Alcohol & Performance

Subject: Alcohol & Performance
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:26 AM

The threads on performance while under the influence got me looking for more info. I thought I'd share two interesting age related articles I came across related to age and performance (trying to be a bit equal opportunity here!).

On older subjects:

http://www.healthandage.com/Home/gm=2!gid2=879

Alcohol and Cognitive Performance

Source: Tufts University

Everyone knows that consuming too much alcohol can make it a challenge to walk in a straight line, let alone think straight. But a study in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that moderate alcohol consumption may help some men to stay mentally sharp as they get older.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health assessed the alcohol consumption of 3556 middle-aged Japanese-American men in the early 1970s. Eighteen years later, the researchers reassessed the participants' drinking habits and then administered tests designed to evaluate their long- and short-term memory skills. The men, by then between 71 to 93 years old, who routinely drank up to one alcoholic beverage per day did better on the memory tests than those who did not consume alcohol. On the other hand, those who drank more than one drink per day scored progressively worse on the memory tests. Those who consumed four or more drinks a day turned in the worst test scores.

How can alcohol help preserve cognitive function in the elderly? The researchers suggest that moderate alcohol intake may benefit the brain in the same manner that it benefits heart health--by increasing "good" HDL cholesterol and reducing blood clotting factors. These actions help keep blood vessels healthy and insure an adequate blood supply to the brain. The authors of the study also point out that people who consume about one drink per day are likely "social drinkers," meaning that they are engaged in social and intellectual activities that require them to be alert and thinking. That might help to keep them in better cognitive shape as they get older.

There have been a limited number of studies on alcohol consumption and mental function in the elderly, with some results similar to the current study and others showing no relationship. One strength of the current study is that it involved a large number of people who were followed for almost two decades, giving researchers a clear picture of their long-term drinking habits and health status.

Still, readers should view the results with caution. All of the study participants were of Japanese ancestry, and the findings may not apply to people of all ethnic backgrounds. People of European ancestry, for instance, have different patterns of dementia as they age and are more likely than those of other ethnic backgrounds to develop Alzheimer's disease. The study focused on men, and whether the benefit would extend to women is a question that remains to be answered. And, while moderate consumption of alcohol does appear to have some health benefits for some people, the steady consumption of alcohol can be hazardous to elderly people who have chronic health problems or who take multiple medications.

Source

A longitudinal study of drinking and cognitive performance in elderly Japanese American men: the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. D. Galanis, et al., American Journal of Public Health, 2000, vol. 90, pp. 1254--1259

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:27 AM

And on the young:

Alcohol Impairs Mental Performance More In The Young, Say Researchers

DURHAM, N.C. -- A growing body of evidence on alcohol's effects shows that just one drink can impair learning and memory in both young animals and young humans, but has no memory effect on adults, according to researchers from Duke University Medical Center and the Durham VA Medical Center. The investigators said their research offers the first scientific evidence that alcohol has a markedly different effect depending on the age of the drinker. In addition, they said their studies provide the first hard evidence to support the ban on under-age drinking, which up until now has been based on moral, political or religious reasons.

"Historically, there has been no compelling reason to deter the youth of America from drinking, other than a moral or authoritarian message," said neuropsychologist Scott Swartzwelder, lead investigator of two new studies being published in April. "At least now we can back our message with scientific evidence showing that even occasional and moderate drinking could impair a young person's memory systems much more than an adult's."

Swartzwelder said the memory loss persisted as long as the subject was under the influence of alcohol, and that none of the information presented during that time was memorized. The long-term effects of chronic drinking are not known.

According to the new research, young animals respond differently to alcohol in three ways:

They suffer memory and learning impairments from as little as one drink, yet adults do not.

They develop more rapid tolerance to the drug than adults -- an incentive to drink more to get the same high.

They experience less sedation from the drug, meaning they can drink far more than adults before falling asleep. This puts adolescents at greater risk for a variety of dangerous outcomes, from memory and learning impairments to drunk-driving and impulsive sexual behavior, the researchers said.

The research is funded by the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation, the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, and the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs.

In one new study, to be published in the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, Swartzwelder showed that just a single dose of alcohol prevented adolescent rats from learning how to swim to a platform in a water-filled maze, yet adult rats given the same dose easily learned and remembered the task. The amount of alcohol was not enough to sedate the rats or even affect their swimming abilities -- in the range of .08 percent blood alcohol level -- but it strongly impaired learning and memory in the adolescent rats.

