How To Avoid The Hangover Headache

It is an all too common scenario: you spend your evening being the life of the party – drinking, dancing, and hanging out with all your friends. You feel on top of the world and are really having a good time. The next morning, you wake with your eyes bloodshot and your head pounding, and a desire to hide under your pillow until the end of the world. The dreaded hangover headache is upon you, causing you to feel sick, in pain, and to run to the bathroom every five minutes. Here is what you need to know for the next time you forget your promise of “never again!”

First, you might find it helpful to understand how and why your favorite alcoholic drinks are leaving you with such a massive headache the next morning. In many cases, the chemical ethanol is your primary culprit. Ethanol is what happens when you ferment the sugar and starch found in grains. You may also be familiar with its uses as a motor fuel as well as its drink applications – any wonder now that it makes you feel terrible?

There are several ways that ethanol can give you a major headache. First is from vasodilatation. Vasodilatation is where the blood vessels in your body start to expand. This can give you the flushed look as there is more blood towards the surface of your skin, as well as cause the pain in your head from veins being stretched to the max. At the same time, Ethanol is a diuretic; hence the frequent trips to the bathroom. This causes you to lose vitamins, minerals, and salt as well as become dehydrated. As your body starts to realize that it is becoming dehydrated, it kicks into survival mode, and goes to protect your most important parts – your internal organs and your brain (the same thing would happen if you got stranded in the desert). This in turn causes more stress on your already sensitive blood vessels in your head, increasing your pain and discomfort.

This is also just considering the ethanol in your drink. Since most people go for quantity, not quality, for their night on the town, you probably consumed a lot of chemicals known as congeners. These are impurities found in the alcohol as a by product of the fermentation process, and are part of what gives the different forms of alcohol their distinct tastes. These impurities are also a surefire way to a hangover headache. In general, the darker your drink, the more congeners it has, so stick to clear alcohols if you are trying to avoid the morning after pain.

So now that you understand how the hangover headache occurs, you may be wondering how to prevent it. Of course, the best way is to not drink at all, or to drink moderately. Unfortunately, for the party animals out there, this might be easier said than done.

If you must drink, drink plenty of liquids to avoid dehydration – both before and after going out as well as during the party. Water is an easy option, though sports drinks and juices contain electrolytes and vitamins that can give you a boost as well.

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