Alcohol in small doses is processed into acetic acid, which is used in many biochemical processes. An intermediate product of the processing of ethanol is acetaldehyde.
It is quite toxic, and if a lot of alcohol has arrived, it does not have time to process into vinegar and becomes the main factor in unpleasant health.
In addition to the amount of alcohol consumed, the strength of a hangover is determined by the genetically determined activity of the enzymes that convert alcohol to acetaldehyde and acetic acid.
A hangover is a group of unpleasant symptoms that occur after drinking a lot of alcohol. As a rule, the more you drink, the higher the likelihood that the next day you will feel bad. Usually, the most vivid manifestations of a hangover go away by themselves, but it can take a whole day to get rid of them
Here’s what you can do to feel a little better.
- Drink water. Dehydration is one of the causes of poor health. And yes, the best time to rehydrate is before bedtime, after returning from an alcohol party.
- Have a snack. Toasts or crackers are good here – they will increase your blood sugar. Vegetable broth will help replenish the resources of minerals and vitamins, in addition, an orderly exhausted stomach can easily cope with it.
- Drink painkillers to relieve headaches. Keep in mind: aspirin can irritate the stomach lining. And if you regularly abuse alcohol, it is better to forget about paracetamol – in combination with alcohol, it can cause serious liver damage.
- Go to bed and try to get enough sleep.
- In some cases, antacids (calcium carbonate, sodium hydrogen carbonate, magnesium hydroxide) may be needed to get rid of heartburn and stomach discomfort. Often, the composition of popular drugs for a hangover is just a combination of aspirin and antacids.
But what you do not need to do
- “Treat” a hangover with alcohol. This will only worsen the situation. If you drank a lot of alcohol the day before, whether you have a hangover or not, doctors advise you to wait at least 48 hours before drinking more. It is necessary to allow the body to recover.
- Drink activated charcoal or enterosgel. The first is ineffective for adsorption of alcohol, and the evidence base of the second is very arbitrary.
- Use folk and “natural” means to combat a hangover. Their effectiveness remains in question. And yes, natural does not mean safe. Talk with your doctor before trying any practice from an alternative medicine. The doctor will talk about the risks.
As for the dose of alcohol in the morning, its effect has not been studied enough. Nevertheless, it is believed that an ordinary person experiencing a hangover will not alleviate his condition with another portion of alcohol. Rather, even exacerbate. However, people who regularly consume large doses of alcohol and suffer from binges do indeed experience temporary relief from a “hungover glass”. This is due to the fact that their metabolism has changed significantly – alcohol has become an important source of energy for cells. At the same time, the need to get a hangover is a formidable bell of impending alcoholism.
After alcohol poisoning, you need to drink a lot. Drinks that contain weak organic acids help to quickly cleanse the body of the decay products of alcohol. Hence the old tradition of drinking pickle – cucumber or cabbage. I draw your attention that the brine of sterilized store cucumbers is not suitable for this. The brine should be from a barrel or other large vessel where the cucumbers were not salted, but fermented, that is, they underwent a fermentation process with the formation of weak organic acids.
How to prevent a hangover
Alas, there is no magic formula that would help to calculate after which count of a glass you are guaranteed to get a hangover.
However, there are recommendations that are worth adopting the next time you are planning on a party.
- Eat – before and during drinking. It is absorbed faster if your stomach is empty. It’s best to have a good meal before the party.
- Drink water again. One glass of water after each alcoholic drink will help you not to lose your head. In addition, the same glass will not allow you to drink a lot of alcohol.
- Decide in advance how many drinks you will drink in the evening, and do not deviate from the plan. Even if everyone around is drunk to hell, you are not required to do this.
- Do not hurry. Here is the formula: one drink per hour. If you feel intoxicated, stop drinking. And yes, smoking is also not worth it.
- Choose alcohol carefully. Dark drinks contain more impurities (not to be confused with cogenerators) – it is believed that they contribute to a hangover.
Congeners – a new horror story of the Russian Internet that arose due to incorrect translation. This term refers to carcinogens poisons of a certain chemical structure. But with regard to alcohol, such poisons are not there. With this word, the translators called all the “additives” and impurities contained in alcoholic beverages. First of all, these are polyhydric alcohols (fusel oils) – with a low culture of production there are a lot of them in the drink, and they can really aggravate unpleasant symptoms.
