← Health Hacks with Mark Hyman, M.D.
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Foreign this is open mind. Hey everyone, Dr. Mark Hyman here. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of you who joined me on this journey through the very first season of Health Hacks. Whether you've been tuning in since day one or just discovered the show, I can't tell you how much your support has meant to me and the Health Hacks team. It's been an amazing season packed with insights, tips and practical hacks to help you take control of your health. As this season wraps up, I hope you continue applying what you've learned to support your well being and live your healthiest life. Thank you again for being a loyal listener and here's to all the great things you're going to achieve in your health journey. Today, I want to tackle a topic that many of us have experienced but few truly understand. Hangovers. Whether it's after a night of celebrating with friends or an unexpected overindulgence, hangovers kind of leave us feeling drained, anxious, and downright miserable. In this episode, I'm going to unpack the science behind hangovers and explore what happens to our bodies during this really unpleasant aftermath and discuss effective strategies to prevent and manage them if you need them. Maybe you won't need them if you take care of yourself, but just in case you have a fun night, how do you get over this? Well, hangovers are more than just a headache and fatigue. There are complex physiological response to alcohol consumption that affects our brain, our liver, our gut, and our overall health. In fact, alcohol is a poison and the dose makes the poison. I'm going to delve into how alcohol disrupts our sleep, dehydrates our bodies, messes with our electrolyte balance, and leaving just feeling pretty out of sorts. We're going to break down the role of toxins like acetyl aldehyde, the impact of alcohol on our gut microbiome, and why certain people are more prone to severe hangovers. Now, understanding these mechanisms can really empower us to make informed choices about drinking and recovery. I'm also going to share practical tips and health hacks to help us mitigate hangover symptoms and support our body's recovery from hydration and nutrition to supplements and sleep strategies. I got you covered with actionable advice. So grab a glass of water, sit back, and let's dive into the science and the solutions for hangovers. Hi, I'm Dr. Mark Hyman and welcome to Health House Foreign. Okay, so what is a hangover anyway? Well, ever wake up after a night of drinking and feel like you've been hit by a truck. That's a hangover. I'm going to tell you a story quickly that I think is about my first and actually my last hangover, which was when I was 18 years old, backpacking out in western Canada, and I got a job looking for oil, basically using seismic, we call them, geophones that you plant in the ground, and then you blow up something underground, and you can see what happened. So I was with these guys, and it was in Fort McLeod, Alberta, which is in the middle of nowhere on the bloody reservation in Alberta. And they had a bar, and these guys, I was 18, they kept egging me on to drink beer and beer and beer and beer. So I had. I don't even know how many, but there was a whole table full of beers, and I just chugged them all. And then I got home and got so sick, puked my guts out. It was terrible. And the next day, we went out on a. On our adventure, basically, to plant geophones in this prairie in Alberta, looking for oil. And it was bad. And I fully got what a hangover was. And the guys were making fun of me and making loud noises, and I had a headache, and I was like, oh, this is a hangover. So I chose to actually not even drink for the next 15 years. So I definitely didn't want to have that again. But it's. It's basically, hangovers are this unpleasant aftermath of drinking too much, and it hits you with a mix of mental and physical symptoms. It starts when your bac, or blood alcohol level, drops and peaks when it hits zero. Well, hangovers come with an array of symptoms, including headache, fatigue, and nausea, and a general blah feeling. And they can also cause anxiety, or what they call hangxiety, as younger people say, and lethargy. Now, usually they'll shake it off in 24 hours, but sometimes they can linger 72 hours, depending on a few factors. And here they are. How much you drink. More alcohol equals a worse hangover. It also depends on hydration and your nutritional status. Dehydration and lack of nutrients or vitamin deficiencies can make it a lot worse. Also, age hangovers get nastier as you age. Also, your sex. Women often get worse hangovers than men. Your liver health, which is really important. Like, a lot of people have fatty liver in America, it's an epidemic. I think probably 100 million Americans or more have fatty liver. Fatty liver, which means basically a foie gras for a liver because of the carbs and sugar and even alcohol would cause fatty liver. So if you have a liver issues, you're going to have a much rougher ride. Certain medications also can make hangovers worse. So let's get to the science behind it. First of all, alcohol is metabolized in your liver. Once it's in your bloodstream, it travels to various tissues in your body. It hits your brain in about five