New year, one of the most celebrated holidays, is only a couple of days away. And like most holidays world over, it is a time when booze flows freely, drugs get amazingly abused and other terribly unhealthy vices get committed. The why of it? I honestly cannot tell.
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Today, with hope that this article would significantly help reduce the number of hangover-related calls that DoctorsHub Nigeria will be responding to in the coming hours and days ahead, I will be tipping you on how to stay ahead of the booze and keep your game tight all day!
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And just before I do that, let's quickly understand how alcohol is processed in the human body and how hangovers works.
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A hangover, also medically known as veisalgia, is a group of unpleasant symptoms, mainly including headache, nausea and vomiting, weakness and dehydration, that occurs after consumption of excess alcohol beyond the limit that body can effectively handle.
Naturally, humans have an inbuilt system for clearing off toxins, alcohol included. When alcohol is consumed, the liver metabolizes (breaks down) it with the help of an enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, to give acetaldehyde as an intermediate product which is very toxic and is quickly attacked by another enzyme, acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and glutathione, a substance containing cysteine found in the liver, to give a nontoxic acetate end product which is then excreted. This is what typically happens when only mild to moderate quantities are consumed. But trust humans to always go OTT.
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So what then happens when too much shayo is consumed?
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Acetaldehyde builds up in the body longer than necessary because there isn't enough glutathione to break it down to its harmless end product. After this toxic build up of acetaldehyde occurs, symptoms like headache, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, irritability, sleep disturbance, dryness of mouth/lips indicating dehydration, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, hypersentivity to light and noise, etc.
Hangover patient looking depressed.
There are explanations for each of those symptoms (stuffs like vasopressin suppression, glutamine rebound, etc) but because they are too unnecessarily long and boring, i would spare you the horror of having to read them. So straight to the point.

HOW TO PREVENT HANGOVERS?
The best and most effective way to prevent hangovers is abstinence. That's the truth. But then, I don't believe in deprivation so I am not going to issue a sacrosanct degree forbidding you from popping bottles. So guys, since abstinence won't be able to do it, go ahead and indulge yourselves....

Drink water along with the alcohol: alcohol leaves you completely dehydrated because of a phenomenon called vasopressin supression. It all happens in the brain....and the result is that you urinate much more than you drink and you get dehydrated quickly. Also during urination, you lose a lot of salts which further worsen the dehydration. Drinking a cup of water for every two bottles of alcohol popped would allow you stay hydrated.
Space out your drinking: Don't drink too much in a short period of time. That is is called binge drinking and it can kill you.Take your time and space it out. Go slow and steady...this allows your liver enough time to metablize the acetaldehyde before it builds up and reaches toxic levels.

Take a break once you start feeling tipsy: You don't want to drink until you fall off your seat. Moderation is the rule here. Only drink as much as your body can effectively handle. Take a break while your faculties are still intact. Usually, you would know when the alcohol starts kicking in. That is the point to take a break and go do something else.

Choose your alcohol carefully: it has been discovered that certain brands of alcohol like brandy, scotch, red wine,bourbon, tequilas, etc which contain high amounts of congeners are more likely to cause hangovers than drinks such as beers, vodka, rum, white wine, etc. So you really want to pick your drink with some caution.

Even with the above tips, a few people still find themselves drinking to stupor. If it ever happens that you couldn't exercise caution and prevent yourself from having a hangover, then you should at least minimise the severity of it by doing the following,

Get some sleep: usually the hangover resolves after 24hours or so. You will usually wake up during the night than normal because of glutamine resistance. But each time you wake up, consciously force yourself back to sleep because your body needs some time to clear off the toxins.

Take a painkiller: [/b]headache is usually common and very severe. Taking a painkiller like ibuprofen helps reduce it and make it tolerable.

[b]Eat eggs: [/b]Either fried or boiled, eggs are what you should eat in large quantities. Why? Because eggs contain a lot of the amino acid cysteine which is involved in breakdown of acetaldehyde. Simple as that.

[b]Eat bananas: [/b]because of their high content of potassium and other salts and vitamins, they help replenish the salts lost during urination.

[b]Drink enough water and juice: water primarily helps reverse the dehydration while the juice rehydrates and also provided glucose to the body for use following the severe depletion of its reserves.

WHEN TO CALL A DOCTOR?
Most times, the climax of every binge drinking is alcohol poisoning which is often a fatal condition. Regardless of who is involved, a doctor must be promptly contacted as soon as symptoms of alcohol poisoning are noticed in such a person. These symptoms include,
Slow breathing (usually less than 10 breaths per minute)

Loss of consciousness
Seizures
Cold bluish skin
And that would be all for today, guys. Enjoy your holidays! visit www.doctorshub.com.ng for more and free health consultation. Thank you
Until another time,

Well-done OP this will do a great job for we shayo niggas

LOL, thank you, please easy with the shayo oo

kehnnny:
Well-done OP this will do a great job for we shayo niggas

Hangovers or headache or migraine can be disturbing and painful. read more on this and how to prevent or treat here
http://www.kandywandy.com/2017/01/14-simple-ways-to-treat-and-prevent.html
http://www.kandywandy.com/2017/01/11-types-of-headache-causes-and.html
http://www.kandywandy.com/2017/01/14-ways-to-know-you-are-having-migraine.html
http://www.kandywandy.com/2017/01/4-high-migraine-triggers.html

http://www.kandywandy.com