We've all heard of the hangover but what is it? <BR>Symptoms include a pounding headache, feeling sick or depressed, general grouchiness and diarrhoea.<BR>Aside from the alcohol, drinks have small amounts of additives (congeners) give drinks their colour, flavour and smell. Congeners affect everyone differently and may contribute to you feeling ill.<BR>The pounding headache is caused by <DEHYDRATION target="_blank"><A href="http://www.alac.org.nz/FirstAid.aspx"><DEHYDRATION target="_blank"><dehydration target="_blank">dehydration</dehydration></DEHYDRATION></A></DEHYDRATION>. Alcohol's toxicity can cause acids to accumulate in the stomach and intestines resulting in queasiness and nausea. The stomach lining becomes inflamed (gastritis) delaying digestion.<BR>Alcohol can inflame the oesophagus, the tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach, giving you heartburn. <BR>When you drink, you take in large quantities of increased glucose. The Pancreas responds to
We've all heard of the hangover but what is it?
Symptoms include a pounding headache, feeling sick or depressed, general grouchiness and diarrhoea.
Aside from the alcohol, drinks have small amounts of additives (congeners) give drinks their colour, flavour and smell. Congeners affect everyone differently and may contribute to you feeling ill.
The pounding headache is caused by
dehydration. Alcohol's toxicity can cause acids to accumulate in the stomach and intestines resulting in queasiness and nausea. The stomach lining becomes inflamed (gastritis) delaying digestion.
Alcohol can inflame the oesophagus, the tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach, giving you heartburn.
When you drink, you take in large quantities of increased glucose. The Pancreas responds to this by producing more insulin, which removes the glucose. Once the process has started, the insulin carries on working removing glucose from the blood. Low blood glucose levels are responsible for the shakes, excess sweating, dizziness, blurred vision and tiredness.
Alcohol often affects bowel movements, in the normal course, the small and large intestines reabsorb salt and water, but alcohol interferes with this process often causing diarrhoea.
The only true cure for a hangover is time, however there are some things you can do to lessen your discomfort. Drink plenty of water, nourish your body with food, toast and fruit at breakfast. Consume food with some sugar, alcohol has broken down the liver's sugar stores, these need replaced. Get plenty of rest and sleep.
DehydrationAlcohol is diuretic. This means it encourages the body to lose more water than it takes on by halting the production of the body's anti-diuretic hormone, resulting in you needing to go to the toilet excessively and so speeding up the loss of fluid from your body, leading to dehydration.
Alcohol also attacks our stores of vitamins and minerals, which need to be in the correct balance for the body to function normally. Dehydration caused by drinking can affect the balance by draining potassium from the body, resulting in thirst, muscle cramps, dizziness and faintness.