minutes and starts affecting you within 10. Your liver starts processing alcohol after about 20 minutes, managing 1 ounce per hour on average. Right, here's the breakdown. Alcohol dehydrogenase is the enzyme that converts ethanol, which is what you're drinking, which is another name for alcohol, to acetaldehyde. Now what is acetaldehyde? This stuff is 10 to 30 times more toxic than alcohol and causes symptoms like sweating, nausea, skin flushing, vomiting and a race in heart. And there's an enzyme called acetaldehyde dehydrogenase or aldh. And what this does is then converts the acetaldehyde to acetate, which is less toxic and can be broken down into water and carbon dioxide to be eliminated. So you basically pee out and breathe out the alcohol toxins. When it's converted from alcoethanol to acetaldehyde to acetate, if the acetyl aldehyde isn't quickly metabolized, cause you're just overloading the system, it builds up and makes your hangovers a lot worse. Now there's a lot of factors that slow down the processing of acetyl aldehyde, which is this toxic byproduct of alcohol metabolism. So what are those things? Well, high alcohol intake, genetics, especially common in East Asian populations. You've often seen, for example, if you're Chinese or whatever, these, you have a lot of alcohol, they'll turn really red and get flushing. Partly that's a genetic factor. Nutrient deficiencies are common in people who drink a lot of alcohol because alcohol depletes your B vitamins status, particularly B A niacin and all the other B vitamins. Also depletes magnesium and zinc. And these are really important, helping regulate your overall well being and health. Next thing that can make it a lot worse is dehydration. People say, you know, for every drink you have, you should have a glass of water. I think that's a good rule. One drink, one glass of water. So what happens in your body during hangover? Well, alcohol is a diuretic, makes you pee more. It blocks the production of something called vasopressin, which is also known as the antidiuretic hormone. So when you block antidiuretic hormone, you diurese which means you pee. So you basically increase peeing. And your kidneys don't conserve water and you end up dehydrated. So alcohol dehydrates you. It also messes with your electrolyte imbalance, which is why it feels so crummy. Essential electrolytes like sodium, potassium, zinc, magnesium are depleted and that leads to fatigue. It could lead to an irregular heartbeat, nausea, and lots more. Also, what's up with the headaches, right? What's up with those headaches you get after drinking? Well, they're caused by a bunch of different factors. Similar, right? Dehydration. Right? Less blood flow and oxygen to the brain, vasodilation and vasoconstriction. So first, alcohol relaxes the blood vessels, increases blood flow. But when your blood alcohol concentration drops, there's a rebound vasoconstriction, or narrowing the blood vessels like a spasm, causing more headache and pain. Folks, try the hair of the dog approach, drinking more alcohol to ease the pain. But this only delays and worse the staying over, so I wouldn't recommend it. Other headache causes could be disturbed sleep, inflammation and low blood sugar that can be affected by drinking. What else does alcohol do? Well, it disrupts your sleep. So let's not forget about one of the most miserable aspects of a hangover. It just messes up your sleep. Now, it can help you fall asleep quickly, but then it disrupts your sleep. And I know from my oura ring, I definitely see whenever I have a drink, my heart variability goes down, my heart rate goes up. It's just not good. I can see my body just doesn't like it. Now, alcohol and good sleep just don't mix. It helps you fall asleep, but it disrupts your REM cycle, which is your MEM dreaming cycle, and at least a poor sleep quality and also fragmented sleep, waking up frequently. Now, REM sleep is crucial for repairing, rejuvenating, and reviving the brain and the body. This is the dreaming state, a rapid eye movement, which is when you're dreaming. It's also responsible for memory consolidation, for emotional processing and regulation. This means you wake up feeling tired, groggy and irritated when you don't get enough REM sleep, which alcohol messes up. It also can worsen something called sleep apnea, which is where you kind of have airway issues and you snore and you basically stop breathing at night. And it's pretty dangerous. But it can worsen sleep apnea if you have it. It relaxes the muscles in your throat and tongues. And I know If I drink, I snore. That's just how it goes. Well, I mean, I don't know, but that's what my wife tells me. Anyway, a 2018 study found that even low alcohol intake, this one drink, reduced sleep quality by 9.3%, while moderate intake, three drinks, reduced it by 3,24%. And heavy drinking, which is seven drinks, which is a lot of alcohol, right? Seven drinks, reduce it by 40%. Now, next, let's get into something called hangxiety. What the heck is that? Ever feel super anxious after a night of drinking? That's called hangxiety, and it's quite common. And let me tell you why Your brain chemistry is affected, right? So alcohol initially calms you by stimulating something called the GABA receptors. This is like the natural valium, and it suppresses something called