Let’s face it, we’ve all been there. You’ve had the night of your life, nothing could have gone better, but you’ve woken up with a stinker of a hangover.
Well rest assured, the @NTUFitness team have some help for you! Following these simple tips, and looking into the science of it all, we might just be able to help you make these painful mornings that little bit better.
Alcohol causes us to become dehydrated
Weird right? You’d think consuming so much liquid would hydrate the body, sadly this is not the case! When you consume alcohol your body’s production of anti-diuretic hormone decreases which in turn reduces the body’s ability to reabsorb water. Further to this, with less anti-diuretic hormone available your body loses more fluids by the many trips to the toilet you take that night, we’ve all heard of breaking the seal? Well now we know why that happens.
Post night-out food
We all know what happens between leaving the club and going home. For some of us this might be a kebab, others maybe chicken and chips, but we’ve all got our go to drunk meal. Although we think at the time this is helping up because you feel better for eating, its actually just adding more salt to the body which is furthering your dehydration.
Cutting too many shapes
You’ve been out, cutting shapes for hours on end. Your body temperature has risen, you’ve got a little bit of a sweat on and you’ve been screaming every song at the top of your voice. All three contribute to a loss of water from your body.
Now we know the culprits, let’s see if we can fight back…
Cure that hangover!
Following these simple steps we can help reduce that most dreaded of things:
1. Try to reduce the rate at which you drink. This is something that is far too often over looked with many different drinking games and songs that encourage quicker and quicker consumption.
2. Having a non-alcoholic drink between alcoholic drinks is also a good idea, sadly as previously stated this is something that is a highly doubtful amongst the current generation of drinkers.
3. Take a look at what you drink and how drinks are mixed. When ordering your vodka instead of having it mixed with something fizzy why not try it with a juice instead. Carbonated mixers that contain caffeine such as coca cola or sprite will cause you to need the toilet more often which in turn will result in you feeling dehydrated. The one you can get away with is soda water.
4. Lastly let’s look at what alcohol you’re drinking. Spirits (e.g.vodka and gin) are less likely to serve you a hangover the next morning in comparison to wines or whisky’s.
So that’s the why we get hangovers and how to help prevent them on the night out, now let’s look at your preparation for the night.
1. Eat lean meats such as chicken, turkey an beef alongside some veggies. This will help provide the body with amino acids to help the liver detox, which in turn leads to a less severe hangover.
2. Don’t eat heavy carbohydrates as they give us the initial energy boost needed for the night out, but then there is the inevitable loss of energy that we call the crash.
3. Eat leafy greens, beetroot and other veg, such as peppers and salad will help. When out drinking the vast majority of what you consume will have sugars in them, so the healthy pre night-out feed will help to regulate blood sugar over a long period. This will reduce the bodies need to self-regulate, which in turn prevents the feeling of zero energy the following day.
So there we have it, a full arsenal of sure fire ways to get rid of that horrible hangover! Oh and one last thing guys . . .
The classic that we all know works so well yet never do it….when you get home simply have a pint of water before bed and take a glass with you should you need a sip in the night.
Happy Mornings!!
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