Hangover

I think we can all agree that hangovers are the worst. I mean, one time I was so hungover that I had a headache and a stomach-ache simultaneously, whilst also trying to fight vertigo (dizziness). To be fair, with my current mentality, it’s a given.

So, one question you might be having is: why do we get hangovers? Well, your alcoholic friend probably shouldn’t have had that much alcohol to drink in the first place. When you drink more alcohol, your body will urinate more, causing your body to be more dehydrated. More alcohol also causes a decrease in digestion. This decrease in the speed of your digestive system will mean that your stomach will contain more food for longer, resulting in more stomach acid. This will then cause nausea and sickness. So, less alcohol means better feeling in the morning.

But, if everyone stopped drinking altogether, this article would be useless (also, fewer people would have fun). Therefore, I will try to help you (or your alcoholic friend) recover from a hangover. Some tricks may help more than others, so if you try all of them, something should. Let’s start with some biology. I know, a lot of us are engineers and may have a strong dislike to what happens internally in our bodies, but it helps to think of the human being as a complex biological machine.

Included below is an image with someone’s digestive system (included for educational purposes relating to extracurricular activities). What happens when you drink, is the alcohol goes into your mouth and through your oesophagus, stomach, and intestines. Whatever is not digested/absorbed is then passed through your urinary tract.

You may be shocked by the fact that less alcohol is absorbed by the stomach compared to the small intestines. The stomach only absorbs 20% of the alcohol, whereas the small intestines absorb a whopping 80% of the alcohol you drank whilst reading this article. Therefore, we need ways to slow down the speed at which alcohol passes through our bodies. Fortunately, there are some tricks that can be used before and after a good night of drinking to make us feel better in the morning. Before we start drinking, we can do some things to reduce the hangover feeling in the morning. The main thing we want to do before, is to increase the time the alcohol remains in our stomachs. This is so that the stomach is absorbing the drink instead of the small intestine (therefore, less alcohol goes through the small intestine, where it’s absorbed faster).

We can do this by lining the stomach with grease. Anything which is deep fried will be perfect. Burgers are great as well. If you are going to be drinking, you might as well go for a steak as well. I mean if you want the night of your life, why not make a day of it too?

Now you are ready to start drinking. But what if you drank more than you normally would, and your hangover is worse than ever?

Well, there are also things you

can do when you wake up. A good idea may be to fill up a water bottle with some water or some fruit juice. This will help rehydrate you, which may help with that splitting headache. Some foods may help with the hangovers. Eating something salt may help, and bananas will definitely replace any lost potassium from drinking alcohol.

Sleeping the hangover off is also a good idea. If you wake up and still have a headache, go back to sleep. Alternatively, painkillers will also help with hangovers. Recommended painkillers are ibuprofen or aspirin, but any nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) will work.

My personal favourite is another drink. My personal favourite morning brew is something called an “Irish Coffee”. It is made by first making some coffee. The second ingredient is some Irish Whiskey (but any other type of whiskey also works). Give it a stir, then add some cream on top. A variant of “Irish coffee” is another caffeinated alcoholic beverage called “Rüdesheimer Kaffee” from Rüdesheim am Rhein in Germany. It’s made by adding brandy and sugar cubes are added to a cup. The brandy/sugar is then flambeed (set on fire) and stirred until the sugar dissolves. Strong coffee is added, followed by a topping of thickly whipped cream sweetened with vanilla sugar. Chocolate flakes are scattered onto the cream as a garnish. Depending on how they’re made, both drinks are amazing. They should taste like sweetened coffee with a very small taste of alcohol.

I know it is not recommended to drink a lot of alcohol when hungover, but research has proved that small amounts of alcohol does relieve some pain. It helped me a little, but maybe it’s not for everyone…

So, to sum up: Be prepared when going to a party: have some greasy food before drinking. Anything with fat also helps

After a night out (the hangover is bad) take some painkillers. Drink lot of water to stay hydrated and sleep until the hangover wears off. An alcoholic caffeinated drink may also help, but too much alcohol on the day after the party may not be the best to help your hangover.

I hope this small article helps the next time you are out with friends. Be safe and have fun. ^^