A big birthday party, celebrating a new job or milestone at work, or even a simple Friday night pint that gets out of hand are all good fun, but the morning after you might find yourself facing the other side of the coin: exhaustion and hangover. It would be a shame to miss out on the fun, so it’s worth looking into how you can recover quickly from the symptoms of a hangover so you’re not incapacited for too long!
Hangover Symptoms
Different people experience hangovers differently but there’s a list of common symptoms the majority of people experience:
- Headache
- Tiredness
- Difficulty concentrating
- Sensitive stomach
- Low mood – ‘hangxiety’
What Causes a Hangover?
If you’re going to tackle the symptoms of a hangover you need to understand what causes them.
The biggest culprit is dehydration. Alcohol is a diuretic – it encourages your body to lose water. This is mostly through urination, as alcohol leaves your bloodstream via your kidneys, but a few drinks can also cause you to sweat more and too many drinks could see you vomiting, which can leave you very dehydrated indeed.
This means when you wake up, your cells have literally shrunk! Your brain has shrunk inside your skull, so it’s pulling on the parts where it’s attached, and isn’t functioning at its optimum efficiency (to say the least). You’ve also lost electrolytes – the salts dissolved in your body’s water reserves. Your body uses these electrolytes for all sorts of important functions: regulating the fluid balance in your cells, transmitting nerve impulses, maintaining an even mood and regular muscle functioning. Waking up with these electrolytes depleted can leave you feeling less than perfectly well.
A Cure?
Unfortunately there’s no single cure-all for a hangover. You can alleviate a lot of the symptoms faster if you remedy that main culprit though.
Any alcohol dehydration cure has to take account of those missing electrolytes though – simply drinking water won’t replace them, and may leave you feeling worse in some ways, as you dilute the few still remaining in your body yet further.
An isotonic sports drink or a rehydration powder doesn’t just top up your fluid levels, it also restores those vital salts, which can lead to a quicker end to your hangover symptoms, from a crushing headache to the anxiety and paranoia that can follow from a convivial night with friends.
