Health
New Year, No Hangover: How to Bounce Back Fast (Revisit)
In this episode of HealthX, Dr. Mark Heimann revisits the science of hangovers, exploring their physiological impact and effective recovery strategies. He shares personal anecdotes and practical tips ...
New Year, No Hangover: How to Bounce Back Fast (Revisit)
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Interactive Transcript
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This is Open Mind.
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Hey everyone, Dr. Mark Heimann here.
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I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of you who joined me on this journey
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through the very first season of HealthX.
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Whether you've been tuning in since day one or just discovered the show, I can't tell you
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how much your support has meant to me and the HealthX team.
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It's been an amazing season packed with insights, tips, and practical hacks to help you take
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control of your health.
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As this season wraps up, I hope you continue applying what you've learned to support your
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well-being and leave your healthiest life.
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Thank you again for being a loyal listener and here's all the great things you're going
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to achieve in your health journey.
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Today, I want to tackle the topic that many of us experienced, but few truly understand.
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Hangovers.
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Whether it's after a night of celebrating with friends or unexpected over-indulgence,
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hangovers kind of leave us feeling drained, anxious, and downright miserable.
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In this episode, I want to unpack the science behind hangovers and explore what happens
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to our bodies during this really unpleasant aftermath and discuss effective strategies
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to prevent and manage them if you need them.
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Maybe you won't need them if you take care of yourself, but just in case you have a fun
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night, how do you get over this?
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Well, hangovers are more than just a headache to your complex physiological response to
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alcohol consumption that affects our brain, our liver, our gut, and our overall health.
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In fact, alcohol is a poison and the dose makes the poison.
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I'm going to delve into how alcohol disrupts our sleep.
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You hydrates our bodies, messes with our electrolyte balance, and leaving just feeling pretty
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out of sorts.
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We're going to break down the role of toxins like acetyl aldehyde, the impact that alcohol
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on our gut microbiome and why certain people are more prone to severe hangovers.
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Now, understanding these mechanisms can really empower us to make informed choices about
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drinking and recovery.
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I'm also going to share practical tips and health hacks to help us mitigate hangover symptoms
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and support our bodies recovery from hydration and nutrition to supplements and sleep strategies.
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I got you covered with an actionable advice.
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So grab a glass of water, sit back, and let's dive into the science and the solutions for
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hangovers.
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Hi, I'm Dr. Mark Hyman and welcome to HealthHex.
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Okay, so what is a hangover anyway?
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Well, every week up after a night of drinking and feel like you've been hit by a truck, that's
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a hangover.
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I'm going to tell you a story quickly that I think is about my first and actually my last
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hangover, which was when I was 18 years old back packing out in Western Canada, and I
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got a job looking for oil basically using seismic, we call them geophones that you plant
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in the ground, and then you blow up something on your ground and you can see what happens.
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So I was with these guys and it was in Fort Maclod, Alberta, which is in the middle of
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the morning, the blood in the reservation in Alberta.
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And they had a bar.
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And these guys, I was 18, they kept egging me on to drink beer and beer and beer.
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So I had, I don't even know how many of it, there was a whole table full of beers and I just
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chugged them all and then I got home and got so sick, puked in my guts out, that was terrible.
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And the next day we went out on our adventure basically to plant geophones in this prairie
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in Alberta looking for oil.
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And it was bad.
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And I fully got what a hangover was and the guys were making fun of me and making loud noises
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and I had a headache and I was like, oh, this is a hangover.
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So I chose to actually not even drink for the next 15 years.
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So I definitely wouldn't want to have that again.
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But it's basically hangovers are this unpleasant aftermath of drinking too much and it hits
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you with a mix of mental and physical symptoms.
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It starts when you're a BAC or blood alcohol level drops and peaks when it hits zero.
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Well, hangovers come with an array of symptoms including headache, fatigue, nausea and a general
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laugh-yling and they can also cause anxiety or what they call anxiety as young people say and
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lethargy.
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Now usually they'll shake it off in 24 hours but sometimes they can linger 72 hours depending
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on a few factors and here they are.