glutamate, which is a neurotransmitter that binds to certain receptors that can be stimulating. Now, once it wears off, the anxiety circuits go into overdrive. Also, cortisol, alcohol messes with your stress hormone, making you more sensitive to stress during a hangover. Also, blood sugar is affected. It inhibits glucose production in the liver. So alcohol messes up your liver's ability to make glucose, and that can cause your blood sugar levels to drop, which can make you feel anxious and irritable. Also, if that wasn't enough, well, it also affects your gut health, right? Alcohol wrecks your microbiome in your gut, kills all the beneficial bacteria. It increases the growth of the bad bugs, and this leads to gut inflammation, leaky gut, and systemic inflammation, not just in your gut, and also a lot of other hangover symptoms. Even one night of heavy drinking can mess up your gut balance. A study found that a single episode of binge drinking, five or more drinks for men and four more for women in two hours result in high blood levels of endotoxins. What are endotoxins? Those are bacterial toxins that then get absorbed across a leaky gut that are basically like a poison that is bad. And so your body starts to activate your immune system, and you get inflamed. Foreign. Okay, so how does alcohol affect our immune system? One other problem. Well, it totally throws it off, which leads to an imbalance of inflammatory molecules called cytokines and also something called prostaglandins, which regulate inflammation. Now, research has shown that high levels of cytokines. And you all remember the cytokine storm from COVID These are inflammatory messenger molecules, and that high levels of these inflammatory messenger molecules, called cytokines, could be correlated with hangover symptoms such as muscle aches, fatigue, headaches, nausea, and the cognitive effects you get like memory loss and irritability. Alcohol also suppresses the immune system in the short term by suppressing the function of white blood cells, neutrophils, which are your main white blood cells that fight infection. It affects your antibody function and T cells, which are producing antibodies, and immune and immune function for you many different ways. It also disrupts your lung and gut barrier function, making it easier to put pathogens into the body, more likely to get sick. And since the body's immune system is already suppressed, it's more vulnerable to infections like common cold, flu, other respiratory issues, even Covid. Now, long term alcohol consumption leads to chronic systemic inflammation, immune system dysfunction, and increased risk for alcohol related fatty liver disease, among other things. Now, it could also impact our immune and detox systems, and that contributes to the development of certain cancers like esophageal cancer. Really common heavy drinkers, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, very affected by alcohol. One drink a day for a woman increases her risk of breast cancer by 40%. I'm going to say that again. One drink, one glass of wine, one shot of an ounce of hard liquor, 10 ounces of beer. That increases your risk of breast cancer by 40% if you have a drink every day. And of course, liver cancer, very common in alcohol consumption. Now, according to a study published in the Lancet, one of the major medical journals, 750,000 global cancer cases in 2020 could be attributed to alcohol consumption. That's almost a million people a year get cancer because of alcohol. That was a lot. Now, while heavy drinking accounted for most, right. Light to moderate drinking probably accounted for about 100,000 of those 750,000 cases. So it's not trivial. A study that followed over 1 million women in the UK found that for each additional alcoholic drink consumed every day, a woman's risk of breast cancer increased by 12%. And there are other studies that show 40%, as I mentioned, but it's a lot. Another study found a 30% increase in breast cancer in women who have three to nine alcoholic beverages per week, and a 60% higher risk in amounts exceeding that. So if you have two drinks a week, you're getting a 60% increased risk in your risk of breast cancer if you're a woman. Alcohol also changes estrogen metabolism and increases circulating estrogen levels, which is a major risk factor for breast cancer. So basically, alcohol impairs your body's ability to get rid of excess estrogen. It leads to increased estrogen in the blood and estrogen related cancers like breast, uterine and so forth. It also puts a stress on your liver and uses up our B vitamins necessary for methylation and removing excess estrogen. So basically alcoholics get depletion of nutrients, a lot of them. In fact, one of the conditions that alcoholics get is called Wernicke's encephalopathy. Big word obviously, but it means they kind of get delirium and crazy. And it's because of a thiamine deficiency, vitamin B1, you, they come to the ER, they're literally crazy. You give them a shot of thiamine and boom, they wake right up. Pretty amazing. Vitamins are miracles. And what about our mitochondria? This is the energy factories in our cells. Binge drinking only does have an effect on your mitochondria and heavy drinking does, which leads to oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. And that kind of worsens your hangover