do you even measure it, really? You know, most people are measuring inflammation with sort of blood markers things in there. They're very indirect and and not always accurate. So I don't know how you would even assess it. I think you're probably talking excessive being in really, really bad clinical situations like cancer, cachexia, and things. And the inflammation with a particular injury is is probably not, You know, I would probably still put some ice on it or something just because it hurt it relieves the pain a little bit, but and maybe the incense also relieve the pain, Which may or may not be a bad thing, but and most people want the pain to go away, so you wanna do something. But I think the thing is just to be cautious and not overdo it.

Guest [00:26:08]: I I know 20 years ago when I was running a lot and we get injured, you know, you go on. The docs would say, here, get this in here, just take it. People taking incense like they're, you know, like, just all the time. And There were all sorts of issues that came came from that with different people that I knew, and, I mean, everything from gut problems, etcetera. But, Well, what we didn't know is that we're probably just slowing down the healing process or at least potentially, I should say, to be cautious. But I think that concept is becoming more accepted. Now but I I don't really know how you decide whether it was too much or not. I really don't.

Guest [00:26:47]: That's a tough one.

Finn Melanson [00:26:49]: I'm curious. Should runners increase their protein intake while injured? And if so, by how much, relative to their weight? Like, How how should they spread out their their protein across a day for the best results?

Guest [00:27:04]: Alright. That's that's probably, you know, again, Not everyone agrees with that, but it seems to be at least a consensus among people and my colleagues that spreading it out is probably better. The concept comes from our we have a paper that came out a couple years ago, and and Stu was one of the first ones to do it in there, and Where we showed that anything over about 20, 20 grams, 20 grams, so or or, So 0.25 grams per kilo, 0.25 to 3 grams per kilo in any given any given meal Tends to be what maximizes muscle protein synthesis. Now we've recently shown that that's not necessarily true in all situations When people are exercising. But at rest, that certainly seems to be true that you can rarely ever get a bigger stimulation from anything over about 20, 25 grams. So the idea is, you know, why have 50 grams one time and 10 the other? You get it you get You only get 20 grams worth of response in the when you take 50, and you you only get 10 grams, you get less response with 10 than 20. So why not put that Put that in a 2, you know, 2 30 gram doses, and you're more likely to get 2 2, better responses. The overall response better.

Guest [00:28:29]: So that's why spread it out, seems to be popular. There are a couple studies supporting that, that notion With exercises, one by Jose Aretta and Stu Phillips and and John Hollywood lead on that one and Another one by, Mamarone, Doug S with Doug Mad Jones. And they both suggested that. But then there are others who who don't agree with that for In particular, Bob Wolf, the the colleagues don't like that, and and they've, Bob's had several studies that suggest that that's not Necessarily solid. But a lot of what they're arguing is on a whole body level. And so, to me, I've always Whenever they bring that up, I always say, well, okay, I think you need to differentiate between whether you're interested in the whole body and the muscle. So for an injured athlete, I would argue that Probably, the muscle is what you're mostly focused on. And so, yeah, spreading out the the the meals would probably be the best thing to think about doing, possibly eating a little bit more if you've done a a a workout or maybe go to the gym, you know, as we've talked earlier about, You know, wanting to try to do other exercise, then maybe you could you might argue that that post Workout meal might be be a little bit more.

Guest [00:29:50]: And then you get a a a new concept that people are arguing. Stu Stu makes this argument as and Luke, to some extent, That pre bedtime, proteins, what you're doing there is try to increase protein since it's overnight, when it normally would be relative to any problem. And, Luke has shown that that that does protein census overnight is higher with protein is suggested at night. The the problem with that is is that they haven't actually done the right control, so they don't know whether Let's say and they argue big dose protein at night because then you wanna keep amino acid levels high. And and a lot of people argue it should be casein because has a slow release, but I've never made sense out of that because they argue whey protein during the day Because it has a fast release, and casing is not as good as way. But then at night, it's supposed to be casing, so why would that it doesn't make any sense. So, You know, people are extrapolating a lot. You'll see this a lot on blogs and on the Internet and etcetera.

Guest [00:30:56]: So there's There's even an argument for, like, 60 grams just before bed. But we have an old study, and the study wasn't designed to test But when you look at the data, when you get dig in there, we did we gave we had people exercise at around 11 o'clock In the morning, 11, 12, something like that. And we gave them some amino acids at that time. In this case, it wasn't protein, essential amino acids. But then when we measured protein since this overnight, it was actually higher than when when they didn't exercise or take protein. So one indirect comparison, but at least suggest that It might it might not be that you have to have that protein immediately before bed, but it just might be another dose of protein during the day. But that would argue also support the argument you just asked about, which is it's spread out across state might be better.

Finn Melanson [00:31:45]: Some maintain that Certain things like phosphoric acid and and caffeine are, quote, unquote, bone robbers and actually leach minerals from the bones to contribute to stress fractures. Is this true?

Guest [00:31:57]: I don't I you know, I can't give a direct answer on that. My immediate response is to be very skeptical of that. You know, I I doubt that unless you're really getting lots of caffeine, I can't imagine that it's a big problem. It's the same thing with protein. You know, a lot of people think you shouldn't Have too much protein because protein's bad for bone, but that's all load crap too because you'd have to eat tons and tons of protein before it becomes a problem. And in fact, Not necessarily related to stress fractures, I don't think, but other fractures. Remember, bone It's made of not only the minerals, but but collagen. And that that bone collagen responds to protein.

