You enjoy a night of drinks but not the nausea bout that comes the morning after. Getting over a hangover and returning to normal life can be hard.
Drinking goes hand-in-hand with socializing. If you need to engage in some social drinking, knowing how to get over a hangover is useful. Life Advancer has a few suggestions in store.
What Is a Hangover?
A hangover is a series of physical and psychological effects of excessive alcohol. They can last for several hours or slightly more than a day.
What Causes Hangover Symptoms?
Everyone associates a hangover with alcohol but fails to probe the causes of it. So, why does having too many shots of tequila make you feel like crawling under a rock (or your blanket) the next day?
1. Dehydration
First of all, alcohol is a diuretic and causes dehydration, as this research shows.
Studies have found no links between hormones associated with dehydration and how severe a hangover is. It probably isn’t primarily responsible but can give you a headache. Water-deprivation headaches are a recent discovery, and one in ten participants of this survey indicated that they experienced one as a result of a lack of water.
2. Alcohol irritates the stomach
Your stomach churning after a night of binge-drinking is an awful feeling. Nausea that comes after that isn’t pleasurable either.
How does it originate? Alcohol irritates the gut and causes the lining of your stomach to become inflamed. It prompts the stomach to produce more gastric acid, consequently driving the need to vomit.
3. Alcohol Produces Toxic Compounds
Also, alcohol has a toxic compound called acetaldehyde. This substance builds up in the body as a person drinks.
According to the US Department of Health, acetaldehyde breaks down alcohol so that the body can process it. While it’s useful in that regard, it is a known carcinogen.
4. Choice of Alcoholic Beverage
Of course, some beverages will have more alcohol than others. The more of it a drink has, the more potent it is, and the higher your chances of getting a hangover after you drink it.
Alcoholic drinks have varying amounts of compounds known as congeners, produced while the alcohol ferments. Beverages such as red wine and brandy have more congeners than other drinks. They are potent and will cause hangovers.
5. Changes in the Immune System
Another reason for hangovers is that alcohol causes changes in a person’s immune system. Doctors and other medical professionals have long thought that alcohol causes adverse immune-related effects.
People who take in too much alcohol tend to suffer from illnesses such as respiratory stress syndrome, liver disease, and some cancers.
6. Metabolic Acidosis
Metabolic Acidosis occurs when the body produces excessive quantities of acid, and it is closely related to alcohol consumption. It also causes the classic symptoms of a hangover, such as nausea, vomiting, and stomach pains.
7. Inability to Metabolize Alcohol
It’s possible for the body to lose its ability to metabolize excess alcohol. At this point, the body cannot break down acetaldehyde. Vomiting may occur, and in severe cases, cardiac arrest.
The Most Common Symptoms
How do you know if you’ve had too much to drink? The body will start to respond to the excess alcohol in your bloodstream, and manifest the following symptoms.
1. A headache
First of all, alcohol dilates your blood vessels and causes your blood to pump faster. They cannot accommodate it. The extra pressure causes migraines.
2. Nausea and Vomiting
Because the stomach produces acid, drinks can keep it from emptying. You may feel sick and vomit.
3. Sluggishness
As the information above shows, alcohol causes heavy blood flow. It directs blood to islets in the pancreas, prompting them to make insulin, which lowers your blood sugar levels. You feel tired and weak as a result.
4. Insomnia
After you drink, your body will adjust to the alcohol in your system so that you can maintain your sleep cycle. Though it would have purged the substances after a few hours, it will stay adjusted.
5. Thirst
Since alcohol’s a diuretic, you’ll feel thirsty and pee more often than usual. It drains your body of fluid as well as essential minerals.
6. Racing Heart
Alcohol gets the blood flowing, so your heart will pump faster. The more you drink, the more it pumps.
A study of 3000 attendees of Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany revealed that excess alcohol in youth prompted sinus tachycardia, which is a heart rate of over 100 beats a minute.
9. Loss of Concentration
By extension, limited blood flow to the brain makes it difficult to concentrate on your tasks, and make decisions.
10. Mood Swings
A person who drinks an excessive amount of alcohol may experience fluctuations in his or her blood sugar, which may bring on mood swings. These may occur before and after drinking.
How to Get over a Hangover: Remedies and Tips
The best cure for a hangover is not to overdo the drinking in the first place. However, that’s not always possible, so try these simple, natural remedies.
1. Take in water
First of all, drink lots of water. Since alcohol is an efficient diuretic, it’s important to hydrate yourself in the middle of cocktails. Hydrating removes the fluids in your system.
2. Drink other fluids
Also, drinking fluids full of electrolytes, such as Isotonic drinks, can replace essential minerals like potassium and salt.
3. Have sugar while drinking
Another way to get over a hangover is sugar. It breaks alcohol down quickly. Remember that fructose metabolizes rapidly, so have it while you drink. Have some orange juice between meals.
4. Fill up the morning after
Have a full breakfast after drinking. Take in easily digestible foods, such as toast and cereal — the charred carbon crust on the toast filters out impurities.
5. Try ginger
Ginger relieves nausea, as Live Science shows. Besides overcoming vomiting induced by drinking, it deals with chemotherapy-induced nausea as well.
6. Eat Prickly Pears
For the unfamiliar, prickly pear is a cactus with flattened leaves. Studies show that about 1600 IUs of prickly pear extract reduces the risk of hangovers by half.
7. Sleep well
Sleep is one of the best ways to get rid of the woozy feeling that comes with drinking. Take long naps the day after your hangover. In between rests, try this remedy.
- Combine a teaspoon of salt and eight teaspoons of sugar in a cup of water.
- Stir in half a cup of orange juice or half a cup of banana.
- Sip the mixture slowly and store it in a cool place.
In all, the best strategy is to prevent a hangover by avoiding excessive drinking. If alcohol’s unavoidable, take it in small amounts and remember the above remedies just in case.
