Hangover - Symptom, Treatment And Causes

A night out with its fair share of drinks is enjoyable, but it is the morning after which tends to have the after affects. Hangovers are a problem with anybody who has had a drink too much the night before and it might leave you in an incapacitated state due to nausea, headaches and dehydration.

Here are some of the known homemade remedies which can cure hangovers:

1. Make sure you take a lot of water and fluids: After you have woken up after a night out where you had lots to drink, you are bound to have a hangover as alcohol is known to dehydrate the body. Thus it is advisable that you drink plenty of water and other fluids. Only water isn’t going to be enough as water can hydrate you but many of the other nutrients will only be supplied by juices, rehydrating drinks, sports drinks or other such. Thus it is important to consume a variety of these fluids.
2. Eat a hearty breakfast: The longer you are with an empty stomach, the longer it is going to take the hangover to go away. Eating a hearty and filling breakfast will relieve the hangover to a great extent. However, eat foods which are easy to digest, such as cereals and toast. Avoid greasy and oily foods in the morning as they may add to the nausea.
3. If you have nowhere important to be, go back to bed: If you have the time and nothing to do, then it is advisable to sleep a little longer while you keep rehydrating yourself whenever you wake up. This is going to give your body the fluids it needs while resting is going to give it plenty of opportunity to heal itself.
4. Eat ginger, both before and after drinking: Ginger has been used as a home remedy across cultures for centuries to treat nausea. It is thus wise to eat crystallized or candied forms of ginger, both before and after consumption of alcohol as it will lessen its effects on the body. You can take ginger the night after as well to reduce the nausea that comes with hangover.
5. Stretch out and exercise a little: Between naps it may not be a bad idea to stretch out and exercise a little, which will help you release endorphins to make you feel better. However, ensure that it is light exercise so that the nausea and headaches are not exacerbated.

5 simple and effective ways to cure that hangover

Most people experience prominent side effects on their body and mind the morning following a night of heavy drinking. These after-effects of consuming excessive alcohol, popularly called a hangover, include rapid heartbeat, headache, anxiety, exhaustion, vomiting, dizziness, lack of energy, and body pain.

Drinking too much alcohol (5 to 7 drinks for men and 3 to 5 for women) not only causes a hangover but also can negatively impact your health by damaging your liver, central nervous system, brain and gastrointestinal system. It takes about 8 to 24 hours to cure a hangover completely, but you can try these natural remedies to get quick relief from the symptoms and reduce the recovery time.

1. Have a banana

A hangover is often associated with decreased potassium levels in your body and having a banana will help replenish it as it contains an adequate amount of the mineral.

Directions: you can either have one or two whole bananas or a banana smoothie with few drops of honey to get relieve from most hangover symptoms.

2. Try honey

Honey contains fructose, which helps to neutralize the negative impact of alcohol on your body. Moreover, honey provides relief from the hangover as it also helps digest the alcohol better.

Directions: take 3-4 teaspoons of honey after each hour (post-hangover) till you feel yourself getting better. You can increase the dosage according to the severity of your hangover.

3. Go for a glass of tomato juice

Tomato juice proves to be very effective in curbing the symptoms of a hangover as it compensates for the dehydration caused in your body due to excessive alcohol consumption. Also, due to its fructose content, tomato helps in metabolizing the alcohol present in your body.

Directions: drink a glass of fresh tomato juice or soup laden with 1 tablespoon each of honey and fresh lemon juice. You can have this juice in the morning once and repeat in the afternoon if needed.

4. Drink a lot of water

When it comes to beating a hangover, there is no substitute for water. Drinking water is not only a tried and tested remedy, but is also the most effective way to cure a hangover. This happens because water fights the dehydration of fluids in your body caused by drinking alcohol.

Directions: to keep the hangover at bay, drink one glass of water after each glass or shot of alcohol you consume. If you forget to do this, starting your day with a bottle of water the next morning will help reduce hangover symptoms drastically.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Do you worry about your friend or relative’s drinking habits? You are not alone. There are people who struggle for years with the same question - How can I tell if the person I love is an alcoholic or not?
Well, the good news is that you don’t need to be a medical professional to figure out the right answer to this vital question. Read on to find simple ways to know whether your loved one suffers from alcohol addiction.

First up is a short quiz about drinking habits, developed by Dr. John Ewing to identify alcohol addiction. Treat this as a pointer and take your loved one to an expert, if it points towards alcohol addiction. You can ask these questions directly to your loved one, or you can answer these questions on their behalf.

