Sometimes there is a feeling that our Slavic Russian brothers have no sense of proportion. Sometimes there is a feeling that some part of our brain is atrophied and it is almost impossible to get enough. The Americans, probably, also have something wrong with the brain, since there are so many fat people – fast food and all that, but we have another problem – vodka. And it would be okay in the trash, so the hangover torments the hell. Only we, in the former Soviet Union, can have entire sites devoted to hangovers – how to prevent, how to avoid, how to treat.
Of course, if you took advantage of our tips on how to drink and not get drunk, then there should not be a hangover, well, maybe a little bit, sparing. However, it is sometimes very difficult to resist, and then it … We decided to tell you about what a hangover is, because it should help not only in an unequal struggle, but also in everyday life.
What is a hangover: a scientific approach
So, a hangover, it is also a hangover syndrome, is a feeling of poor health that occurs some time after drinking alcohol. And in order to understand how to deal with a hangover (you can, for example, drink one of the anti-hangover cocktails), you must first understand why it occurs at all. First of all, a hangover appears as a result of the effect of alcohol on the body. As a rule, it is expressed in headache, vomiting and nausea, hand trembling (tremor), digestive system disorder, weakness, pressure disturbance and general malaise.
The list is still the same, isn’t it? It is also worth adding an unreasonable feeling of guilt to everything else. Yes Yes. It’s a biochemical process, so you don’t have to be guilty of something to feel guilty about it. Oh yes, a person also experiences a deep aversion to alcohol in the morning, and if he does not, then this is a sure sign on the way to alcoholism (but this is only the opinion of some comrades, not scientifically confirmed). Some show only one of their symptoms, others have a combination of them, and still others have a very severe hangover – all the symptoms pile up in a crowd and simply tear the body apart. But these are all the consequences, the reasons are not much less.
Aspects of alcohol exposure that cause a hangover
Poisoning
This is undoubtedly the root cause. Alcohol, getting into our body, breaks down into toxic substances, among which the most seasoned is acetaldehyde, which, in turn, breaks down into other toxins. The biochemical process of splitting is quite complex and it takes place in the liver. There, acetaldehyde is converted to acetic acid, which, after further processing, will turn into water and carbon dioxide. By the way, the body’s ability to break down both alcohol and acetaldehyde affects individual sensitivity to alcohol. If both processes proceed quickly, then the effect of drinking on the body will be minimal.
Some clinics use this principle to treat their patients for alcoholism. They are given drugs that slow down the process of splitting acetaldehyde, from which the latter accumulates in large quantities. As a result, the drinker gets worse and worse with each glass, and over time, an aversion to alcohol appears altogether.
And this is for the curious. The process of splitting alcohol was reflected in the traditions of some peoples. I mean the culture of drinking. Europeans have a special allele of genes that are responsible for the production of alcohol dehydrogenase (Scandinavians, for example). In their body, acetaldehyde breaks down many times faster, so they can drink a lot. At the same time, this gene is deficient in Asians and they have to drink very small doses (hence the small drinking utensils). In women, the above process works much worse than in men.
It is also worth mentioning that acetaldehyde slows down the process of oxidation of certain substances in cells, which also poison the body. Oh, yes, another curious fact: alcoholic beverages that contain various impurities (that is, the entire elite) additionally load the liver – we wrote about this in an article about the right snack. Toxicologists, for example, consider the entire elite to be surrogate alcohol (except for red wine and unpasteurized beer, which contain useful substances).
Fluid imbalance
Anyone who believes that the main cause of a hangover is dehydration is mistaken. Just in the case of intoxication, there is plenty of fluid in our body and even more than necessary. It is not for nothing that in the morning puffiness sometimes appears in different places – this is a strong hangover. The fact is that after drinking, the distribution of blood is disturbed, which leads to undesirable consequences.
Metabolic disease
During the unequal struggle with alcohol and its decay products, the human body consumes a lot of vitamins and various trace elements. Vitamin B is consumed the most, so when the first fight begins, you need to replenish it first. On the second and third day after drinking, the body suffers from beriberi.
Violation of the acid-base balance (acidosis)
This fearful aspect causes morning sickness and rapid breathing. The fact is that all derivatives of alcohol are acidic, which introduces some disharmony into the digestive system.
Sleep disturbance
Alcohol interferes with the REM sleep phases, during which our brain is actively working and we dream. It is during this period that our body recovers and gains new strength. In general, it is simply impossible to sleep without these phases. As a result, we cannot get enough sleep after drinking, even after the usual 8-9 hours of sleep. Have you observed such an effect? Well, of course, we watched, do not deceive =).
Impact on brain cells
This is a separate topic, which we will definitely devote a separate article to. In short, after heavy drinking, the brain is also exposed to the decay products of the “great and terrible.” In the morning, the entire nervous system turns into a hypersensitive mechanism – bright light, loud sounds, touch, everything irritates and infuriates, because sensitivity is increased.
What can be said here? A hangover is not a sentence =). Aware means armed. Knowing the biomechanics of this process, you can easily deal with it. So the next time you ask yourself: “hangover, what to do?”, do not forget to go to The Rum Diary and read this article. Additionally, check out the article on the basic principles of treating a hangover – it takes into account all of the above, as well as basic recommendations for improving your situation.