Guest [00:32:39]: So you could even argue that the higher protein intake may help with with low meal because you're going to support the, you know, the matrix is going to be supported in the Development of the matrix in a fracture. So and Mike Rene's one who, the Mike Rene who unfortunately Passed away a couple months ago, but he he did this work about 10 years. So ago showing that bone, collagen response to protein intake. So I I don't don't know about I mean, I suspect the phosphoric acid Thing is if you're gonna get a big imbalance or too acidic in the blood, but your kidneys are very good your body's very good at maintaining the acidity in the in your body. So I I don't Just unless it's just crazy, something crazy you're doing, I can't imagine any of that's worth worrying about. Again, if you're eating a well balanced diet with plenty of fruits Tools and and, you know, possibly higher protein and having a couple cups of coffee a day. I can't I just don't see how that's gonna be an issue. I can't promise, But I'd be very skeptical about worrying about that stuff.

Guest [00:33:48]: It's epidemiological, you know, so we We have to now establish cause and effect. And I suspect a lot of types of things you're talking about are based on studies like that too. So I wouldn't worry too much about this. I would if you, Again, people tend to go to the extreme with these sorts of things. And they say, uh-huh. If, you know, if you do this really crazy thing And and eat tons and tons of whatever it is, you know, or let's say lots diet coke and get off. And by the way, there's not that much caffeine in diet coke, You know, really. So, you know, if you let's say lots of coffee and your bones are going bad, Well, then I shouldn't have any.

Guest [00:34:28]: So, you know, so you make this big jump from, you know, a rat study where they give them enough caffeine They would just damn near kill them, and then they want and then, you know, people say, well, I shouldn't have a cup of coffee. If I had an injured athlete that, you know, I was my client or whatever. I would say, look, let's let's focus on making sure you eat a well balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables and and A higher amount of protein. And then, yeah, if you enjoy coffee, have some. But I I wouldn't go around drinking Red Bull. Stay away from the extremes. It's probably okay.

Finn Melanson [00:35:07]: Any other tips on expediting rehabilitation through nutritional interventions?

Guest [00:35:12]: Yeah. There is 1 thing that we can think about, which is and I know I did this when I used to run. You know? So if I was running, like, I was racing, Then I would I would probably keep my beer intake, you know, a lot less than I would like. Right? You I would be avoiding it because, You know, it might interfere with the training and might put on weight or whatever. And then your injured say, I can have some beers. Right? And that's potentially a problem because, a couple of reasons. 1 And it obviously, it's just gonna depend on how much. You know, I'm not talking, like, a beer or 2.

Guest [00:35:47]: I'm talking about a bunch. We know that alcohol excessive alcohol will inhibit the healing process, and and there's a long list of the the the mechanisms for that. And I'm trying to think of where was the last place that I accomplished that in sports nutrition In 2015 or 16. And so alcohol interferes with the healing process, but also alcohol can interfere with muscle protein senses. It it inhibits it. So, you know, Possibly, you're gonna lose muscle faster if you're drinking a lot. Also, you know, we're talking calories, of course. And we talked about the The problem with the excessive calories.

Guest [00:36:35]: So probably as much as a temptation is to either say, I can drink a little bit more now, or I'm gonna drown my sorrows because I'm really bummed out that I'm injured. Probably need to be moderate on that as well. So the study that show with With humans, it wasn't an injured people, but it was it was just athletes, bits of weight lifting, and and with alcohol And then alcohol plus protein. So the response went as good as as, you know, obviously, with the exercise and the protein afterwards. That was that was, in healthy healthy people. So, but the response protein synthesis, again, you Got a resistance to the anabolic stimulation again with the alcohol. And and so, you know, The extrapolation there is is that might be even so you're already getting metabolic stimulation with inactivity, then you're gonna throw alcohol on top of it. And so you're not responding to your protein intake as well.

Guest [00:37:34]: It's likely to be what's what's gonna happen. So, You know, I think it's but that study was done with, say I can't remember exactly, but I wanna say it was sort of like 9 shots of vodka or something. So, Again, you do these studies, and we we call it the sledgehammer effect. You don't wanna do a study with just 2 drinks, and then you don't see anything. Then you don't know whether alcohol does anything at all or just not much. Alcohol. So you do it with the big amount first, and then you can kinda try to titrate back to see where the problem starts coming in. So we know alcohol is a problem.

Guest [00:38:08]: Now are people gonna drink sort of 7 or 8 or 9 drinks after, you know, when they're injured or something? Well, some might. So definitely don't do that much. Now if there's 1 or 2, it'll cause problems, we're not sure. Probably not, but we're not sure.

Finn Melanson [00:38:39]: Thanks for listening to the Run to the Top podcast. I'm your host, Finn Melanson. As always, our mission here is to help you become a better runner with every episode. Please consider connecting with me on Instagram at Wasatch Finn and the rest of our team at Runners Connect. Also consider supporting our show for free with a rating on the and Apple Podcast Players. And lastly, if you love the show and want bonus content, behind the scenes experiences with our guests, and premier access to contests and