20 ways to relieve a hangover (how to quickly relieve a hangover)

Anyone has experienced a hangover after drinking a large amount of alcoholic beverages. Dosage varies among people. For some, it is enough to drink a glass of alcohol, and the next morning unpleasant symptoms appear. In some cases, people prefer to drink coffee when they have a hangover. However, the possibility of using and the effect of caffeine to alleviate well-being remains questionable.

The most severe symptom of a hangover is headache and migraine, which does not go away even after taking a painkiller tablet. A hangover, its intensity and severity, is based on the quantity and quality of the strong drink consumed. If a person has drunk alcohol in a small dosage, upon awakening the condition is much easier compared to abuse. It is enough to drink a cup of weak tea and take a warm bath to relieve the condition.

What is a hangover and how is it classified?

The hangover of a healthy person and an alcoholic are two completely different conditions. Without understanding the fundamental difference between them, it is impossible to prescribe adequate treatment for a hangover.

The basis of a hangover in a healthy person, the so-called veisalgia, is poisoning by the products of the breakdown of ethanol by liver cells. Acetaldehyde plays a major role in the formation of hangover symptoms. At the same time, the influence of alcohol itself and fusel oils contained in alcohol should not be excluded. A hangover manifests itself as a severe headache, nausea, vomiting, thirst (in common parlance, dried fruit) and other unpleasant sensations.

In a patient with chronic alcoholism, a hangover is a withdrawal syndrome and is called a hangover or withdrawal syndrome. It occurs due to the cessation of ethanol intake, which has already been integrated into the metabolic processes of the body and has become a physiological need. In fact, alcohol, as a more accessible and easily digestible energy material, replaces glucose and becomes vital. Alcohol withdrawal can provoke such severe conditions as delirium tremens and other alcoholic psychoses. A hangover, the treatment of which in this case requires the mandatory assistance of an experienced narcologist, has to be relieved with the help of a dropper. Its composition is determined by the doctor depending on the severity of the patient’s condition and the presence of concomitant diseases.

Treating alcoholism with acupuncture is an effective way to deal with addiction in the early stages.

Content:

1. Why should nutrition be special when recovering from binge drinking?
2. Why do you want to eat after a binge?
3. What to eat after binge drinking - diet features
4. Fluid is the key to a speedy recovery
5. Foods that reduce cravings for alcohol
6. What not to eat
7. Indicative menu for a speedy recovery
8. How to make a diet correctly

You can improve your well-being after long periods of drinking and alcoholism by using medications and undergoing physical procedures. Diet also plays a huge role during the detoxification period. If the patient knows what to eat, he will recover much faster.

Narcologists say that the diet after binge drinking should be as gentle as possible. The patient is allowed to eat only healthy and easily digestible foods. Almost all harmful and familiar goodies are prohibited. This is very important for recovery.

More details about the symptoms of a hangover - how do they manifest themselves and what causes them?

Everything that a person experiences with a hangover is a subjective unpleasant sensation. The most common symptoms of a hangover include:

• Throbbing, pounding, severe headache.
• Tachycardia and arrhythmias.
• Tremors of the hands and whole body. Patients often complain that they are shaking after drinking.
• Heartburn, dry mouth and severe thirst, the so-called dry mouth.
• A sharp reaction to extraneous stimuli - increased sensitivity to any loud sound, noise and light, causing a surge in severe headaches
• Redness of the sclera of the eyes.
• “Adrenaline melancholy” is a complex of depressive phenomena associated with a feeling of guilt for past drinking and one’s behavior.

All these manifestations, as I said earlier, are associated with acetaldehyde poisoning. The kinetics of its effect on the body is quite complex and not fully understood. It is believed that acetaldehyde, when interacting with the hormones dopamine and norepinephrine, forms tetrahydroisocholines, and carbonyls with the amino acid tryptophan. All these metabolic products of acetaldehyde have a psychotropic effect with an effect on motor activity and convulsive readiness of the body. This is why convulsions after alcohol and even epileptic seizures are possible.