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How much you drink, more alcohol equals a worse hangover.
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It also depends on hydration and your nutritional status, the hydration and lack of nutrients
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and surviving deficiencies can make it a lot worse.
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Also age, hangovers get nastier as you age, also your sex, women often get worse, hangovers
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than men.
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Your liver health, which is really important.
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Like a lot of people have fatty liver in America.
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It's an epidemic.
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I think probably 100 million Americans are more have fatty liver which means basically a
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fog graph or a liver because of the carbs and sugar and even alcohol would cause fatty
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liver.
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So if you have liver issues, you're going to have a much rougher ride.
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Certain medications also can make hangovers worse.
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So let's get to the science behind it.
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First of all, alcohol is metabolized in your liver.
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Once it's in your bloodstream it travels to various tissues in your body.
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It hits your brain in about five minutes and starts affecting you within 10.
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Your liver starts processing alcohol after about 20 minutes, managing one ounce per hour
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on average.
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Here's a breakdown.
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Alcohol dehydrogenase is the enzyme that converts ethanol, which is what you're drinking.
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We did another alcohol to acetyl aldehyde.
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Now what is acetyl aldehyde?
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This stuff is 10 to 30 times more toxic than alcohol and causes symptoms like sweating,
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nausea, skin flushing, vomiting and a recent heart.
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And there's an enzyme called acetyl aldehyde dehydrogenase or ALDH.
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What this does then converts the acetyl aldehyde to acetate, which is less toxic and can be
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broken down into water and carbide dioxide to be eliminated.
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So you basically pee out and breathe out the alcohol toxins when it's converted from ethanol
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to acetyl aldehyde to acetate.
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If the acetyl aldehyde isn't quickly metabolized because you're just overloading the system,
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it builds up and makes your hangovers a lot worse.
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Now there's a lot of factors that slow down the processing of acetyl aldehyde, which is
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this toxic, bi-productive alcohol metabolism.
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So what are those things?
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Well, high alcohol intake.
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Genetics, especially common in East Asian populations, you might have seen, for example,
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if you're Chinese or whatever, you have a lot of alcohol that will turn really red and
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get flushing.
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Part of that's a genetic factor.
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Nutrient deficiencies are common in people who drink a lot of alcohol because alcohol
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depletes your B vitamins, statistically be a niacin and all the other B vitamins, also
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depletes magnesium and zinc.
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And these are really important helping regulate your overall well-being and health.
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Now, next thing they can make a lot worse is dehydration.
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People say, you know, if you drink you have, you should have a glass of water.
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I think that's a good rule.
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One drink, one glass of water.
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So what happens in your body during hangover?
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Well, alcohol is a diuretic.
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Make sure pee more.
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It blocks the production of something called vasocressin, which is also known as the anti-diuretic
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hormone.
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So when you block anti-diuretic hormone, you diurese, which means you pee.
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You basically increase the peeing and your kidneys don't conserve water and you end up
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dehydrated.
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So you alcohol dehydrate.
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It also messes with your electrolyte imbalance, which is why it feels so crummy.
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Essential electrolytes like sodium, potassium, zinc, magnesium are depleted.
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And that leads to fatigue.
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It could be lead to an irregular heartbeat, nausea and lots more.
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Also, what's up with the headaches, right?
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What's up with those headaches you get after drinking?
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Well, they're caused by a bunch of factors.
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Similar, right?
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Dehydration, right?
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Less blood flow and oxygen to the brain.
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Baiso dilation and vasoconstriction.
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So first, alcohol relaxes the blood vessels, increases blood flow.
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But when your blood alcohol concentration drops, as a rebound of vasoconstriction or
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narrowing the blood vessels like a spasm, causing more headache and pain.
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Folks, try the hair of the dog approach drinking more alcohol to ease the pain.
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But this only delays in worse than staying over.
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So I wouldn't recommend it.
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Other headache causes could be a disturbed sleep, inflammation and low blood sugar that
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can be affected by drinking.