This finding, which supports President Clinton's recent initiatives aimed at lowering the legal blood alcohol level in all states to .08 percent for drunk driving, was confirmed in preliminary human studies reported by Swartzwelder's team last year at the Research Society on Alcoholism meeting.

In that study, younger people given alcohol had a harder time recognizing words from a list read to them 20 minutes earlier, compared with older subjects who received an equivalent dose. While alcohol decreased the performance of all subjects, who ranged in age from 21 to 30, there was a strong correlation between their ages and their ability to learn and recognize the words after a dose of alcohol. Those under 25 performed markedly worse than those over the age of 30, he said.

"Quite simply, the younger the age, the worse they performed on the memory tests when given the equivalent of two drinks," he said. "If alcohol's effects varied that much within such a narrow age range, then there's a compelling reason to believe its effects are even stronger in adolescents and children."

Swartzwelder said obvious ethical and legal constraints have prevented him from studying alcohol's effects in people younger than 21, although he plans to continue his research in animals and, whenever ethically appropriate, in humans.

In his second new study, to be published in the April issue of the journal Alcohol, Swartzwelder showed that young rats developed tolerance to alcohol's temperature-lowering effects much more rapidly than adult animals. At first, all the animals given alcohol experienced a significant drop in body temperature -- an effect that occurs consistently among people and animals. But after several doses at two-day intervals, the adolescent animals had lost far less body temperature than the adults, indicating they had developed tolerance to one of alcohol's most basic effects.

The Alcohol study also showed that adolescents develop more rapid tolerance to the sedative effects of alcohol, indicating that the differences between adolescents and adults extend to multiple brain regions that control a variety of different functions.

In two 1995 rat studies, Swartzwelder showed precisely how alcohol impairs memory: it blocks the action of a specific nerve receptor in the hippocampus, the brain's center for learning and memory. When hippocampal "NMDA" receptors are inhibited, they cannot receive electrical signals from other nerve cells, thereby preventing the acquisition and storage of new information. Those findings were published in the May and December 1995 issues of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

"Young brains are built to learn," Swartzwelder said. "They have more NMDA receptors than adult brains, and their receptors are formulated with a different balance of proteins. This could account for why young brains experience such a dramatic decrease in memory-related activity when they're exposed to low doses of alcohol."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Duke University Medical Center for journalists and other members of the public. If you wish to quote from any part of this story, please credit Duke University Medical Center as the original source. You may also wish to include the following link in any citation:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/03/980317065941.htm

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Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:58 AM

I have tunes and songs in my head I can only remember when under the influence (great or small) - because that's the state I was in when I learned them. The brain releases information when in the state it was when it learned them (sorry, too sober for explaination now), so if you learn something when drunk, it will be recalled more readily when drunk again. Hence I sing sober but play with a pint or two.

LTS

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: kendall
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 07:54 PM

The problem with booze is, one is not enough, and two is too many. I have at least 500 songs committed to memory, but, if I take 3 drinks in too short a time, I cant remember the lyrics worth a damn. However, if Max is mixing them, I get to where I dont care.

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:11 PM

Three drinks = violent hangover the next day. Oops sorry, that was in the "good ol' days". Now, three drinks = violent hangover for the next TWO days. I hate throwing up, so I hardly drink at all.

Oi vay!

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: GUEST,PaulM
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:18 PM

I'm curious to know whether there is a cultural thing here.

In the UK, folk music = beer to a great extent.

In USA / Canada it seems different.

Is that a fair comment?

Paul

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Snuffy
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:28 PM

Can't speak about the left side of the pond, but the beer thing seems to be declining here. At practice tonight, I was the only one drank beer all evening. Two had grapefuit juice and water, and one had slimline tonic.

I come from a tradition where "I can't sing tonight - it's my turn to drive" is a valid excuse.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: GUEST,PaulM
Date: 22 Jan 02 - 08:48 PM

That's the point Snuffy

Can't sing because I can't drink suggests a need

(a need that I have, by the way)

It appears to be culturally different in America.

Quite how you manage to sit through the dreadful things in the average sing-around without a beer is a different matter entirely....

Paul

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 04:47 AM

The crucial word seems to be moderate.
My grandfather died two weeks before his 80th birthday and consumed wine or cider (but the stronger German version) till 4 weeks before his death, but moderately. As a member of a student's association he must have drunk lots of beer in the 19th century, because it was (and still is) a ritual at the social gatherings.
All visitors marvelled about the clearness and readiness of his mind on his deathbed till the day he died. He discussed historical problems, where he was well versed, and astonished all with what he remembered.
Browsing through my poems I must say that the best were written in a slight intoxicated state. Performing music I must not drink, but with the right kind of music the performance increases in quality with 1-2 steins stomached.
Drink, sing, and enjoy!