symptoms. That's your energy center. So that's why you feel like crap and have low energy. Ethanol metabolism also increases radio reactive oxygen species, free radical oxidative stress, which then damages the mitochondria. And that leads to the damage to the mitochondria and accumulation of damaged and dysfunctional mitochondria. It also makes the mitochondria less efficient at producing energy, impairs the replication. Making new mitochondria reduces mitochondrial antioxidant defenses like glutathione. Really important for detoxification of pretty much everything. And this could be why oxidative stress and alcohol hangovers associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. It's kind of a big deal. Now, there are a few other things that can have an influence on hangovers. The first is your genetics. And this is really how fast a metabolizer you are of alcohol. It's the speed at which you metabolize alcohol that affects your hangover. Slow metabolism means more severe symptoms due to oxidative stress and inflammation. There are other genetic variations that make a difference. So let me go through what those are. There's variations in an enzyme called aldh, that's acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. That's the one that kind of makes the toxic byproduct of alcohol, acetaldehyde, into acetate, so it's less toxic. Now some people have a variation in this enzyme genetically that makes them more susceptible to hangovers. It's not so good at doing this right. You get more acetaldehyde. Variations in this enzyme can make up more susceptible to the toxic effects of Acetaldehyde and more hangover symptoms. Now, the mutation in the acetyl aldehyde dehydrogenase gene is most commonly seen in East Asians like Chinese, Japanese and so forth. And it results in a much slower conversion of acetaldehyde into acetate or acetic acid. And the result is an excess buildup of acetaldehyde that can happen pretty rapidly. And that caused an alcohol flush reaction that also might play a role in hangovers the day after drinking. You've seen people like this who get really flush with alcohol. That's because they have this enzyme variation that makes them a slow metabolizer of the byproduct of alcohol, which is toxic, acetaldehyde. Also, sex has a role, right? Women have worse hangovers due to higher body fat, less water content, and lower levels of acetyl aldehyde AR dehydrogenation. Now, this is likely because they're smaller than men and they have a higher percentage of body fat and a lower percentage of body water. And since alcohol is water soluble, that means women have a higher concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream after drinking the same amount as men. So women drink the same amount as men, have a higher level of blood alcohol. Now, women produce less alcohol dehydrogenase, that's enzyme I was talking about for breaking down alcohol, which means more alcohol enters the circulation directly. Also, hormone flu fluctuations can play a role, particularly on the menstrual cycle, and that affects how alcohol is metabolized and it increases the sensitivity to alcohol's effects. Also, age plays a big role. Hangovers get worse with age because your body's ability to metabolize alcohol slows down, your lean body mass goes down, your water content drops, and alcohol dehydrogenase activity slows. So basically, alcohol stays around your system longer, more toxic, and that makes your symptoms worse. And this makes even moderate drinking that can lead to more pronounced hangover symptoms. Obviously, all this is a bummer. No one likes a hangover. So how do we prevent it? Well, quite frankly, the best way to avoid a hangover, don't drink. Okay, now we know. Just to be clear, there are no benefits to alcohol consumption. There is no health benefit, there's no heart benefit. The data is really clear that it's bad for you, especially cancer. It does increase the risk of cancer. So I don't think alcohol should be considered a health promoting substance in any way. Just to be clear, the data doesn't support it. However, having a drink or two once in a while is not going to kill you and it's not a bad, bad thing. Of course, don't drink is easier said than done. I know, but here's the facts. The standard recommendation is one drink per day for women and two drinks a day for men. That's way too much, right? According to the who, the World Health Organization, there is no safe consumption of alcohol for human health. Say that again. According to the World Health Organization, there is no safe consumption of alcohol for human health, period. Alcohol is a neurotoxin, it's psychoactive, and it can cause dependence and addiction. Now, the International Agency for Research on cancer, the IARC, has classified alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen, which is the highest risk group, along with asbestos, radiation and tobacco. Just saying, nobody's got asbestos anymore in their house. You don't really want to get radiation if you can avoid it. And certainly we know tobacco and cigarettes cause cancer. Now, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical association, even light to moderate consumption has consequences. It also increases risk for dementia and Alzheimer's. And why? Because it shrinks your brain and reduces neuroplasticity. If you see