Red Wine Could Mask Testosterone Levels, Experts Warn
Date: 9.1.2013
Red wine could give athletes and players a boost in the sports arena by increasing the amount of performance-enhancing hormone testosterone in their bodies, according to researchers from London's Kingston University.
A team led by Professor Declan Naughton, from the University's School of Life Sciences, found that red wine might reduce the amount of testosterone excreted by the body, which could distort the findings of drug tests taken from urine samples.
The team found that a compound in red wine, known as quercetin, partially blocked the action of an enzyme called UGT2B17, which looks for testosterone and then sends a message to the kidneys to excrete it.
Teetotallers are not exempt from the effects. In fact, the alcohol content of red wine has very little impact because non-alcoholic molecules are responsible for inhibiting testosterone excretion.
The team also found the results were the same for red wine extract in supplement form.