Wilfried

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 08:24 AM

As I said in the other thread on excess drinking at gigs, there is a strong element of machismo involved in the drinking thing. I'd add there is also a strong element of machismo in the sing-arounds and sessions, where men dominate the scene, particularly in the UK and Ireland.

However, those aren't the only folk music genres in existence. Latvian women's folk music wasn't historically performed in pubs in Norfolk, for instance. So yes Paul, I agree there are cultural differences at play here, and that the machismo element of the UK and Irish folk music scene in particular seem to want to shove theirs down everyone else's throat, like it or not.

Imperial bastards with their imperial pints! ;-)

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Gomez
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 02:49 PM

For the benefit of those accross the pond, in the UK there seems to be a link between drinking and singing regardless of the folk music tradition. Anyone who lives en route to a popular pub will attest to this. The tradition when leaving a pub is to only sing one line of a song.. and then sing it repeatedly until you get home or become unconscious. Many of us cannot sing very well and a pint or two gives us the courage we need. If everyone is drinking enough no real harm is done provided you don't fall awkwardly.

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: artbrooks
Date: 23 Jan 02 - 04:42 PM

I am personally incapable of singing. However, a pint or three makes me forget that fact, to the dismay and sorrow of anyone within earshot.

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Frankham
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 12:57 PM

Most of my picking buddies throughout my life have had some alcohol to loosen them up. Woody Guthrie was often accused of incorrectly being an alcoholic since little was known about Huntington's disease in those days. I have lead many a companion home who were in their cups. Some were pleasant to be with, some not.

The custom is a little what bothers me though. If I didn't drink than sometimes I felt like the odd man out. With entreaties like "Aw c'mon, loosen up Frank, have a bit" made my life in music uncomfortable at times but as long as others were into it and not putting it on me, I felt the evening's sing rewarding.

Smoking is a whole nother thing though. Here I can't handle it. Unfortunately, it kept me away from some great music when we visited Ireland and I've never been able to see many of my fave blues and jazz acts because they play in clubs with blue smoke. I've wished there was a way I could go to Samois Sur Seine to the Gypsy Django Festival in France but unfortunately, no way.

Woody used to smoke a lot and when I was younger it didn't bother me so much then (at least not so I was aware of it). Pete Seeger never smoked and that made it eeasy to be around him.

I have heard that Peggy Lee had a bad emphysema and never smoked herself.

But since Pete Seeger never drank much, (maybe an occasional beer with his cheese), I never thought that lack of alcohol made a bit of difference in his performance. He was and still is always good.

Frank

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Metchosin
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 01:35 PM

PaulM, in this part of Canada, to a great extent, folk and toke are synonymous.

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: GUEST,Chanteymatt
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 03:06 PM

Technically and professinally, there are many reasons not to drink before or during a performance. In reality, most of us do but usually know our limit. I've always considered it a part of the benefits of being a musician to have the pub stand me a few drinks. Cider is my preference these days. Years ago, when I was young and stupid, I drank too much. Now days, if I chance to drink too much, I'm just stupid.

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 03:16 PM

I drink socially- one or two glasses of wine in a music session- and yet somehow I drink the most of anyone in my group(s). I don't know how that happened.

It appears that when you have a drink, you may be intimating that your life or your personality is a bummer, that drinking makes you forget or that you are using artificial means to change something. Why is that??

Is it part of the human condition that hardly anyone is happy? One could make a good case for the rationale that non-drinkers don't drink because they don't want to forget and don't need enhancement.

Somehow many drinkers equate being practically unconscious with having a good time. (I used to say of my long-ago husband that if he couldn't remember the night before, he knew he'd had a good time.)

Bill Maher said the other night that alcohol is the only thing in which when it starts to work, it is time to stop.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: NicoleC
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 03:28 PM

"Is it part of the human condition that hardly anyone is happy?"

I think it's just part of the human condition to fail to notice when you ARE happy :)

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: PeteBoom
Date: 24 Jan 02 - 03:35 PM

Not to worry. Troll Guest simply wants to categorize people. No matter the situation or differences. Yup. Your right, professional musicians should not drink when working and anyone who does is offense to you. Have I summed this up correctly? And the next time I see a Latvian women's chorus singing in my local pub, I'll rant at them if they have a beer for you. OK? I'll also be sure to let the pop/rock guys know this as well. "Hey guys! If you're REALLY professional, you would not us that stuff when working!" Have I got it about right?