an alcoholic's brain on a brain scan, I used to see it all the time when I was in the er. They just like shriveled and shrunken up brains. It was pretty sad. Alcohol increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, as I mentioned. And the alcohol free movement is gaining popularity and the younger generation's catching onto the harms of alcohol. In fact, I just went to a party, 40th birthday party, and it was no alcohol. It was no alcohol. And I just had an office party for my office. No alcohol. I think people are kind of coming wise to the dangers of alcohol. So more and more people are kind of just stop drinking and turning to mocktails. However, if you do drink, and I'm going to give you a few things that might help one, pace yourself, right? Go slow. This is going to help your body metabolize alcohol more effectively. Remember, it can only deal with 1 ounce an hour, right? 1 ounce an hour of hard liquor, probably 5 ounces of wine an hour, or 10 ounces of beer an hour. You drink more than that and you are just, you know, upping the toxic load your liver has to deal with and it just can't keep up. The speed at which you drink plays a huge role. Your body can process, like I said, about one standard drink per hour. Now I want you to keep in mind though, that this can vary based on the type of alcohol you drink, right? Your physical health and Your genetics. Now, drinking more than this is likely going to increase the risk of a hangover. Also, you can avoid congeners. Now what are those? Those are byproducts of alcohol fermentation that are found in higher concentrations in darker liquors like whiskey or things like that. These are found in cognac, whiskey, bourbon and red wine. Creates methanol, tannins, histamine reactions, all kinds of stuff. So not great. It's. Now these compounds, these congeners give these types of alcohol their distinct flavors. But they hang around in the system long after you drink, which can make the hangovers a lot worse. Now, research shows that high congenor, darker colored liquors, which is a bummer because those are the ones I like, they lead to more severe hangovers than lighter colored clear liquors like vodka, gin, rum, sake and even maybe white tequilas. But also note that I'm not recommending these types of alcohol either. The more distilled the spirit is, the lower the congenitals. This is why drinking top shelf liquors doesn't result in as much of a hangover some people as lower priced alternatives. I found that true. It's also worth noting that the amount of alcohol consumed is more critical than the type of alcohol in determining the severity of your hangover. So while the conjugate are important, it's really the amount of overall alcohol. Now, drinks with higher alcohol concentrations like shots of liquor, put a greater burden on the liver and are more likely to cause hangovers. Congeners add complexity to the detox process too. They stimulate the release of stress hormones that cause an inflammatory response and they all worsen your hangover symptoms. Now, some people actually may be very physiologically sensitive to specific congeners. For example, those with histamine intolerance, which is more and more common, experience worse hangovers from red wine, which is high in histamine compared to clear liquor. So I noticed that when I have red wine, I don't feel good. If I have white tequila, I'm fine. Avoid sugary mixers, which is all sugary mixed drinks. When you combine sugar and alcohol, bad news. So stay away from those sugary mixed drinks. The other thing you want to do is stay hydrated. Drink water and electrolytes before, during and after drink it. Drink at least half your weight in ounces of water with a sugar free electrolyte powder such as elyte or element, which contains a balanced ratio of sodium, potassium, magnesium. Really important, our sugar free coconut water contains natural electrolytes and help hydrate you as well. Something Called Liquid IV and Gatorade. They're big no nos. They're loaded with unnecessary sugar, dyes, flavors, enhancers. Just stay away from all that colorful sports drink crap. And that's terrible. Basically want to drink a glass of water and at least for every drink you have, right? For every alcoholic drink you have just one, maybe two glasses of water with electrolytes. And you can bring individual travel electrolyte packets with you. I do that all the time. It's really great. Also eat before you drink. And why? Why do you want to do that? Well, a balanced meal actually slows the absorption of alcohol, fat, protein, fiber, slows the empty meat of your stomach. And that actually can help reduce the effect and the speed of alcohol and reduce its toxicity on your system. Things like guacamole or a phytonutrient salad, chicken, steak or fish, all that's going to be great. It's also going to help you prevent low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. And you also want to eat hydrating and micronutrient rich plant foods like non starchy veggies, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, fruit and lots of fruit, bananas, avocados, guava, grapefruit, which is full of magnesium, potassium and sodium. Really important. So make sure you get water and electrolytes for hydration. You also want to potentially take some minerals like zinc and also niacin, which is a B