What would New Year be without champagne: how to avoid a hangover and what helps relieve it

The only sure way to avoid a hangover is to not drink. But there are some tricks you can implement before, during and after drinking to reduce your risk of post-intoxication symptoms, reports TheWashington Post.

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It's the season of mulled wine, champagne and hangovers. So, what can you do to prevent morning misery as you enjoy the festivities of the year?

Hangover cures abound online, from herbal pills and supplements to home remedies like pickle juice and poached eggs.

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Most treatments for post-intoxication condition are not very effective, and there is no reliable way to avoid this condition except to completely abstain from alcohol. But there are some tricks that you can use before, during and after drinking to reduce the risk of a hangover.

What causes a hangover

A hangover can occur for various reasons. Alcohol suppresses vasopressin, a hormone that encourages the kidneys to retain fluid. This leads to increased urination and dehydration causing severe headaches, thirst and fatigue. Alcohol can irritate the stomach lining, resulting in nausea and abdominal pain, disrupting sleep, causing fatigue and irritability. At the same time, the anxiety that people experience after a night of drinking may be associated with withdrawal symptoms.

Some of us are more susceptible to hangovers than others, depending on how our bodies process alcohol. When you drink, enzymes in your liver break down alcohol into acetaldehyde, a toxic byproduct and known carcinogen. Some evidence suggests that acetaldehyde may be a cause of hangovers. Several studies have been done showing that people who carry a genetic variant that slows their ability to remove acetaldehyde from the bloodstream are especially prone to severe hangovers even after drinking relatively small amounts of alcohol. This genetic variant is especially common among people of Asian descent.

Many dietary supplements marketed as hangover cures claim to improve your body's ability to eliminate acetaldehyde. But a 2021 study that assessed 82 dietary supplements sold online as hangover cures found they had no evidence of effectiveness and often contained excessively high doses of vitamins. Many contained, among other things, N-acetylcysteine, which is technically a prescription drug.

Some studies have shown that the severity of hangover symptoms depends on how high your blood alcohol level rises while drinking (the higher it gets, the worse the hangover) and how quickly your body breaks down the alcohol into byproducts. Researchers have found that the faster your body breaks down alcohol, the less severe your hangover will be.

Never drink on an empty stomach

Always eat or have a large snack if you plan to drink. This, says Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Human Nutrition, will slow the rate at which alcohol enters the bloodstream, reducing the likelihood of a hangover.

In a small study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, researchers looked at what happened when they gave a group of men alcoholic drinks on different occasions: one on an empty stomach and others about 15 minutes after consuming a 700-calorie meal. They found that eating before drinking alcohol caused a "marked" reduction in participants' blood alcohol levels compared to when they drank on an empty stomach. Eating increased the rate at which alcohol was cleared from the blood. The researchers found that high-protein foods tended to result in lower blood alcohol levels than high-fat or high-carbohydrate foods, but ultimately the differences were minimal. Any large meal, whether rich in fat, carbohydrates or protein, will help.

Avoid dark drinks

They tend to contain higher amounts of congeners, a byproduct of the fermentation process that can worsen hangovers.

Some studies show that hangover symptoms increase when people drink drinks with higher concentrations of congeners. For example, one of the spirits with the highest congener content, bourbon, causes a worse hangover than vodka, which contains virtually no congeners.

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Of course, drinking vodka instead of bourbon doesn't mean you won't have a hangover, but it will improve your chances.

Drink water

After every alcoholic drink you drink, drink a glass of water. Alternating between alcohol and water will help prevent your blood alcohol levels from rising too quickly and prevent dehydration.

“Alcohol is a diuretic,” Zumpano explained. “It naturally dehydrates you.” When a hangover hits, many of the symptoms you experience are related to dehydration. You can relieve some of these symptoms by drinking water."

Try the BRAT Diet

That means bananas, rice, applesauce and toast. This diet was originally developed for children with indigestion. If you experience nausea in the morning after a fun night out, it's best to start with a light meal rather than a heavy meal.

“The BRAT diet is very easy to digest and helps you avoid overeating,” Zumpano noted. — Some people say that fatty foods are good for you. But heavy food can make you feel worse because it sits in your stomach for much longer.”

Use ginger

Many studies have shown that ginger can relieve nausea and vomiting caused by pregnancy, cancer treatment, motion sickness and other conditions. You can add fresh ginger to your food or buy ginger supplements. But for a hangover, it’s probably better to drink ginger tea or just chew the root. To make ginger tea, add slices of fresh ginger to a pan of water, bring it to a boil and let steep for a few minutes. Pour the drink into a cup and add a teaspoon of honey or a slice of lemon for more flavor.

Replenish Your Electrolytes

Alcohol causes your body to release electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, magnesium and phosphate. But they can be replenished by consuming mineral-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables. Watermelon, cantaloupe, peaches and oranges are especially good because they are high in water and provide a healthy dose of electrolytes. If you prefer liquids, try electrolyte-enriched water or sugar-free Gatorade and Powerade.

Instead of waiting until the morning, it's best to start drinking them as soon as you get home from the party.

Try one of these hangover cures - it might work

Recently, a team of British researchers scoured the medical literature to find rigorous clinical trials that tested various hangover remedies. The researchers found that seven products showed some limited evidence of ability to reduce hangover symptoms compared to placebo. These included: supplements containing clove extract, the anti-inflammatory drug tolfenamic acid, a form of vitamin B6 called pyritinol, herbal supplements containing extracts of Hovenia dulcis (known as the Japanese raisin tree), foods containing the amino acid L-cysteine, and finally, Korean raisin juice. pears, as well as red ginseng.

However, the scientists cautioned that most studies tended to be small and included mostly men under the age of 40.

“It must be said that there are not many very good studies,” said Emmert Roberts, study author and visiting scholar in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. “There were a few very small, low-quality studies that did show certain treatments that might help.”

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The researcher said he and his co-authors found no solid evidence that any of the products the researchers identified were harmful, so Emmert Roberts is not discouraging people from using them.

“You can try them, but they are not miracle cures,” he concluded. “There are a lot of products out there that claim to be cures or hangover cures, and the manufacturers say they have science behind them, but they don’t. There are many counterfeit potion sellers in the hangover world.”

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