I'm done with this.

Pete

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 08:52 AM

I'm not a troll Pete, simply a guest.

You seem to have missed the point entirely, but Frank didn't. The discussion here isn't about teetotalers going around haranguing drinkers. It is about maintaining professional standards as a professional musician while performing.

Smoke in bars and pubs keeps me away from a lot of music too, and it isn't that I'm an over-zealous ex-smoker. But I am conscious of the negative effects of breathing second hand smoke of that level and intensity over time, so I don't do it.

I admit to not really understanding what the term "social drinker" is supposed to mean. It gets thrown out there all the time in discussions about alcoholism. That isn't what I've been trying to talk about here. I'm not claiming that anyone who has a drink while playing is an alcoholic, or evil, or anything like that. What I'm talking about is the way that alcohol and drugs are used by some musicians to negative effect in professional performance situations. I'm not talking about casual gatherings, in homes, pubs and bars, parks, etc. where people are playing music together for fun.

But if you are the performer hired to play for a wedding, bar mitzvah, graduation party, etc it is NOT OK for you to drink, just because the guests are tying one on. It isn't OK to drink when you are being paid to call a dance. Or playing on St. Paddy's Day and New Year's Eve. That is what I'm talking about.

Doesn't anyone else find it a bit odd that there would be such strident defenses of working under the influence by some in these conversations?

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: artbrooks
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 12:15 PM

Doesn't anyone find it odd that NOT A SINGLE PERSON EXCEPT ANON.GUEST could find anyone defending working under the influence in ANY of these conversations, stridently or otherwise?

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Maryrrf
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 12:30 PM

Well, in my case patrons would sometimes send over a drink or ask if they could buy me a drink. Just to be polite I accepted a couple of times but found it did affect my performance - notably, I started forgetting lyrics. Therefore I only drink water, soda or coffee while performing.

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 12:36 PM

My opinion about the "buy you a drink" thing is they do that instead of putting the money in the tip jar because there is a social expectation of "owing" something in return to the person who buys the drink--usually attention from the stage/performer or the expectation that you will perform what they want you to perform "just for them."

I find this to be very manipulative, and have no problem not touching or acknowledging the drink, whereas I always thank a person for putting money in the tip jar.

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Willie-O
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 12:54 PM

Well, to each his own.

Different establishments and gigs have different rules or expectations about playing and imbibing. Generally I think you should wet your whistle with whatever helps you to play, and fits in with the ambience. After all, when you're playing in a commercial drinking establishment, you're basically there to sell beer. And you are a behaviour model for the audience. If the expected model is one of getting pissed, you're playing in the wrong joint.

I've always tended to drink less when playing, anyway. Guitars are two-handed beasts.

W-O

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 01:04 PM

Willie-O, when you are paid to play a drinking establishment, it is to entertain the drinkers so they will want to drink more. You aren't paid to drink, you are paid to perform music.

Now, I know there are plenty of drinking establishments who "pay in beer" but in my experience, they aren't investing in the entertainment, just exploiting it.

The pub owner doesn't look bad when a musician is seen and heard playing under the influence, the musician does. Considering that most musicians have a reputation to uphold, drinking to fit in with drunks might be a strategy some musicians should re-think in an increasingly competitive entertainment environment. After all, it only takes one bad, sloppy, boozy performance to get fired. But rumours of it can prevent you from getting hired again and again and again, especially if the rumour is that drinking on the job is your decision, and not the drinking establishment's policy for paying their performers.

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: NicoleC
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 03:45 PM

For venues where patrons insist on buying drinks instead of tipping, ask the bartender as a standing rule to give you your "Run & Coke" with just the Coke (or suitable non-alcoholic alternative), and split the price difference -- half to her tip jar and half to yours.

Of course it doesn't work if someone hands you a pint on stage :)

Subject: RE: Alcohol & Performance
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 25 Jan 02 - 04:12 PM

If you're being paid to do something, you're responsible for ensuring that you are capable of delivering at the level you have contracted to deliver at. Being professional means you don't do it for fun, you do it because you are getting paid to do it and whoever pays the piper calls the tune.

It doesn't necessarily mean total abstinence from alcohol, but it does mean knowing your limits and stopping well before you reach them. I tried explaining in the Beer thread that was going a while ago that drinking weak but nice flavoured (English) beer can sustain a day of singing or dancing, but everyone else seemed to be extolling the virtues of strong beers.