You Can Stop Drinking Now

The dreaded hangover - headache, sick to your stomach, extreme depression, sometimes anxiety (anxiety is caused by depression), and misery. And the cause of all hangovers is drinking alcohol. If you drink enough and end up with a hangover, it means you’ve ingested more alcohol than your body is able to metabolize efficiently.  For a person suffering from alcohol addiction this is standard procedure. The toxins in alcohol build up in your body and make you feel sick.

The main contributor is a chemical called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde will diffuse across the brain barrier and irritate the membranes in the brain that lead to headaches the next morning. It is the responsibility of the liver to break down the acetaldehyde and remove it from your circulation. This is an alcohol by-product that research has suggested may cause the worst of your hangover symptoms.

Congeners are another cause of hangovers. These impurities are created during the fermentation process in some types of alcohol. Low quality wines and many dark liquors tend to have high levels of congeners. Overall, the darker your drink, the worse the hangover. Dehydration is both a cause and a symptom of hangovers. Alcohol is a diuretic, which takes the fluids out of your system and increases urination. The more alcohol you drink, the more water your body loses. Your liver and kidneys need water to process the alcohol, so the water loss causes your body to struggle to rid itself of the toxins.

The only prevention technique for a hangover is not to over drink.  Short of that, eating before drinking is helpful because the food in your stomach will slow the absorption of alcohol by your body.The alleged hangover cures are ineffective.  Drinking more alcohol, the “hair of the dog,” the next morning won’t help and for someone with an alcohol addiction will more than likely lead to another day of drinking and another drunk. Caffeinated drinks like coffee are also diuretics, so it is wiser to drink water or another drink that replenishes the fluids in your system.

Since alcohol wipes out all of the nutrients and vitamins in your system, eating fruits and vegetables can help to restore the nutrients you’ve lost. Better still is taking multi-vitamins and a mega dose of vitamin B.  Acetaminophen (Tylenol) should be avoided because there is a possibility that it can damage your liver just on it’s own and the liver damage can be compounded if mixed with alcohol.

Ultimately time, fluids, vitamins, eating nutritious meals, and rest are the only real cure for a hangover.