Live Life Team
The hangover occurs due to excessive intake of alcohol. This is common to everyone. The persons with hangover problem should avoid driving and operating machinery. The law permits the presence of blood alcohol only up to 80mg per 100ml of blood, when you drive. If you need to drive within the next 24 hours, it is advisable to avoid alcohol. Hangovers have impacts on society and health as well. Employers lose man-hours and quality of performance if employees take sick leave due to hangovers. As heavy drinkers can behave violently, it spoils the relationships.
What are the causes of hangover
Alcohol promotes excretion of urine, which results in dehydration. This leads to symptoms of hangover. Alcohol, as a diuretic, increases the production of urine and encourages filtering out sodium and potassium salts from blood. Therefore, blood loses large amount of water. This water drains out through urine.
Alcohol causes malnutrition too. The vitamins and minerals stored in the body are used by alcohol and the level of blood sugar is reduced. This causes headache also, besides dehydration. Alcohol also causes dilation of blood vessels, enhancing the severity of headache.
What are the symptoms of hangover
The symptoms of hangover include headache, sensitivity to light and sound, fatigue, muscle aches, mild diarrohoea, nausea, vomiting, tremors, red eyes and thirst. The dizziness experienced while drinking may continue the next day, as a hangover symptom. The hangover can cause behavioural changes such as irritation and anxiety. It can cause depression too. Alcohol spoils the normal quality of sleep. Therefore, in the morning you feel as if you have not slept in the night.
The symptoms of hangover differ with persons. It also depends on the amount of alcohol consumed. It has fewer effects on persons with heavy body weight. Researches reveal that alcoholic drinks in dark colour may cause severe hangover symptoms as they contain congeners, which are toxic. Congeners are responsible for the characters of the drinks. Most commonly, tyramine is present in alcohol which is responsible for headaches. Dehydration caused by alcohol, also results in thirst and headaches.
How to treat a hangover
Treatment involves rehydrating the body and combating the pains. You can get relieved from headache and muscle pains with the help of analgesics. Aspirin should be avoided as it may irritate the stomach, causing increased nausea. Fruit juice and honey contain a natural sugar called fructose. This facilitates speedy processing of alcohol. Loss of minerals and vitamins can be compensated by taking Bouillon soup.
Drinking plenty of water or soda water can compensate salt losses. Isotonic drinks also can help compensating the loss of salt in the system.
Tips for reducing the severity of hangover
You should not have more than one drink per hour, as your system can process only 15ml of alcohol per hour.
Do not take alcohol in empty stomach. If food is already present in the stomach, it can absorb alcohol and give more time to the body for processing the alcohol. This reduces hangover risks.
Intake of large quantum of water can prevent dehydration. Add enough water to raw alcohol before consuming it. This avoids thirst in the morning.
Alcoholic drinks containing high level of congeners should be avoided, as they cause severe hangovers. Dark coloured alcoholic drinks contain large amounts of congeners.