The development of hangover symptoms is not influenced by the type of alcohol, although some experts believe that strong alcohol is less likely to lead to a hangover than low-alcohol drinks, cocktails, and sweet alcohol. Basically, the occurrence of a hangover in a healthy person is observed when the risk dose is exceeded - 1 g of pure ethanol per 1 kg of body weight.

In addition, the diuretic effect of ethanol leads to increased urination and disturbances in the electrolyte composition of the blood. It also causes and increases inflammation of the intestines, pancreas, stomach, liver and kidneys. Nausea and vomiting during a hangover are associated with the inflammatory reaction in the gastrointestinal tract.

Phenobarbital

The seemingly harmless, easily accessible “penny” drops contain a substance from the barbiturate group, which has a pronounced psychotropic effect. The main consumers of valocordin are elderly people who are accustomed to trusting familiar things and often do not know or do not take into account the fact of the presence of phenobarbital in a medicine known since childhood. Meanwhile, barbiturates can be addictive.

Another category of Valocordin “lovers” are drug addicts who want to enhance the effects of other drugs or to more easily endure withdrawal symptoms in the absence of the right drug. They are well aware of the composition of the drops, which is why they are purchased and taken in doses many times higher than therapeutic ones.

How severe can alcohol poisoning be?

It all depends on the severity of the poisoning. Depending on the ethyl alcohol content, the following degrees of alcohol poisoning are differentiated:

• A mild degree that occurs when the concentration of ethanol in the blood is no more than 1 ‰ (ppm is 1 thousandth of something or 1 tenth of a percent (‰ = 1⁄1000 = 0.1% = 0.001). This degree of intoxication is accompanied by moderate disturbances of autonomic function in in the form of facial flushing, increased breathing, tachycardia, as well as fine motor disorders.These manifestations do not require special medical intervention and go away on their own after a few hours of sleep.
• The average degree is observed at an alcohol concentration of 1 to 2.5 ‰. With a hangover, nausea, vomiting, pallor or cyanosis of the skin, severe shortness of breath and tachycardia, and possible arrhythmia often develop. In this condition, urgent detoxification is required by a drug treatment team called to the home. Hospitalization for moderate alcohol poisoning is not provided.
• Severe degree - ethanol content exceeds 2.5‰, sometimes reaching very high levels requiring resuscitation measures. Accompanied by depression of consciousness, misunderstanding of speech, change in skin color, vomiting, salivation (hypersalivation) and even coma. Convulsions, epileptic seizures, respiratory and cardiovascular disorders that are life-threatening may occur.

The state of severe intoxication can only be relieved in a hospital setting.

List of recommended products

• Wheat bread baked yesterday (can be dried), inconvenient pastries.
• Lean meats or poultry without fascia or tendons, meat or liver pates, dietary sausages (limited). Low-fat types of fish without skin, boiled or steamed.
• Soft-boiled eggs or as a steam omelet.
• Whole milk (limited), non-acidic types of cottage cheese or cheese, low-fat sour cream.
• Liquid or semi-liquid rice, buckwheat, rolled oats, semolina in water or milk.
• Boiled or steamed potatoes, beets, carrots, green peas, non-acidic varieties of tomatoes, pumpkin. Onions - after boiling.
• Puréed soups or pureed soups from permitted types of cereals and vegetables, seasoned with butter. Soups made with chicken broth are allowed.
• Butter or vegetable oil is limited in dishes.
• Sweet varieties of fruits and berries in the form of jelly, puree, mousse or jelly. Baked apples.
• Weak tea, rosehip infusion, weak cocoa with milk. Freshly squeezed non-acidic juices.

How to relieve a hangover in a mildly intoxicated person?

Typically, a hangover in a healthy person lasts about 24 hours. You need to hold out for 24 hours. How to do it? Regardless of the severity of the symptoms, the most important way to relieve hangover symptoms is to quickly remove acetaldehyde from the body, and for this you need to drink as much as possible - water, weak sweet tea, tomato juice, cabbage or cucumber pickle.