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What else is alcohol?
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Well, it disrupts your sleep.
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So let's not forget about one of the most miserable aspects of a hangover.
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It just messes up your sleep.
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Now it can help you fall asleep quickly, but then it disrupts your sleep.
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And I know for my oral ring, I definitely see whenever I have a drink, my heart rate
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rate goes down, my heart rate goes up.
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It's just not good.
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I can see my body just doesn't like it.
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Now alcohol and good sleep just don't mix.
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It helps you fall asleep, but it disrupts your REM cycle, which is your dreaming cycle.
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And at least it pours sleep quality and also fragmented sleep, waking up frequently.
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Now REM sleep is crucial for repairing, rejuvenating and reviving the brain of the body.
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This is the dreaming state, a rapid eye movement, which is when you're dreaming.
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It's also responsible for memory consolidation, for emotional processing and regulation.
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This means you wake up feeling tired, groggy and irritated when you don't get enough
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ring sleep, which alcohol messes up.
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It also can worsen something called sleep apnea, which is where you kind of hear airway
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issues and you snore and you basically stop breathing at night and it's pretty dangerous,
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but it can worsen sleep apnea if you have it.
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It relaxes the muscles in your throat and tongues.
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Now I know, if I drink, I snore.
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That's just how it goes.
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I mean, I don't know, but that's what my wife tells me anyway.
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A 2018 study found that even low alcohol intake is one drink, reduced sleep quality by
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9.3%, while moderate intake, three drinks, reduced it by 24%, and heavy drinking, which
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is seven drinks, which is a lot of alcohol.
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Seven drinks, reduced it by 40%.
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Now, next, let's get into something called hangziety.
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What the heck is that?
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Whatever feels super anxious after you're drinking, that's called hangziety.
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It's quite common, and let me tell you why.
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Your brain chemistry is effective, right?
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So alcohol initially calms you by stimulating something called the GABA receptors.
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This is like the natural volume, and it suppresses something called glutamine, which is a newer
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transmitter that binds to certain receptors that can be stimulating.
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Now once it wears off, the anxiety circuits go into overdrive.
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Also, cortisol.
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Alcohol messes with your stress hormone, making you more sensitive to stress during a hangover.
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Also, blood sugar is effective.
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It inhibits glucose production in the liver.
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So alcohol messes up your liver's ability to make glucose, and that can cause your blood
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sugar levels to drop, which can make you feel anxious.
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And irritable.
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Also, if that wasn't enough, well, it also affects your gut health, right?
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Alcohol wrecks your microbiome, and your gut kills all the beneficial bacteria.
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It increases the growth of the bad bugs, and this leads to gut inflammation, leaky gut,
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and systemic inflammation, not just in your gut, and also a lot of other hangover symptoms.
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Even one night, if heavy drinking can mess up your gut balance, a study found that a single
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episode of binge drinking, five or more drinks for men and four more for women and two
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hours, result in high blood levels of endotoxins.
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What are endotoxins?
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Those are bacterial toxins that then get absorbed across a leaky gut, and they're basically
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like a poison that is bad.
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And so your body starts to activate your immune system, and you get inflamed.
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Okay, so how did alcohol affect our immune system?
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One other problem.
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Well, it totally throws it off, which leads to an imbalance of inflammatory molecules
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called cytokines, and also something called prostate landings, which regulate inflammation.
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Now research has shown that high levels of cytokines, and you all remember the cytokine
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storm from COVID.
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These are inflammatory messenger molecules.
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And that high levels of these inflammatory messenger molecules called cytokines could
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be correlated with hangover symptoms, such as muscle aches, fatigue, headaches, nausea,
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and the cognitive effects you get like memory loss and irritability.
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Alcohol also suppresses the immune system in the short term by suppressing the function
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of white blood cells, neutral cells, which are your main white blood cells that fight
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infection.
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It affects your antibody function and T cells, which are producing antibodies and immune
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function for many different ways.
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It also describes your lung and gut barrier function, making it easier for pathogens
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to enter the body where it can get sick.
