Hangover is something you get when you have had a little too much alcohol to drink the previous night. A hangover is one of the best ways of our body to show the hazard of overindulgence. Hangover is basically a combination of few symptoms including nausea, fatigue, headache, dizziness, and sensitivity towards light and sound. When we consume alcohol, it is metabolized into acetaldehyde, which is toxic for our body. Heavy drinking causes this toxicity level to rise up and create side effects, which is called a hangover.
Heavy alcohol drinking drains a lot of water from our bodies and messes with brain activity while we sleep. So, hangover is normally caused due to dehydration and sleep deprivation. Normally heavy drinking is done mostly at house parties because you are safe and free to do whatever you want. If your hangover is due to such a party, firstly, you need to book professional deep home cleaning services to get rid of the mess, as seeing the mess could hurt your head even more.
Hangover doesn’t have any proper cure, but there are certain effective remedies to treat the symptoms, are:
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Get Plenty of Sleep
Though moderate amount of alcohol intake promotes sleep, consuming excess amount of alcohol or its chronic use can disturb your sleep pattern. Excess alcohol causes decrease in the duration of sleep and quality of sleep. While the lack of sleep doesn’t directly cause hangovers, it makes the hangover worse.
Headache, fatigue, dizziness, weakness, irritation, etc. are the hangover symptoms that are directly caused by lack of sleep. Getting plenty of sleep and allowing your body to rest may diminish the symptoms and make the hangover more bearable.
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Have a Good Breakfast
Eating a healthy and hearty breakfast is one of the best remedies to treat hangovers. A good breakfast will maintain your blood sugar levels that cause nausea, fatigue, and weakness. Maintaining your blood sugar levels also mitigates the bodily changes that come with alcohol consumption, such as the rise of the acid level in your stomach.
Eating a healthy breakfast will provide the essential vitamin and minerals that were depleted with excessive alcohol consumption. Although, there is no proven fact that low blood sugar directly causes the hangover, eating a good breakfast can treat the hangover symptoms.
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Hydrate
Alcohol drains the liquid from your body. Alcohol induces an increase in urine which results in the loss of excess fluids and electrolytes that are required by the body for normal functioning. Excess alcohol also causes vomiting resulting in more loss of electrolytes. Dehydration causes headaches, fatigue, and dizziness.
Increasing your water intake will treat these symptoms and sometimes prevent them from happening. Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Not only water, but you could also hydrate yourself with ORS water or just simple coconut water, as they have a high composition of electrolytes.
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Hair of the Dog
Hair of the dog is a phrase used that refers to treat the hangover by having a drink or two. This is largely based on a myth, but many people swear that it helps. Methanol is a chemical substance that is found in small bits in alcoholic beverages. When we drink alcohol, our body changes the way methanol is processed. After drinking, the methanol is converted into formaldehyde in our body, which causes most of the symptoms of the hangover.
So by drinking alcohol the next day, the ethanol present in the alcohol will stop the body from making formaldehyde altogether and the methanol is easily excreted from our body. However, this method is not highly recommended, as it can have more side effects and bad habits.
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Try These Supplements
Researches have shown that few of these healthy supplements can be used to ease the symptoms of a hangover:
Prickly pear: It is a type of cactus that could help treat the hangover. The extract of prickly pear decreased the hangover symptoms and cut the hangover risk severity in half.
Red ginseng: Supplementing red ginseng has resulted in reducing blood alcohol levels and treating hangover symptoms.
Borage oil: Borage oil is an extract made from the borage plant, also known as starflower. A study has shown that a supplement containing prickly pear and borage oil has effectively reduced the symptoms of a hangover in 88% of the participants.
Ginger: Combining ginger with tangerine extract and brown sugar has provided positive results in reducing the effect of hangovers including vomiting and nausea.
Eleuthero: A study has shown that supplementing with eleuthero extract (also known as Siberian Ginseng) diminished hangover symptoms and decreased its severity.