When choosing an anti-hangover drink, listen to your body - drink what you want. The exception is strong tea or coffee. They will not help you, but will only increase the load on the heart, which is already damaged. It is advisable not to drink carbonated drinks.

And one more recommendation for mild intoxication is sleep, during which the liver enzyme systems will independently cope with the incoming dose of alcohol poison. What you should never do is get hungover. A new portion of alcohol will return the state of euphoria for an hour, but the ethanol processing systems already running in enhanced mode will quickly utilize ethanol to acetaldehyde and increase its concentration in the blood. This will ultimately only increase intoxication and initiate the onset of alcohol dependence. To summarize, we can say that if hangover intoxication is not severe, the best ways to cure a hangover are to drink plenty of fluids and sleep.

For severe headaches, you can take medications based on acetylsalicylic acid. To remove unabsorbed alcohol and reduce nausea, you can take enterosorbents. But do not experiment, use only drugs that you have already tested and tolerate well.

Why do you want to eat after a binge?

Many alcoholics complain of “post-hangover gluttony.” They eat often and in large quantities, but the feeling of satiety does not come. There are several reasons for this:

• Alcohol can lower blood sugar levels. This painful condition is called hypoglycemia. How pronounced the abnormal process will be depends on the amount of alcohol used. At the same time, ethanol enhances the effect of insulin, but at the same time inhibits the formation of glucose in the liver.
• Alcohol disrupts the integrity of cell walls. Glucose flows freely from the blood into the cell through the vacated space. For this reason, the level of the energy component in the blood also decreases.
• Alcohol reduces the production of growth hormone somatotropin. Because of this, the body's normal response to low glucose levels is altered.
• All alcohol-containing drinks are very high in calories. Their calories are “empty”. However, they inhibit fat utilization.

Taken together, all these reasons contribute to the creation of a situation where the brain, after drinking, receives a signal about an acute shortage of energy resources. Hence the obsessive feeling of hunger.

Is it possible to eat after binge drinking? Of course, but the diet must be balanced and healthy. It should be taken into account that alcohol addicts often confuse hunger with thirst. Doctors recommend that before you start eating after a binge, drink a lot of water or another healthy drink. This will dull hunger and relieve symptoms of dehydration.

What to do if the hangover is very severe?

If while drinking you have significantly exceeded your individual norm and the hangover is moderate to severe, then there is only one way to get rid of a hangover quickly - call a narcologist to your home. An experienced specialist, after examination and express diagnostics, will correctly assess the patient’s condition and prescribe adequate treatment. The fastest and most effective way to relieve a hangover is a dropper based on a saline solution with a composition that restores the water-salt and acid-base balance.

Additionally, the following devices can be connected to the dropper:

• Diuretics to force diuresis and rapid elimination of acetaldehyde.
• B vitamins, ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
• According to indications, sedatives, antihypertensive drugs, hepato- and cardioprotectors are prescribed.

We provide 3 types of drips for alcohol poisoning: standard, intensive and triple. The latter provides protection for the heart, liver, nerve cells and kidneys from the toxic effects of alcohol.

Only a doctor can decide what to do in case of a severe hangover with life-threatening symptoms. Typically, in such cases, treatment for a hangover is indicated only in a hospital, in order to ensure the provision of resuscitation measures as quickly and fully as possible.

Signs of addiction

The following symptoms indicate the development of pathological addiction:

• constant use of drops under any pretext and even in minor stressful situations;
• ritual behavior: a sense of the importance of the action, careful preparation for the reception, priority over other matters;
• a person's inability to sleep or calm down without medication;
• gradual increase in dose, noticeable by the number of bubbles in the first aid kit and in the trash;
• the tendency to create a stock by buying several pieces at once;
• restlessness, depression and irritability when the drug runs out or is unavailable.

What not to do if you have a hangover?

