The movie Hangover is currently playing in the South African movie houses. This made me wonder, why do we get hangovers?
Most people experience it at least once in their life and just the mention of it sends shivers down my spine. It comes in different forms and there is absolutely no way of preventing it. Yes, it’s the dreaded HANGOVER! Let’s take a look at some of the symptoms and what they are caused by.
Nausea / Sweating – These symptoms are due to something called “acidosis”, which is when your blood becomes more acidic than it should be. While alcohol does not only mess with the normal acids in your body, it also creates some extra (unwanted) acids. The more acids in your blood, the worse your hangover and nausea will be. It takes the average human body between 18 and 24 hours to return the acids to its normal level.
Headache / Dry mouth / “Breaking the seal” – Your body attempts to protect itself from the toxins in the alcohol by producing enzymes. However, when the toxins start to exceed the amount of enzymes that your body can produce, trouble starts. What happens next is that your liver and kidneys require more fluids to help cope with the excess toxins. If there aren’t enough fluids in these organs, they take from wherever else in your body they can find some. The constant need for the bathroom is thus caused by your body trying to get rid of the toxins, while the headache and dry mouth is due to dehydration because all fluids that were in your body before, now end up in the toilet.
The toxins which contribute towards a hangover include ethanol, acetaldehyde and congeners. Congeners in particular contribute to the severity of the hangover and the amount of congeners relates to the quality of the fermentation and distillation process of the alcohol. It is also said that darker coloured alcohols (brandy, rum and unfortunately red wine) have more congeners than lighter coloured alcohols. Having said this, I must add that my worst hangover came from white wine (but I have a feeling I had a reaction to the silver bag it was packaged in).
At the end of the day, the only thing to do is to drink more water and less alcohol. Drinking a glass of water after each glass of wine will not only slow your alcohol intake but will also reduce dehydration.
Source: sawineadvocate.com
Also some people have slight allergies to wine. Preventive Sudafed or other antihistimine works for me. That and a large glass of wine.