In many cases, people who consume alcohol tend to find it difficult to deal with the sickness of a hangover the following day after heavy liquor drinking.
A hangover is a combination of headache nausea and fatigue where a person may feel weak, worn out, heavy, slow, or run down.
Everyone who drinks alcohol has their way of dealing with hangovers, which is why VM Radio decided to find out what kind of home remedies people who consume alcohol use to cure this horrible sickness called hangovers the next day.
Eugene Dlamini (32) from Embo said the best hangover cure that he always uses is to take a cold shower the next morning even if it’s cold outside.
He said that dipping yourself in cold water helps his blood system to kick-start quickly and it decreases the headache pain.
Banele Mbambo said, “I normally tell my niece to make me hot salsa (ushatini) for my hangover, if that doesn’t work I take two sockets of headache pills; then after an hour or so hangover would be gone.
I must say, headache pills do help, people must not take them for granted, but they must not be addicted to them because they can become an addiction. Plus another thing which normally worsens hangover is smoking on the day you consumed alcohol,” said Mbambo.
Nosipho Ndlovu said it is advisable to drink one liter of water before you sleep or if you think you won’t be able to drink such water at once while you are drunk, at least drink one glass of water in between your drinking.
“If you do that you will wake up fresh, it does work for me. I got this tip from my Aunt who is a doctor.”
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), hangovers vary from person to person which makes it difficult to predict how many drinks will cause a hangover. Hangover symptoms peak when the blood alcohol concentration in the body returns to about zero. The symptoms can last 24 hours or longer. NIAAA says a hangover can be dangerous because a person who is suffering from it might find it difficult to perform important tasks such as driving, operating machinery as well as decision-making.
A medical toxicologist Dr Ed Boyer in his advice on this topic said, “I always advise people to not drink on an empty stomach because that can lead to a heavy hangover the next day.
Therefore, it is important to have a meal before drinking because eating can line the stomach and slow down the absorption of alcohol.”
Dr Jason Burke the founder and President of Hangover Heaven explained what alcohol does in one’s body.
“Most people think hangovers are just dehydration where else they are more like complete system failures. When you drink more liquor than your body can process, your kidneys go into overdrive, so you urine more and get dehydrated but the blood vessels in your brain may swell which can lead to migraines and vomiting.
Most people believe that a sip or a liter of water and or a few aspirin in the morning is going to cut hangover, yet it is not true it only flushes the impurities from your system.”
In Addition, Burke said it is so important to go back to bed because the more you sleep is the more your body gets to heal itself. But if you cannot sleep, you must at least try to exercise the next morning, a workout can help you feel better.
“Heavy drinking makes you dehydrated, exercise is going to require hydration and nutrition,” ends Burke.
NIAAA adds, that even though some common myths talk about healing hangovers none of them are scientifically proven to be effective. There is no magic potion for beating a hangover, a person must wait for the body to finish clearing the toxic by-products of alcohol metabolism, to rehydrate, heal irritated tissue, and restore immune and brain activity to normal. There is no way to speed up the drain’s recovery from alcohol use.