Let's rephrase the question: what should never be used to treat a hangover? Because all the actions of a person suffering from a hangover are aimed at alleviating the symptoms. At the same time, the set of methods and means can be very diverse. But if some of them really help, while others play the role of a placebo, then others can only do harm. It is precisely these methods that I want to warn against:

• As already mentioned, you should not relieve a hangover with coffee or strong tea. The caffeine contained in them increases the myocardial need for oxygen, and the heart already needs it. And besides, caffeine can increase blood pressure, and this is already dangerous and can result in a stroke.
• You shouldn't fight a hangover in a bathhouse. It seems that all toxic metabolites will be released with sweat. But this is far from true. Excessive sweating will cause even more severe dehydration of the body, which, together with high temperature and high humidity, can be extremely dangerous for the heart and result in a heart attack.
• And I won’t tire of repeating – you can’t get hungover. This is the greatest harm, leading to increased intoxication, alcoholization of the body, and even binge drinking. The latter is especially relevant for the first stage of alcoholism and symbolizes its transition to the second stage.

By the way, call an ambulance immediately if, during a hangover, you suddenly feel something unusual in the form of:

• too pronounced tachycardia, when the heart almost jumps out of the chest;
• interruptions in cardiac activity (arrhythmias);
• sharp throbbing headache;
• pressing pain behind the sternum radiating to the left arm, etc.

These may be symptoms of a stroke or heart attack.

What fruits and vegetables to eat

Various acids found in many foods can be harmful to the body, so it's important to understand which foods are best for hangover relief.

If you have a hangover, it is recommended to eat foods with various vegetables and fruits, such as cabbage, tomato, melon, watermelon, etc.

Many beneficial substances contained in the above products significantly improve the condition.

What advice can you give to those suffering from a hangover?

The most important prevention of a hangover is not to abuse alcohol, and also to learn to say no to drinking company if you feel that your limit has already been exhausted. Of course, this is difficult to do - you need to have the will and character to resist temptation. But, if you do have too much, be prepared for a hangover and all its negative manifestations.

Read our articles on how to force your husband to stop drinking and start treatment for an alcohol-dependent person.

If you are feeling particularly hard the next morning, call ours - we will arrive as quickly as possible, promptly select an IV, and within an hour or two you will feel relatively normal and will even be able to go to work. Well, if the hangover is particularly severe, we will be able to completely restore your health upon admission to our clinic. The main thing is not to delay - because the sooner therapy begins, the faster and without complications there will be a way out of a hangover.

Recommendations for drinking coffee

In order to prevent complications from a difficult situation, it is important to comply with the permissible dosage. If you are unable to eat at least a little food due to a hangover, only 100 ml of coffee is allowed on an empty stomach. Excessive dosage can cause unpleasant consequences:

• nausea and vomiting;
• discomfort in the digestive organs;
• unbearable headache;
• heartbeat disturbance;
• dizziness;
• body weakness and malaise;
• dehydration.

If complications occur, it is recommended to drink one liter of clean water and then vomit. Then it is highly undesirable to drink coffee throughout the day. After eating, a single dose of the drink increases to 300-500 ml. This also means the volume of milk, which is 1/3 of the total amount of the drink.

The preferred option is to consume coffee immediately before going to work. This will help fill you with vigor and energy. To get the desired result, doctors advise taking a warm bath or shower and taking a short walk in the fresh air.

Types of hangover syndrome

“The term “hangover” is not medical, but folk,” comments Ilya Kisler. “That’s what two states can be called.”

1. Alcohol intoxication. This is exactly the case when a person “did too much” at a party, and in the morning he does not understand how he “got to do this.” We are talking about healthy people, without pathological attachment to alcohol. And advice on treating a hangover, that is, relieving the condition “in the morning,” concerns them specifically.

2. Withdrawal syndrome. In the medical community, this is the name for a condition that occurs after drinking alcohol and ends, as a rule, with another portion of a “hot” drink in order to feel better. Doctors call withdrawal syndrome a true hangover syndrome and recognize it as one of the signs of alcohol dependence.