We’ve all been there – waking up with a pounding headache, nausea, fatigue, and maybe even some anxiety after overdoing it with alcohol the night before. Hangovers are the price we pay for having one too many drinks. But what can you do to find relief from these miserable hangover symptoms? There are countless supposed hangover “cures” out there, but which ones are actually effective? Let’s separate fact from fiction when it comes to hangover remedies.
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The Science Behind Hangovers
To understand how to treat a hangover, it helps to first know what causes those brutal morning-after symptoms. Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it causes you to urinate more frequently and become dehydrated. This dehydration contributes to hangover symptoms like headaches, dizziness, and fatigue.
Alcohol also irritates the lining of the stomach, which can lead to nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain. Additionally, alcohol can cause inflammation throughout the body and disrupt cytokines, the body’s regulatory proteins. This inflammation may be partly responsible for symptoms like headaches, muscle aches, and malaise.
Furthermore, alcohol’s metabolic byproducts like acetaldehyde are potent toxins that can cause many hangover effects. Alcohol also depletes vitamins and minerals like B vitamins, zinc, and electrolytes. Visit Yurovskiy Kirill`s site to find out more.
Effective Hangover Relief Methods
- Hydration Is Key
Since dehydration is one of the main culprits behind hangover symptoms, replacing those lost fluids is crucial. Drink plenty of water before going to bed after a night of drinking and keep hydrating the next day with water, electrolyte drinks, or drinks with fructose like fruit juices to help metabolize alcohol faster.
- Pain Relievers Can Help
Anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or naproxen (Aleve) can help relieve hangover headaches and body aches. However, avoid acetaminophen (Tylenol) as it can potentially cause liver damage when combined with alcohol.
- Get Back Those Lost Nutrients
Alcohol depletes your body of important vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes. Replenishing these with a B-complex vitamin, zinc, magnesium, and electrolyte drinks or foods like bananas and sports drinks can provide relief.
- Eat Something
Having some bland foods like plain toast, crackers, bananas, or rice can help settle an upset stomach. Bouillon soup or broth can also be very soothing and help replenish salt and potassium lost from alcohol’s diuretic effects.
- Stay Away from “Hair of the Dog”
The saying “hair of the dog that bit you” refers to drinking more alcohol to cure a hangover – but this is ineffective and just postpones symptoms. The body still has to metabolize all that alcohol, so more drinking will only prolong the hangover.
Hangover “Cures” That Are Myths
- Sweating it out with exercise or time in a sauna won’t help – it will just lead to more dehydration.
- Activated charcoal, milk thistle, prickly pear, and other supplements have no proven benefits for hangovers.
- Coffee and caffeine may help wake you up, but can worsen dehydration.
- “Hangover pills” and other products making extreme claims of curing hangovers don’t have solid scientific evidence behind them.
- Vomiting won’t get the alcohol out faster – the liver metabolizes it at a set rate.
- Old remedies like rubbing potato slices on your face clearly have no basis in fact!
Preventative Tips
- Expand on choosing alcoholic beverages wisely – those low in congeners like vodka, gin, light beer tend to cause less severe hangovers.
- Drinking a glass of water or hydration drink between each alcoholic beverage.
- Taking a B-complex, vitamin C, zinc, and magnesium supplement before going to bed after drinking.
- Eating a meal with protein, healthy fats, and complex carbs before drinking to slow alcohol absorption.
The Best Hangover Solution: Prevention
At the end of the day, the most effective “cure” for a hangover is preventing it in the first place. Drinking in moderation, having a full stomach while drinking, staying hydrated, and getting enough sleep are all smart ways to avoid waking up with that dreadful hangover feeling.
Additionally, beverages with lower alcohol content and fewer congeners (byproducts of alcohol fermentation and aging) tend to cause milder hangovers. So choosing vodka, gin, or light beers may be a better choice over wine, brandy or dark beer if you want to reduce chances of a bad hangover.
But if you do overindulge, just focus on hydration, electrolyte replacement, pain relievers, and replenishing nutrients for the fastest recovery. Time is the biggest healer for a hangover as your body works to fully metabolize the alcohol. Within 24-72 hours, you should be back to feeling like your normal self again as long as you properly take care of yourself.