According to the developers, one "yes" to the four quiz questions signals a problem, and more than one “yes” means that it's time for you or your loved one to get professional help.

1. Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking?
2. Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
3. Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your drinking?
4. Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover?”

There are many signs of a serious drinking problem. These include certain behaviours such as:

1. Drinking just for getting drunk
2. Drinking alone
3. Keeping alcohol consumption a secret
4. Drinking to escape problems
5. Hiding alcohol bottles
6. Experiencing withdrawal symptoms like getting irritated or experiencing nervousness, nausea, getting shakes, breaking out into a cold sweat, and getting hallucinations when unable to source alcohol
7. Having problems at work, school, or home, as a result of alcohol consumption
8. Losing interest in activities you or your friend used to enjoy
9. Having blackouts due to heavy drinking
10. Anger and extreme irritation

Other extreme behaviors to watch out for are:

1. Being able to drink an awful lot of alcohol
2. Trouble stopping once your loved one starts drinking
3. A powerful urge to drink

There is another scientific way to determine, if your loved one is an alcoholic. In the US, medical professionals commonly use a criteria, listed in the fourth edition of the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’. According to it, the signs and symptoms of alcoholism are clearly laid down and it states that alcohol dependent people:

1. Will drink more to get their desired effect from alcohol
2. Experience withdrawal symptoms when the effect of alcohol wears off
3. Drink larger amounts of alcohol over a longer period of time
4. Will be unable to consistently control their drinking
5. Will leave important work for drinking
6. Will spend a lot of time during the day getting alcohol, drinking it, and recovering from hangovers.
7. Continue to use alcohol, despite knowing that their chronic physical or psychological problem is caused due to alcohol.
8. To be declared alcohol-dependent, your loved one must experience at least three of these criteria during a year.

However, there is still no one definite test to diagnose alcohol-use disorders. Therefore, professionals diagnose them by making use of the patient’s comprehensive medical, family, and mental-health information. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

A night out with its fair share of drinks is enjoyable, but it is the morning after which tends to have the after affects. Hangovers are a problem with anybody who has had a drink too much the night before and it might leave you in an incapacitated state due to nausea, headaches and dehydration.

Here are some of the known homemade remedies which can cure hangovers:

1. Make sure you take a lot of water and fluids: After you have woken up after a night out where you had lots to drink, you are bound to have a hangover as alcohol is known to dehydrate the body. Thus it is advisable that you drink plenty of water and other fluids. Only water isn’t going to be enough as water can hydrate you but many of the other nutrients will only be supplied by juices, rehydrating drinks, sports drinks or other such. Thus it is important to consume a variety of these fluids.
2. Eat a hearty breakfast: The longer you are with an empty stomach, the longer it is going to take the hangover to go away. Eating a hearty and filling breakfast will relieve the hangover to a great extent. However, eat foods which are easy to digest, such as cereals and toast. Avoid greasy and oily foods in the morning as they may add to the nausea. Including dates and raisins help.
3. If you have nowhere important to be, go back to bed: If you have the time and nothing to do, then it is advisable to sleep a little longer while you keep rehydrating yourself whenever you wake up. This is going to give your body the fluids it needs while resting is going to give it plenty of opportunity to heal itself.
4. Eat ginger, both before and after drinking: Ginger has been used as a home remedy across cultures for centuries to treat nausea. It is thus wise to eat crystallized or candied forms of ginger, both before and after consumption of alcohol as it will lessen its effects on the body. You can take ginger the night after as well to reduce the nausea that comes with hangover.
5. Stretch out and exercise a little: Between naps it may not be a bad idea to stretch out and exercise a little, which will help you release endorphins to make you feel better. However, ensure that it is light exercise so that the nausea and headaches are not exacerbated. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

• Hangover wad first described 3000 years ago in ayurvedic text called sushruta samhita as a madatayay (post drinking condition charactetized by thirst, pain in head and joints, and heaviness of the body) 
• As alcoholic drinks contain ethanol which the body breaks down into the toxins formaldehyde and formic acid about 10 hours after drinking, making you feel ill.
• Ginger honey water- honey contains potassium and frutose which neutralise the lethal impact and metabolize and flushes out faster. Add 1 tea spoon of ginger juice in 1 cup of warm water and add on 1 tea spoon of honey and consume it warm and repeat as many times as required or bite couple of little pieces of ginger.