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And since the body's immune system is already suppressed, it's more vulnerable to infections
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like common cold, flu, other respiratory issues, even COVID.
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Now long-term alcohol consumption leads to chronic systemic inflammation, immune system
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dysfunction, and increased risk for alcohol-related fatty liver disease among other things.
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Now, it can also impact our immune and detox systems, and that contributes to the development
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of certain cancers.
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Like a soft-of-geal cancer, really common heavy drinkers, colorectal cancer, breast cancer
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very affected by alcohol, one drink a day for a woman increases her risk of breast cancer
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by 40%.
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I'm going to say that again.
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One drink, one glass of wine, one shot of an ounce of heart liquor, ten ounce of beer,
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that increases your risk of breast cancer by 40% if you have a drink every day.
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Of course, liver cancer, very common in alcohol consumption.
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Now, according to study published in the Lanset, one of the major medical journals,
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750,000 global cancer cases in 2020 could be attributed to alcohol consumption.
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That's almost a million people a year to get cancer because of alcohol.
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That was a lot.
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Now, a heavy drinking, a counter for most, right?
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Light to moderate drinking, probably a counter for about 100,000 of those 750,000 cases.
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So it's not trivial.
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A study that followed over 1 million women in the UK found that for each additional alcoholic
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drink consumed every day, a woman's risk of breast cancer, and a woman's risk of
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breast cancer increased by 12%.
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And there are other studies that show 40% as I mentioned, but it's a lot.
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Another study found the 30% increase in breast cancer and women have three to nine alcohol
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every year per week, and a 60% higher risk in amounts exceeding that.
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So if you have two drinks a week, you're getting a 60% increase risk in your risk of breast
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cancer if you're a woman.
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Alcohol also changes estrogen metabolism and increases circulating estrogen levels,
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which is a major risk factor for breast cancer.
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So basically, alcohol impairs your body, the ability to get rid of excess estrogen,
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at least to increase estrogen in the blood and estrogen related cancers like breast,
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uterine, and so forth.
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It also puts a stress on your liver and uses up our B vitamins necessary for methylation
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and removing excess estrogen.
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So basically, alcoholics get the completion of nutrients, a lot of them.
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In fact, one of the conditions that alcoholics get is called warnaquies and cephalopathy,
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big word, obviously.
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But it means they kind of get delirium and crazy.
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And it's because of a thiamine deficiency, vitamin B1, they come to the ER, they're literally
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crazy.
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You give them a shot of thiamine and boom, they wake right up.
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Pretty amazing.
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My name is Armerical.
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So what about our mitochondria?
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This is the energy factories in ourselves.
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Been drinking, well, it does have an effect on your mitochondria.
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And heavy drinking does, which leads to oxidative stress and mitochondria, all this function.
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And that kind of worsens your hangover symptoms.
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That's your energy center.
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So that's why you feel like crap and have low energy.
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Ethanol, metabolism also increases reactive oxygen species for radical, oxidative stress,
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which then damages the mitochondria.
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And that leads to the damage to the mitochondria and accumulation of damaged and dysfunctional
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mitochondria.
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It also makes the mitochondrial as efficient at producing energy, it compares the replication,
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making new mitochondria, reduces mitochondrial anti-oxid defenses that glue to find, really
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important for detoxification of pretty much everything.
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And this could be why oxidative stress and alcohol hangovers associated with mitochondrial
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function.
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It's kind of a big deal.
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Now, there are a few other things that can have an influence on hangovers.
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The first is your genetics.
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And this is really how fast a metabolizer you are at alcohol.
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It's the speed at which you metabolize alcohol that affects your hangover.
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Slow metabolism means a more severe symptom of student-active stress and inflammation.
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There are other genetic variations that make a difference.
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So let me go through what those are.
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There's variations in an enzyme called ALDH that's acetyl aldehyde dehydrogen.
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And if that's the one that kind of makes the toxic byproduct of alcohol acetyl aldehyde
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into acetate, so it's less toxic.
