Postexercise rehydration with beer impairs fluid retention, reaction time, and balance

Beer is promoted by popular media as a good choice for rehydration, but there is limited support for the claim. To assess the effect of beer alcohol on rehydration and motor control, 11 young (24.4 ± 3.7 years old) males of legal drinking age were dehydrated to 2.12% ± 0.20% body mass (mean ± SD) by exercising in a climatic chamber (31.7 ± 1.6 °C, 55.0% ± 8.3% relative humidity) on 3 different days, 1 week apart, and rehydrated with 100% of their sweat loss using water (WATER), 4.6% alcohol beer (BEER), or low-alcohol beer (LAB), in random order. Urine output, blood alcohol content (BAC), reaction time (RT), and balance (as measured by center of pressure velocity (VCoP)) were measured every 30 min over 3 h and compared via 2-way, repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs). After consuming ≈1.6 L in 1 h, urine output was greater for BEER (1218 ± 279 mL) than for LAB (745 ± 313 mL, p = 0.007) and WATER (774 ± 304 mL, p = 0.043). BAC remained at 0 with WATER and LAB; with BEER, BAC reached 0.857 g/L (95% confidence intervals [0.752, 0.963]) immediately postrehydration. RT was longer for BEER (0.314 ± 0.039 s) than for LAB (0.294 ± 0.034 s, p = 0.009), but was no different from WATER (0.293 ± 0.049 s, p = 0.077). VCoPx was significantly higher for BEER (0.0284 ± 0.0020 m/s) compared with LAB (0.0233 ± 0.0010 m/s) or WATER (0.0238 ± 0.0010 m/s) (p = 0.022), but VCoPy was not different among beverages. In conclusion, rehydration with BEER resulted in higher diuresis, slower RT, and impaired VCoP than rehydration with LAB or WATER.