How to relieve hangover symptoms
Last week my roommate went to her friend’s birthday party. She admitted later she had a bit too much to drink there. After returning home, she started to feel dizzy and threw up in the toilet, later complaining about a headache.
It occurred to me that many people don’t know how to manage hangover symptoms. I thought this topic would be a useful read at this time of partying and celebrations. So I wrote a blog to share with you in this Friday night.
Frequency of alcohol use
The statistics show that alcohol is ingested by 2.4 billion people globally. A U.S. national survey found that 9.2% of Americans experienced at least one hangover during their life. The cost of alcohol in the United States reached $249 billion in 2010, or about $2.05 per drink, as reported on the CDC website.
How is alcohol broken down in our body
Once you consume alcohol, it’s absorbed through the small intestine and processed in the liver by 2 types of enzymes.
The first enzyme is called alcohol dehydrogenase, which is responsible for converting alcohol into a toxic metabolite called acetaldehyde.
Acetaldehyde at a higher concentration causes toxic effects, such as flushing, sweating, nausea and vomiting.
The second enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase, helps with processing the toxic metabolite into acetate, a non-toxic product in the liver.
The ability of the liver to break down alcohol largely depends on genes and varies from person to person.
One study has found that about 15% — 40% of the East Asian population have inactive enzymes in their liver. When they drink alcohol, the accumulation of acetaldehyde in their blood stream would be pronounced producing the effect of flushing (redness of face). This explains the phenomenon called “Asian glow”.
In addition, the capability of enzymes in the liver to break down alcohol on an hourly basis is limited to an ounce of alcohol. If you consume too much alcohol in a short period of time, you’ll end up running out of all the available liver enzymes to process it. The remaining alcohol would not be broken down and will produce the toxic effect. Most alcohol is broken down by liver and small amount of it will be excreted through breath, urine, or sweat.
In conclusion, the poor activity of liver enzymes and the amount of alcohol intake can both contribute to hangover symptoms.
Symptoms related to hangovers
Alcohol may cause direct effects, such as dehydration, digestive discomfort, low blood sugar and headache.
Dehydration — Alcohol may cause a direct dehydration effect by preventing the kidney from reabsorbing water to increase urine output. Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea can also be observed in people after they consume some amount of alcohol, leading to additional loss of fluid from their body. Symptoms related to dehydration include thirst, fatigue, dryness of mouth and dizziness etc.
Digestive discomfort — Alcohol can cause the body to produce more stomach acid, which stimulates the mucus membrane of the digestive system (e.g.the stomach & the intestines) leading to inflammation. All of these factors impair the function of the digestive system, leading to discomfort. The symptoms often include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. If the symptoms are too severe, they can increase the chance of having stomach bleeding.
Lower blood sugar level — Consuming alcohol can alter the blood glucose level by preventing the pancreas from functioning normally. The body will produce lactic acid when processing alcohol resulting in a low blood glucose level. Not only that, alcohol can decrease appetite and lead to a decrease in food intake. Insufficient nutritional intake will further decrease the blood sugar levels and make a person feel fatigue, weakness and mood disturbances.
Headache — The reason why alcohol can induce headache is unknown, but the widely accepted hypothesis is that alcohol can dilate the blood vessels in the brain and alter the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain cells.
Sleep disturbances — Alcohol can cause you to feel drowsy. The sleep quality after drinking, however, is usually horrible. Drinking alcohol at night shortens the length of sleep by decreasing the length of the dreaming state and increasing the length of the deep sleep state. Despite that, alcohol can relax the throat muscles, causing you to snore more while sleeping.
For more information on symptoms, please seen Alcohol Hangover.
Dealing with a hangover
Control the amount
The study found that the hangover symptoms positively correlated with the amount of alcohol intake. Decreasing the amount of alcohol intake can lessen the hangover symptoms. In addition, the severity of hangover symptoms often affected by the type of alcohol, the time your spent consuming the beverages, your age and ethnicity. Therefore, controlling the amount of alcohol intake, choosing beverages with less alcohol in them and consuming alcohol more slowly could mitigate your hangover symptoms.
Hydrate
Drinking some water or sports drink during and after alcohol consumption may reduce alcohol-induced dehydration and compensate for the loss of fluid and electrolytes through alcohol induced diarrhea and vomiting. In addition, drinking water could help eliminate alcohol through urine and reduce the toxic effect on the body.
Sleep
Alcohol can cause sleep disturbance by changing the sleep pattern. Therefore, having enough sleep is very important after the alcohol consumption. Lack of sleep may worsen the alcohol symptoms like fatigue, headache and weakness.