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Now some people have a variation in this enzyme genetically that makes them more susceptible
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to hangovers.
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It's not so good at doing this, right?
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You get more acetyl aldehyde.
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Variations in this enzyme can make up more susceptible to the toxic effects of acetyl
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aldehyde and more hangover symptoms.
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Now the mutation in the acetyl aldehyde dehydrogenase gene is most commonly seen in East Asians,
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like Chinese, Japanese, and so forth.
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And it results in a much slower conversion of acetyl aldehyde into acetate or acetycacin.
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And the result is an excess build up of acetyl aldehyde that can happen pretty rapidly.
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And that causes alcohol flush reaction that also might play a role in hangovers the day
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after drinking.
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And you've seen people like this who get really flush with alcohol.
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That's because they have this enzyme variation that makes them a slow metabolizer of the
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byproduct of alcohol with just toxic acetyl aldehyde.
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Also sex has a role, right?
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And women have worse hangovers due to higher body fat, less water content, and lower levels
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of acetyl aldehyde dehydrogenase.
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Now this is likely because they're smaller than men, and they have a higher percentage
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of body fat and a lower percentage of body water.
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And since alcohol is water soluble, that means women have a higher concentration of alcohol
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in the bloodstream after drinking the same amount of men.
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So women drink the same amount of men, they have a higher level of blood alcohol.
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Now women produce less alcohol, the hydrogenase, that's enzyme I was talking about for breaking
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down alcohol, which means more alcohol enters a circulation directly.
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Also hormone fluctuations can play a role, particularly in the menstrual cycle.
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That affects how alcohol metabolizes and it increases the sensitivity to alcohol's effects.
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Also age plays a big role.
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Hangovers get worse with age because your body's ability to metabolize alcohol slows down.
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Your lean body mass goes down, your water content drops, and alcohol, the hydrogenase activity
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slows.
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So basically alcohol stays around your system longer, more toxic, and that makes your symptoms worse.
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And this makes even moderate drinking that can lead to more pronounced hangover symptoms.
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Obviously all this is a bummer, no one likes to hangover.
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So how do we prevent it?
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Well, quite frankly, the best way to avoid hangover, don't drink.
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Okay.
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Now we know just to be clear, there are no benefits to alcohol consumption.
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There is no health benefit, there's no heart benefit.
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The data is really clear that it's bad for you, especially cancer.
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It does increase the risk of cancer.
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So I don't think alcohol should be considered a health promoting substance in any way.
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Just to be clear, the data doesn't support it.
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However, having a drink or two, one in a while, is not going to kill you.
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And it's not a bad thing.
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Of course, don't drink is easier said than done.
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I know, but here's the facts.
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The standard recommendation is one drink per day for women and two drinks a day for men.
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That's way too much, right?
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According to the WHO, the World Health Organization, there is no safe consumption of alcohol for human health.
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Then again, according to the World Health Organization,
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there is no safe consumption of alcohol for human health.
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Period.
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Alcohol is a neurotoxin.
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It's psychoactive and it can cause dependence and addiction.
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Now the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the IARC, has classified alcohol as a group one carcinogen,
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which is the highest risk group, along with asbestos, radiation, and tobacco.
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Just saying, nobody's got asbestos anymore in their house.
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You don't really want to get radiation if you get avoided.
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And certainly, we know tobacco and cigarettes cause cancer.
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Now, according to study in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
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even light to moderate consumption has consequences.
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It also increased risk for dementia and Alzheimer's.
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And why?
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Because it shrinks your brain and reduces neuroplasticity.
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If you see an alcoholic's brain on a brain scan, I used to see it all the time and I was in the ER.
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They just like shrill the shrunken of brains.
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It was pretty sad.
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Alcohol increased the risk for cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, as I mentioned.
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And the alcohol free movement is gaining popularity.
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And the younger generations catching onto the harms of alcohol.
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In fact, I just went to a party, 40th birthday party, and it was no alcohol.
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There was no alcohol.
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And I just had an office party for my office, no alcohol.
