Beer, wine or hard liquor. New Year’s Eve mixes often make waking up painful. Beware of the “tipped helmet”. However, if different factors come into play, one of the most important is the dehydration linked to the effects of alcohol, which is constant, significant, and easy to avoid.
Unless it is considered, from a Judeo-Christian perspective, as the just retribution for the excesses of the day before, the hangover is a familiar condition that we would do well without.
For science, the mechanism of the hangover (or “veisalgie”, in more chosen terms) remains quite mysterious. Different theories have been put forward (dehydration, withdrawal, hypoglycaemia, inflammation), but none completely prevails. In the end, how to avoid the difficult tomorrows?
Avoid too rapid absorption
It is first necessary to dilute certain products contained in alcohol, ethers, which are also responsible for the headache. So, drink alcohol okay, but also a good glass of water regularly during the evening, especially if the temperature is high. It’s free everywhere!
In addition, this will prevent too much concentrated alcohol from damaging the lining of your stomach, the membrane which lines the internal wall of the stomach, and which can have small bleeding after taking alcohol (we see these small hemorrhages of the wall or “petechiae” in endoscopy). South Americans, who are very addicted to the digestive hypothesis of a hangover, treat themselves with anti-ulcer drugs, both preventive and curative.
Avoid mixing as much as possible
We come back to the famous ethers which are contained in alcohol. They are different according to the wines and alcohols and the older they are, the more aggressive the ethers are for the brain.
Therefore, it is necessary to avoid mixtures of alcohols as much as possible: no more than 2, or even total loyalty to a drink, which is often also a factor of moderation. It is also better to avoid old spirits on this occasion and reserve them for other occasions.
Avoid dehydration
Finally, you should know that the terrible discomfort the next day is also due to… dehydration. Alcohol, in fact, suppresses the effects of a hormone that controls the volume of our urine and is essential for the proper regulation of liquids in our body. When you drink alcohol, the hormone is ineffective and there is no control. We will therefore often go to the toilet, which may seem normal since we drink, but we eliminate more water than we swallow with alcohol. So we get dehydrated.
In case of heavy alcohol intake, it is therefore necessary to drink even more, but water.
It is therefore necessary to drink water during the party, even if it seems difficult in the context. And you have to drink it afterwards, as soon as you get home and all night long, regularly.
Probable effectiveness
In one study, scientists found that drinking plenty of water before going to bed, eating fat while drinking, or having a hearty breakfast the next morning did have a statistically significant effect on the level of hangover experienced. . A difference which is therefore not due to chance. On the other hand, clinically, the difference remains quite minimal and the best way to avoid a hangover therefore remains to be reasonable.
Finally, do not forget that it is not a question of driving home when you have drunk too much. It takes more than an hour for the body to eliminate about a glass of wine. Some will therefore not have finished the job the next morning.
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