The Morning After: Hangover

Hangover Cure

It takes more than water to cure a hangover. Sally Brown tells us how to cure a hangover

A hangover is a complicated condition. We're told it's mainly caused by dehydration, because alcohol has a diuretic effect on the body. But who hasn`t staggered in, downed two pints of water — and still woken up feeling terrible?

"A review of scientific reports on hangovers concluded that hydration attenuates, but doesn't relieve, hangover symptoms," says the dietician Lyndel Costain. "In other words, drinking lots of water will make a difference, but it won`t avoid a hangover totally."

And don't we know it. If only we get up simply feeling thirsty after a night on the booze... Instead, we feel nauseous, shaky, tired and irritable, and constantly have a enormous headache.

Dehydrating is for a part, the cause of that splitting headache: your brain cells really shrink as they lose water. But it's also due to the loss of electrolytes and required salts such as potassium and sodium that keep up nerve and muscle function.

"Even a slight electrolyte imbalance can leave you feeling tired, weak and headachy," says Costain.

But the strangest symptom is what committed drinkers call "the fear" — overemotional highs and lows united with a dose of paranoia, caused by very low blood sugar. Alcohol attacks the body's store of glycogen, an important energy source kept in the liver. You get up with very low blood-sugar levels, and it leaves you feeling both starving and ill. It can also have a terrible effect on your concentration and emotions. "The brain uses glycogen for fuel, so low levels will affect how it functions," says Costain. "Plus, studies using brain scans have shown that a hangover causes a natural depression in the cortex that organizes motor and auditory responses. That could be why work feels so much harder."

Thankfully, there is a certain amount you can do to relieve the symptoms. Light-coloured drinks contain fewer congeners (toxic by-products of the distillation process) than darker drinks. The morning after, medical experts recommend drinking plenty of water, taking a nonaspirin painkiller such as ibuprofen, eating sugars for energy, and leaving at least 48 hours between "I'll never drink again!" and the unavoidable "Well, maybe just one glass of wine..."

Hangover Cure

Sob`r-K
The claim: "A natural kind of 'superactivated' carbon that sucks the alcohol and filters it out of your body".
The expert's view: "Activated charcoal is used in hospitals to treat poison victims. It absorbs the poison, which then passes out through the stools. But the relatively little amount here is unlikely to have any effect."
The tester`s comments: "Fantastic. Nothing made up for the chronic lack of sleep, but I didn't feel hangover at all."

Farmacia Urban Healing Hangover Kit
The claim: "Protects the liver, increasing your body`s ability to detox." Includes milk-thistle tincture, 1,000mg of vitamin C, dandelion, peppermint and marshmallow extracts.
The expert`s view: "Studies suggest milk thistle helps alcoholic liver disease. But it needs to be taken on a regular basis, and there`s no prove it helps hangovers. The vitamin C, however, will fight free radicals."
The tester`s comments: "The milk thistle was so vile I almost preferred to be hungover. The vitamin C drink was fine, but I still felt bad until I took a Nurofen and ate some chips."

Silicol gel
The claim: "Has absorbent properties that neutralise unneeded sour, take up toxins, irritants and cell residues and conduct them safely out of the body"
The expert's view: " It could slow up the rate of alcohol absorption, which may reduce the severity of a hangover."
The tester`s comments: "Unpleasant oily sense of taste and texture. I didn't have a hangover the next morning, so maybe it works."

Fried breakfast
The claim: "Hardened drinkers swear by the full English fry-up"
The expert's view: "You're replacing missing salts and providing carbohydrate to restore blood glucose. Eggs contain cysteine, an amino acid that battles toxins, but I doubt one or two would make any difference."
The tester's comments: "Felt better, but very foggy."