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I think people are kind of coming wise to the dangers of alcohol.
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So more and more people are kind of just
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dovetrinking and turning to mocktails.
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However, if you do drink, and I'm going to give you a few things that might help
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one, pace yourself, right?
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Go slow.
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Well, this is going to help your body metabolize alcohol more effectively.
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Remember, I can only deal with one ounce an hour, right?
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One ounce an hour of hard liquor, probably five ounces of wine an hour,
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or 10 ounces of beer an hour.
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You drink more than that and you are just upping the toxic load your liver as a deal
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with it.
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It just can't keep up.
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The speed at which you drink plays a huge role.
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Your body can process, like I said, about one is dinner drink per hour.
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Now, I want you to even mind though that this can vary based on the type of alcohol
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you drink, right?
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Your physical health and your genetics.
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Now, drinking more than this is likely going to increase the risk of a hangover.
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Also, you can avoid congeners.
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Now, what are those?
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Those are byproducts of alcohol fermentation that are found in higher concentrations in darker
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lickers, whiskey or things like that.
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These are found in cognac, whiskey, bourbon and red wine.
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It creates methanol, tanins, histamine reactions, all kinds of stuff.
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So, not great.
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Now, these compounds, these congeners give these types of alcohol.
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They're just in flavors, but they hang around in the system long after you drink, which
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can make the hangover a lot worse.
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Now, research shows that high-congenered darker colored lickers, which is a bummer, because
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those are ones I like, the lead to more severe hangovers than lighter colored clear lickers,
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like vodka, gin, rum, sake and even maybe white tequila.
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But also know that I'm not recommending these types of alcohol, either.
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The more distilled the spirit is, the lower the congeners.
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This is why drinking top shelf lickers doesn't result as much of a hangover as some people
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as lower priced alternatives.
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I found that true.
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It's also worth noting that the amount of alcohol consumed is more critical than the
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type of alcohol in determining the severity of your hangover.
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So, while the congeners are important, it's really the amount of overall alcohol.
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Now, drinks with higher alcohol concentrations, like shots of liquor, put a greater burden
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on the liver and are more likely to cause hangovers.
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Congeners add complexity to the detox process, too.
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At least you may have the release of stress hormones, the cause of inflammatory spots,
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and they all worsen your hangover symptoms.
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Now, some people actually may be very physiologically sensitive to specific congeners.
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For example, those with histamine intolerance, which is more and more common, experience
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worse hangovers from red wine, which is high in histamine compared to clear lickers.
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So, I noticed that when I have red wine, I don't feel good if I have teaky white tequila
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on my pipe.
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Avoid sugary mixtures, which is all sugary mixtures.
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When you combine sugar and alcohol, bad news.
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So, stay away from those sugary mixtures.
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Welcome to Decoding Women's Health.
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I'm Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, Chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Aetria Health
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Institute in New York City.
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I'll be talking to top researchers and clinicians and bringing vital information about
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midlife women's health directly to you.
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A hundred percent of women go through menopause, even if it's natural why should we suffer
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through it?
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Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, wherever you get your
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podcasts.
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The thing you want to do is stay hydrated.
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Drink water and electrolytes before, during and after drinking.
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Drink at least half your weight.
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It ounces of water with a sugar-free electrolyte powder such as elite or element, which contains
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a balanced ratio of sodium metastamines and really important.
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Our sugar-free coconut water contains natural electrolytes and help hydrate you as well.
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We're going to liquid IV and gatorate or they're big no-nos.
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They're loaded with unnecessary sugar, dyes, flavors, and hand sers.
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Just stay away from all that colorful sports drink crap and that's terrible.
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Maybe you want to drink a glass of water and at least for every drink you have, right?
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For every alcoholic drink you have just one, maybe two glass of water with electrolytes.
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You can bring individual travel lecture like packets with you.
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I do that all the time.
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It's really great.
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Also eat before you drink.
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And why do you want to do that?
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Well, a balanced meal actually slows the absorption of alcohol.
