Detoxing

Detox - Hangover Tips

By Paul Stephen Lubicz – The Wellbeing Manager

Hangovers can completely incapacitate you, giving you an upset stomach, a huge headache, a gross-tasting mouth and a guilty conscience. So what we've constructed for you are some tips for easing the pain and curing that hangover.

What causes a hangover is believed to be a multiple of reasons. Hangover is likely caused by a combination of direct effects of ethanol (The alcohol in the beverage), effects of ethanol removal, and effects of ethanol breakdown products, in addition to other components of the alcoholic beverage, the individual’s characteristics, and behaviours associated with alcohol use.

Tips

Hangover symptoms may be reduced by drinking two or three large glasses of water before going to sleep the night before and lots of extra water the day after. Also by eating foods that are high in vitamin C and the B vitamins, which are believed to speed the removal of alcohol from the body.

Foods

Oranges, guava, grapefruit, and strawberries are rich in vitamin C and beans, fish, and whole grains are rich in the B vitamins.

Juices

Juice therapists recommend drinking a mixture of carrot juice (8 oz), beet juice (1 oz), celery juice (4 oz), and parsley juice (1 oz) twice during hangover. The Chinese drink fresh tangerine juice and eat 10 strawberries to treat hangover.

Also try a cocktail prepared from orange juice (1 cup), pineapple juice (1 cup), kiwi fruit (one), vitamin-B-enriched nutritional yeast (1 tablespoon), and honey (1 tablespoon), this provides important nutrients which the body needs to recover from a hangover.

Herbal Alternatives

The following herbal remedies are useful in treating hangover symptoms:

An Ayurvedic remedy is to take one half teaspoon of a mixture of shatavari (5 parts), shanka bhasma (one eighth part), Kama dudha (one eighth part), and jatamamsi (3 parts) with water 2–3 times daily.
An Ayurvedic antidote for alcohol toxicity is one half teaspoon of tikta (or myrrh, aloe vera, or sudharshan) with warm water three times during the day.
Barberry (Barberis vulgaris) tea reduces hangover symptoms.
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and burdock (Arctium lappa) tea (with gentian extract, powdered ginger, and honey) can ease the nausea.
Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) oil helps to replenish lost gamma-linoleic acid.
Milk thistle (Silybum marinum) reduces alcohol toxicity on the liver.
Nux vomica (Strychnos nux vomica) is a homeopathic antidote for alcohol over consumption.
Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus) helps the body adjust to the stress of alcohol toxicity.
Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) tea with hot pepper (Capsicum) sauce relieves the headache.