By: Eliza Amilhat
We know well enough the drawbacks of alcohol and yet we haven’t turned our backs on our favorite cocktails. If were not planning to stay sober, we can still try enjoying wisely. Here are some tips to prevent alcohol from messing the party up.
Preventing the hangover
Hangover feels like the price to pay for a night washed down with cocktails. But there are ways to keep it at bay.
Drink water. It’s simple: Alcohol consumption causes dehydration. Why? Because it has diuretic effects, making us eliminate water, and since we quench our thirst with more alcohol... vicious circle. Dehydration causes the hangover headache, cramps, soreness and increases feelings of fatigue. All the more reason to have some water between each drink and be sure to have a tall glass of water before you go to sleep.
Pamper your stomach. If you want to end the party having fun: The more you eat before and during the time you’re consuming alcohol, the less it passes into your bloodstream. Beware though, food doesn’t cancel alcohol’s effect. It makes it less effective but also slows its elimination. As for what you drink, avoid mixing, and choose clear alcohols, if you can, they often tend to be less “hangover-ish” than darker hued ones.
Remember, drinking and driving is reckless. A glass of red wine takes one hour to be eliminated by your body and stronger alcohols even more. And it only takes two glasses for your vision and reflexes to be affected. Keep the party on but don’t play with your life.
The morning after
You weren’t reasonable enough. And here you are, the day after the party: It feels as though a royal marching band has invaded your head. You’re avoiding light like Dracula and feeling like your stomach is doing flip-flops.
Try
•Drinking the juice of one lemon. As you might have read in our January issue, lemon is a good hangover cure: it purifies your digestive system, turns nausea off and is chock full of Vitamin C, giving you energy.
•A rosemary herbal infusion. It will help your liver eliminate the alcohol remaining in your body.
•Drinking a lot of water.
•Eat some nutritious food like bananas, yogurts, and cereals... Your body needs to restore itself and eating turns nausea off, although it might not feel that way. Avoid fatty food, it’s harder to digest.
Avoid
•Smoking. Nicotine has vasoconstrictor effects and can possibly worsen your headache.
•Drinking coffee. It does have a stimulating effect and decreases headache by dilating neuronal vessels but it’s also a diuretic, meaning it can worsen the dehydration.
KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION
Alcohol consumption can have effects on your body that last after hangover is gone.
Your liver becomes over-trained
Regular consumption trains your liver to create more enzymes to eliminate alcohol. But those enzymes also eliminate drugs, decreasing the effect of any medical treatment you may undertake! This effect can be observed during anesthesia: if a patient has regular alcohol consumption, anesthesiologists will have to use a higher dose of drugs.
It messes with your system
Regular alcohol consumption slackens neural activity, and weakens the muscular nervous system during several days after a bender, even after there isn’t any alcohol remaining in your blood!
It increases the risk of cardiovascular issues
Alcohol’s effect on your system causes palpitations and makes your heart work harder than it should, increasing the risk of cardiac arrests.
No comments:
Post a Comment