New Year’s Day.
The old calendar, a mix of good days and bad days, gets thrown into the fire. The new calendar is a blank slate with 365 empty spaces waiting to be filled. It’s an ending, a beginning, and the perfect opportunity to take stock of your life, make changes, and become the kind of person you always wanted to be.
Although there was nothing stopping you from making lasting resolutions in Mid-July, there is a symbolism and sentimentality to New Year’s that somehow makes those changes more meaningful.
Too bad you got off to the New Year on the wrong foot. Like millions of other Canadians, you will probably start the New Year with a hangover – a tongue you could sandpaper the floors with, breath that could set fire to your sheets, and a head pounding like those marching hammers from Pink Floyd’s The Wall .
Dying is not an option, and neither is going back in time to one in the morning and knocking the glass out of your hand. The only thing you can do is to take care of the symptoms and wait it out.
Before you reach for the ice pack, however, it’s important to understand just what a hangover is, how you got it, and why one cure may work better than another.
According to Whistler’s Dr. Tom DeMarco, a hangover is not a specific symptom, but a variety of different symptoms. Alcohol affects a number of different systems, most of which are part of your greater central nervous system. Alcohol also dehydrates you, and loads up your internal organs with toxins. Since a hangover is actually a combination of symptoms, it has to be treated by a combination of cures.
The important thing to realize is that alcohol is a powerful drug, as evidenced by that impromptu break dance session on the coffee table and the phone call to your ex-girlfriend at four in the morning. Like all powerful drugs, there are going to be withdrawal effects when you come down. That leads to the shakes, an inability to concentrate, and a high degree of irritability.
One way to treat this symptom is to take a small dose of alcohol, thereby easing yourself off the drug. There are a whole slew of so called "breakfast drinks" or "Hair of the Dog" remedies that were created with this in mind, such as the Redeye and the Greyhound.
Since alcohol is an inhibitor of inhibitions, dulling your senses and sensibilities as the evening progresses, a hangover sufferer experience a rebound effect where lights are brighter, sounds are louder, and smells are damn near overpowering.
Your headache is the result of dehydration, prompted by the intake of toxins and the diuretic imperative that makes you pee all the time. It is also the result of trauma to your central nervous system.
Nausea is caused by dehydration, by the toxins in your digestive system, and by the withdrawal effect on your central nervous system. Fatigue is caused by a lack of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) or dreaming due to alcohol consumption. Your body will also ache, partially from the collection of toxins in your tissue, and partially from your failed attempt to wrestle your biggest friend WWF style. Other related symptoms include vomiting, dizziness, loss of appetite and diarrhea.
Unless you’re drinking rocket fuel, there is little chance that you will cause your body any permanent damage with the odd binge – liver damage, persistent skin problems and heart disease are all effects of chronic alcoholism.
Your biggest danger in drinking, says Dr. DeMarco, is yourself. Drunk people can get into a lot of trouble it seems, falling down stairs, picking fights, attempting dumb stunts, driving cars, riding bikes or going overboard with drinking – as a result, New Year’s Eve is the only time of the year where the Whistler Health Care Centre has a full-time doctor and nurse on duty all night long. There is also a risk that you will pick up other illnesses.
"To a certain extent, especially if it gets to the point where it is affecting your regular sleep habits – although it’s hard to prove medically – I think intuitively that most doctors would believe there’s a potential stress and potential weakness to the immune system," says Dr. DeMarco.
"Although alcohol itself is not an immune suppressant, sleep disruption is hard on the immune system. You are more susceptible to illness, and more susceptible to injury as well because in both a drunk state and hungover state, you’re co-ordination and reaction time are not ideal."
Hangover Preventions
"The best offence is a good defence," said legendary Green Bay Packer’s coach Vince Lombardi, and this maxim applies equally well to drinking and to football. Another appropriate saying might be "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Not drinking (or drinking in moderation), is the only surefire prevention for hangovers, but it isn’t entirely realistic. Some things you should keep in mind, however, are the foods you eat, the non-alcoholic liquids you should be drinking over the course of the evening, and the timing of your drinks. What you drink is also important, as is your bedtime ritual.
Since one of the main causes and side-effects of a hangover is dehydration, you should drink lots of water or juice before, during and after drinking alcohol.
Alcohol also depletes your body of vital nutrients, so you might want to consider eating something light and nutritious to build up, store, and replenish those nutrients. Vitamin B and C supplements are recommended.
Dairy products like milk and cheese, which are high in fat and protein, will help slow down the rate that your blood stream absorbs alcohol. Fruit and honey contain fructose, which is vital to the healthy functioning of your organs. When you eat and drink fluids throughout the evening, you reduce the severity of your hangover by improving your body’s ability to process it.
It’s also important to remember the old rhyme "beer before liquor, never sicker; liquor before beer, never fear" – because beer is carbonated it will accelerate the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream.
If possible, don’t mix alcohol types at all. This will confuse your body and make it more difficult for you to separate and metabolize the different fluids.
The type of alcohol you drink also has an effect on your hangover. Wherever possible, choose clear liquors as coloured liquors are full of "Cogeners" – toxins created during fermentation. Vodka and Gin have the lowest percentage of cogeners, while a bottle of rum or bourbon is chock full of them. Red wines are also heavier in cogeners than white wines, and dark beers are heavier than light beers.
While champagne may be traditional for New Year’s, it is as carbonated as a drink can get. If you can avoid it, avoid it – otherwise it will speed up the rate in which alcohol is absorbed into your blood.
Another thing you need to keep in mind is to pace yourself – the liver can only process about two teaspoons of alcohol each hour, so it can take the average adult anywhere from five to six hours to process the equivalent of three beers. You should also know your theoretical limit. If it’s six beers and you figure you’re going to be at a party for six hours, then limit your intake to one beer each hour.
To get an idea of how much you can safely consume within a time limit, visit www.all-about-hangovers.com and check out the blood alcohol chart.
Hangover Cures
Prevention may be fine for some people, but others have a slightly different agenda. If your goal is to get good and loaded this year then it’s time to start thinking about cures, and stocking your cupboards appropriately.
Mankind has been drinking alcohol for the past 5,000 years, and every remedy conceivable has been tried, from raw eel to elaborate voodoo rituals to tangerines. It’s a good bet that we will find a cure for the common cold before we will find a cure for hangovers.
While coffee may seem to counter the drowsiness caused by alcohol, it can upset your stomach and interfere with your ability to sleep, and therefore your ability to recover.
While it may seem like a good idea to combat the withdrawal effects with a bit of alcohol, you should know that this will probably just delay the inevitable.
The only real cure, unfortunately, is time.
There are ways, however, to lessen the severity of your hangover and help you body to process the alcohol.
You should never take pain relievers or aspirin with alcohol. According to www.all-about-hangovers.com, "A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that taking aspirin before consuming alcohol increases blood alcohol levels by 26 per cent, and that the alcohol actually remains in the body longer because your metabolism is slowed." Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen can be extremely dangerous, causing your liver to release toxins, and carry warnings to this effect. If you absolutely have to take an aspirin, then wait until the next morning.
What you eat and drink on the day after is also important. There are dozens of recipes available at All About Hangovers, but the key thing is to keep filling your body with fluids and nutrients. Your body will require water to flush itself out, and if you’re not supplying enough then your body will drain it from your tissue, your muscles, even your brain – scary stuff.
The bottom line is to have fun on New Year’s, but to recognize that alcohol is both a drug and a toxic substance – if you’re going to mess with it, then you’d better know the rules and consequences.
You can always begin your self-improvement on Jan. 2.