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That protein fiber slows the afternoon use stomach and that actually can help reduce the
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effect and the speed of alcohol and reduces toxicity on your system.
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Things like guacamole or a phytonutrient salad, chicken, stank, or fish, all that's going
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to be great.
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So I was going to help you rent a little blood sugar or hypoglycemia.
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And you also want to eat hydrating and micronutrient rich plant foods like non-starctubedges,
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cucumbers, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, fruit, and lots of fruit bananas,
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avocados, guava, grapefruit, which is full of magnesium, potassium, sodium, really important.
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So make sure you get water and electrolytes for hydration.
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You also want to eventually take some minerals like zinc and also niacin, which is a B vitamin,
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vitamin B3, critical cofactors in alcohol metabolism.
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So when you have to make those enzymes work, you need these cofactors like zinc and niacin
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to actually make you the work to detoxify the alcohol.
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Now research suggests that they could lower hangover severity, although we need to do more
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research on it.
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Still seems promising and it's low risk to do.
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You can eat zinc rich foods, right?
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Meat, shellfish, legumes, pumpkin seeds, oysters, nicotinic acid rich foods, meat, nicotic
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acid is nice and like meat, fish, poultry, avocados, mushrooms, full of niacin.
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The next thing you want to do is feed your gut bacteria.
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You want to load up in the early parts of your day with fermented foods like yogurt,
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work, pickles, sourcrout, kimchi, it's your microbiome healthy.
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Eat a polyphenol rich diet for your microbiome and immune system like blueberries, apples,
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cherries, raspberries.
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Also include vitamin C rich foods, radianneoxidant, red bell peppers, kiwi, citrus food, and don't
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eat all those inflammatory foods.
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They really are bad for you.
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In general, and they make the alcohol problem work.
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So fried foods are fine, carbohydrates, sugars, processed, ultra processed food.
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All that's going to irritate your gut even more and won't slow down alcohol absorption.
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That's diet, lifestyle, hydration.
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Okay.
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What can you do to actually help you support detoxification and take the right supplements that have
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the right nutrients that are commonly depleted with alcohol consumption?
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So what I like is an herb called milk fissile before and after, thinking, and a B complex
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vitamin.
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Milk fissile is an herb, which is great.
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It helps deliver detoxification.
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B vitamins are depleted when you drink alcohol like firemen.
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I mentioned that.
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B6, niacin or B3, B12 and folate.
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All these can cause headaches and fatigue.
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So if you preemptively supplement, you can actually reduce the effects of alcohol in
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your system.
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Zinc, magnesium.
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You can also take something called enacetal, cystine or NAC.
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Enacetal, cystine helps your body make glutathione.
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What is glutathione?
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glutathione is our master detoxifier, our master antioxidant, and our master anti-inflammatory
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compound.
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Now research shows that low dose NAC can help with nausea and weakness and hangover symptoms
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in women, but more research is needed.
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But it's promising.
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There's even actually research on this.
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And we know it can have a lot of toxins.
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For example, if you have liver failure from Tylenol overdose, the treatment is NAC.
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If you're going to an IV contrast die for a kidney study, for example, it can cause kidney
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failure.
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If you give NAC beforehand, it prevents the kidney damage from the die.
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Also stop drinking at least three hours before you go to bed, which minimizes alcohol's
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negative impact on your sleep.
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It gives your body enough time to detoxify.
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The half-like alcohol through the half-life, which means how much time it takes for half
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of the alcohol to get out of your body is between four to five hours.
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The effects of alcohol can still affect your sleep up to six hours after you stop drinking.
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Okay, so once you've had a little too much drink, now you're really feeling the next
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day.
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Here's what not to do.
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Do not drink more alcohol.
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Don't have the eye opener in the morning, right?
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The hair of the dog approach.
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It just delays and worsens the hangover.
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Coffee.
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Don't drink it.
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You dehydrate too much.
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Use ibuprofen sparingly or adivine.
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It can kind of vector GI tract in your kidneys.
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But here's what you should do to deal with your hangover symptoms.
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One, hydrate, but not just any hydration.