Avoid taking energy drink
Some people may use energy drinks to counteract the sedative effect of alcohol. One study looked into the energy drinks and confirmed that they could reduce the adverse effects such as dry mouth, fatigue and headache. However, using this method for managing hangover symptoms could potentially support development of alcohol addiction.
Recommended food and supplements
Two systematic reviews evaluated clinical evidence of natural products used in managing the hangover symptoms. The first review was conducted in 2005 by researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth. Researchers evaluated the supplements such as extract of borage, yeast bread with vitamins preparation etc.
The second review was conducted in 2017 by researchers from the University of Colombo. They looked at polysaccharide rich extracts of Siberian ginseng, red ginseng, Korean pear juice and folk remedies.
Both reviews concluded that natural supplements could relieve some of the hangover symptoms but not all of them. The sample size was limited in these studies and symptom relief occurred after consumption of multiple ingredients. Therefore, further investigation is required.
Vitamin B supplementation — Chronic alcohol intake can lead to malnutrition status since long term intake of alcohol prevents the digestive system from absorbing important nutrients to maintaining our health like vitamins (e.g., thiamine, cobalamin) or proteins.
Vitamin B plays an important role for the development of nerve cells in brain thereby stabilizing mood and enhancing the cognitive system. It’s commonly recommended to patients who are trying to stop drinking.
Vitamin B supplements could also be beneficial for people suffering from hangover symptoms. One study tested the effectiveness of vitamin supplementation (vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and vitamin B6) mixed with yeast preparation in subjects after consumed vodka.The hangover symptoms like discomfort, restlessness, and impatience were statistically significantly improved.
Siberian Ginseng — Siberian ginseng is one type of ginseng usually distributed in Russia and east Asia. Siberian ginseng generally used for insomnia, fatigue and hangover symptoms. Siberian ginseng is often consumed as a tea. One study tested subjects who took the Siberian ginseng 30 minutes before and after the alcohol consumption. The polysaccharide extract of Siberian ginseng greatly improved hangover symptoms such as tiredness, headache, nausea, stomachache and dizziness.
Pear — One study tested the effects of Korean pear juice on preventing the hangover symptoms in 14 male subjects and the results showed that the blood alcohol concentration along with the hangover symptoms were significantly reduced after alcohol consumption in people who drank pear juice.
Red ginseng — Ginseng root is usually applied for the medical use which contains various active components include ginsenosides, vitamins and flavonoids.There is a possible theory that ginseng could reduces hangover symptoms. Ginseng could enhance the activity of liver enzyme to speed up the process of alcohol break down. One human study accessed the efficacy of the red ginseng anti-hangover drink in 25 healthy people. Hangover symptoms improved 24 hours after the consumption of alcohol. Red ginseng showed benefits on improving stomachache, thirst, cognitive function and memory loss.
Dandelion — One study found that intake dandelion juice on daily basis can improve hangover symptoms and can reduce the blood alcohol concentration after the alcohol consumption. The author discussed the possible reason that dandelion could increase the level of ALDH and anti-oxidative enzymes to reduce the oxidative stress thereby provide symptoms relief.
Borage (gamma linolenic acid of Borago officinalis) — Borage, as known as starflower, can be helpful for calming mood, relieve nervousness and help with sleep. The oil was often taken from borage seeds which mainly used for managing alcoholism and inflammation. People can easily encountered borage from salads and soup. One study found that administereing Bio-Glandin 25 (containing the extract of Borago officinalis) before alcohol consumption can significantly improve the overall alcohol hangover symptoms and can be helpful for managing the hangover symptoms like headache, laziness, and tiredness.
Medications
Tolfenamic acid — This medication is classified as NSAID by inhibiting the synthesis of prostaglandin. The effect of prostaglandin include pain, inflammation and fever. Therefore, by reducing the production of prostaglandin in our body to reduce inflammation, pain and fever to relieve the hangover symptoms. One trial examined the efficacy of tolfenamic before alcohol consumption discovering that the overall and the individual symptoms of headache, nausea, vomiting, thirst, dry mouth, tremor, and irritation were significantly reduced. This medication, however, has several adverse effects including stomach pain, heartburn, diarrhea, constipation and stomach ulcers. It becomes an inappropriate choice (and should be taken very cautiously) by people with digestive concerns.
Summary
Avoidance and moderation are always best.
But here are some general tips for people who consumed alcohol and developed hangover symptoms.
Drink water to rehydrate your body after alcohol consumption
Get enough sleep
Avoid further consumption of other alcoholic beverages
Some food and supplements like pear juice, vitamin B supplements might help with hangover symptoms
Questions: Do you know any other remedies for managing hangover effect? What are your best strategies for preventing or managing handover symptoms?
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