From: cholette@JSP.UMontreal.CA (Cholette Martin)
Newsgroups: alt.beer
Subject: Re: Hangovers
Date: 8 Jan 93 04:57:48 GMT
Organization: Universite de Montreal

The physical causes of hangovers are:

1- Alcohol is a diuretic (sp?),  meaning it cuases your body to expell water
   through urination.  (BTW caffeen  (sp?) is also a diuretic,  so taking 
   the peverbial 'coffee to sober me up' will actualy worsten a hangover,
   not to mention the fact that it won't reduce the level of blood in your
   blood stream.)  

2- The urination (whether you actually expell the water or it sits in your
   blader)  causes dehydration,  especially in the blood stream,  making
   blood thicker than usual.

3- At night heart rate and blood presure both fall.  This combined with the 
   thicker blood causes your nervous system to make your heart beat a little
   harder and faster.  This unatural over exertion reduces the quality of sleep
   and gives you the 'groggies' the next morning.

4- The thicker blood cannot hold as much oxygen and cannot be circulated as fast
   as usual.  This reduced oxygen (which is what actualy makes your heart beat 
   harder/faster) causes the brain to suffer a little bit of oxygen deprivation.
   This gives you the headache.

5- In the morning your mouth is dry for two reasons: 1- the reduction of water
   in your system and, 2- Your normal breathing patern is disrupted (to try to
   get more oxygen to the brain) and more and heavier breathing occur,  this
   is done through a grater percentage of air being taken in through the mouth.
   This in turn dehydrates the mouth (and body,  though evaporation,  even more)


Now that we have the why's we can now attack the problem at hand.  These are the
best tricks that I use (and man do I use them often! :-)  ).

1- Drink water, lots of water,  as much as you can tolerate and then some.  I
   find that water is the safest thing to take,  milk may sour in you stomach,
   fruit juices (and fluid replacement drinks i.e. Gatorade)  require your body
   to expend even more energy to break down the proteins and carbohydrates in
   the drink (don't forget that your breathing and heart rate are already 
   increased and that your blader is working overtime!).  Personaly I tried 
   the Gatorade once after a 'BEER NIGHT' and I fing that the two do not mix
   well at all.  I only tried it *ONCE*

2- Take Aspirin,  Tylenol,  Advil.....  any headache product.  The one thing
   that they have in common is that they are thinning agents.  

3-  These two will 1- rehydrate,  to some extent,  your body (not to mention
   that the water will silute the rest of the alcohol in your stomach,  
   reducing the amount of alcohol being absorbedinto the blood stream and 
   thus reducing the rate at which water is being expelled from the body.) and
   2- thin your blood and reduce the overstressing of the heart,  lungs,  
   mouth and brain leaving you with a better night sleep!

These steps are based on the cause and effect of alcohol consumption and 
basically try to undo harm before it's done.  BTW doem people find that eating
before sleeping helps.  This may or may not help.  While it does slow the 
absorption of alcohol into the blood stream it also slows the absorbtion of 
water and increases the work load that the body has to do,  by forcing it to
digest,  which by the way is a hard process on the body (why do you think you
feel sleepy after eating).

Of course I have to put in the warning that you should watch it when taking
the medication and make sure that you don't overdose.  But I usually take 3 or
4 (on a really bad night) extra strength Atasol's and 3-5 cups of water (I 
weigh 235 lbs so I can handle it, stronger doses, easier than someone of average
weight.)

This has worked for me when I use it (and I use it often enough :-) ??? :-(  )
But it is not a failsafe method.  There are times that I feel like crap the
next morning.

Remember,  this will only help take the bite out of a hangover,  it will not
eradicate it.  :-(

Hope this helps,
Michael Bertrand
cholette@jsp.umontreal.ca