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Drink clean water with electrolytes.
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It doesn't guarantee you'll get over a hangover faster, but it's going to help restore hydration.
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Also eat a balanced meal, eggs, and nutrient-dense foods with protein and fat and fiber are
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really important.
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Eggs are also rich in something called L-sistine, which actually gets made into N-A-C-L-Sistine,
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made into a flound, which helps the liver detoxify a sea of aldehoid.
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Also high fiber, carbohydrate foods like vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans, whole grains.
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They really help stabilize blood sugar levels.
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Also there's sometimes herbs and vitamins and supplements that can help.
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We'll talk about those.
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What are those?
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Ginger can be good for nausea.
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Chemo-LT helps anxiety as calming, regency helps acetyl aldehyde metabolism and
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be complex for replenishes that decrease in vitamins and helps energy.
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Regency will not cure a hangover, but it can help reduce symptoms when it's taken
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soon after drinking by increasing acetyl aldehyde metabolism.
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You can get regency and have it with your drink.
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Now randomized crossover study, that means they basically gave the same group of people
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different things at different times.
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They took 25 guys, they gave them regency, that reduced plasma alcohol and also expired
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alcohol as well as hangover severity after consuming whiskey.
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The study included that regency positively affects alcohol metabolism and alleviates hangover
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symptoms.
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That's cool, but I think more researchers need on that.
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Colored shower is going to make you feel more alert or a cold plunge.
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That's good.
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Colored shower might help you feel alert.
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Also increases some of your adrenaline hormones and increasing adrenaline can make you more
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alert and speed up alcohol metabolism and even clearance of alcohol from the brain.
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And from what?
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Also get some rest.
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Make sure you get sleep and that mitigates hangover symptoms.
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An observational study of 578 college students found that reduced total sleep time was
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associated with more severe hangovers.
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It stood in to slap more than seven hours, consumed more alcohol and experienced longer
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hangovers.
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But their hangovers were less severe compared to those who slept less than seven hours.
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So overall reduced total sleep time was associated with more severe hangovers.
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In the end time is really the best medicine, right?
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It's the best cure for hangover.
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Your body needs time to process and eliminate the alcohol and all those toxic byproducts.
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So that's a lot.
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Alcohol, we know the toxin, there's no safe dose.
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If the pleating vitamins and minerals, it affects your liver, it affects your brain,
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it affects hormones, your microbiome, your immune system.
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But you know, occasional drinks okay, just be careful and understand that there's things
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you can do to mitigate.
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It's harmful effects like eating beforehand with lots of high fiber fat protein foods,
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drinking more slowly over time, having water and electrolytes after you drink and having
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the right vitamins and minerals, including the complex zinc and magnesium as well as
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also herbs like milk, this all that can help.
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So I hope you found today's episode enlightening and packed with useful, good information to
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help you better understand and manage hangovers.
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I covered a lot of ground from the science of our alcohol impacts our bodies to those
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practical tips I mentioned on how to mitigate those horrible symptoms.
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But remember the key to handling hangovers starts with prevention.
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Don't drink too much.
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Hydrate, proper nutrition goes a long way in making sure your next morning isn't a total
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right off.
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Now, if you've found these tips helpful, I encourage you to start incorporating them into
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your routine and of course always listen to your body and make choices that support your
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overall well-being or health is for sure a precious asset.
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And taking care of it means we can enjoy life celebrations without paying a hefty price
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the next day.
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So thanks again for joining me today and don't forget to rate, review and follow health
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hacks wherever you get your podcasts, stay healthy, stay informed and I'll catch you
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next Tuesday for another episode of Health Hacks.
Topics Covered
hangover prevention
alcohol effects on health
managing hangover symptoms
hydration and hangovers
gut health and alcohol
alcohol metabolism
dehydration and hangovers
nutritional tips for recovery
sleep disruption from alcohol
anxiety after drinking
acetyl aldehyde toxicity
electrolyte balance
health hacks for hangovers
alcohol and liver health
binge drinking consequences