vitamin. Vitamin B3 critical CO factors in alcohol metabolism. So when you have to make those enzymes work, you need these cofactors like zinc and niacin to actually make them work to detoxify the alcohol. Now research suggests that they could lower hangover severity. Although we need to do more research on it, still seems promising and it's low risk to do. You can eat zinc rich foods, right? Meat, shellfish, legumes, pumpkin seeds, oysters, nicotinic acid rich foods, meat, nicotine, acids, niacin, like meat, fish, poultry, avocados, mushrooms are full of niacin. The next thing you want to do is feed your gut bacteria. You want to load up in the early parts of your day with fermented foods like yogurt, pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi. Get your microbiome healthy. Eat a polyphenol rich diet for your microbiome and immune system like blueberries, apples, cherries, raspberries. Also include vitamin C rich foods, great antioxidant red bell peppers, kiwi, citrus fruit, and don't eat all those inflammatory foods, they really are bad for you. In general, and they make the alcohol problem worse. So fried foods, refined carbohydrates, sugars, processed ultra processed food, all that's going to irritate your gut even more and won't slow down alcohol absorption. That's diet, lifestyle hydration. Okay, what can you do to actually help you support detoxification? And take the right supplements that have the right nutrients that are commonly depleted with alcohol consumption. So what I like is an herb called milk thistle before and after drinking. And a B complex vitamin. Milk thistle is an herb which is great, that helps liver detoxification. B vitamins are depleted when you drink alcohol, like thiamine, I mentioned that. B6, niacin, or B3, B12 and folate. All these can cause headaches and fatigue. So if you preemptively supplement, you can actually reduce the effects of alcohol in your system. Zinc, magnesium, you can also take something called N acetylcysteine or nac. N acetylcysteine helps your body make glutathione. Now what is glutathione? Glutathione is our master detoxifier, our master antioxidant and our master anti inflammatory compound. Now research shows that low dose snack can help with nausea and weakness and hangover symptoms in women. But more research is needed, but it's promising. There's even actually research on this and we know it can have a lot of toxins. For example, if you have liver failure from Tylenol overdose, the treatment is nac. If you get an IV contrast dye for a kidney study, for example, it can cause kidney failure. If you give NAC beforehand, it prevents the kidney damage from the dye. Also, stop drinking at least three hours before you go to bed, which minimizes alcohol's negative impact on your sleep. It gives your body enough time to detoxify the half like of alcohol, sorry, the half life. Which means how much time it takes for half of the alcohol to get out of your body is between four to five hours. Now the effects of alcohol can still affect your sleep up to six hours after you stop drinking. Okay, so once you've had a little too much drink, now you're really feeling the next day. Here's what not to do. Do not drink more alcohol. Don't have the eye opener in the morning. Right. The hair of the dog approach, it just delays and worsens the hangover. Coffee. Don't drink it. It dehydrates you more. Use ibuprofen sparingly or Advil. It can kind of affect your GI tract and your Kidneys. But here's what you should do to deal with your hangover symptoms. One, Hydrate, but not just any hydration. Drink clean water with electrolytes. Now, it doesn't guarantee you'll get over a hangover faster, but it's going to help restore hydration. Also, eat a balanced meal. Eggs and nutrient dense foods with protein and fat and fiber are really important. Now eggs are also rich in something called L cysteine which actually gets made into N acetylcysteine. Made include a thione which helps liver detoxify. Acetyl aldehyde. Also high fiber carbohydrate foods like vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans, whole grains, they really help stabilize blood sugar levels. Also there's sometimes herbs and vitamins and supplements that can help. So we'll talk about those. So what are those? Ginger can be good for nausea. Chamomile tea helps. Anxiety is calming. Red ginseng helps acetyl aldehyde metabolism. And B complex replenishes the depleted vitamins and helps energy. Now, red ginseng will not cure a hangover, but it can help reduce its symptoms when it's taken soon after drinking by increasing acetaldehyde metabolism. So you can get red ginseng and have it with your drink. Basically. Now, randomized crossover study. That means they basically, you know, gave the same group of people different things at different times. So they took 25 guys, they gave them reg ginseng that reduced plasma alcohol and also expired alcohol as well as hangover severity consuming after consuming whiskey. Now this study concluded that red ginseng positively affects alcohol metabolism and alleviates hangover symptoms. That's cool, but I think more research is needed on that. Cold shower is going to make you feel more alert. Or a cold plunge. That's good. Now cold shower might help you feel alert. It also increases some of your adrenaline hormones. And increasing adrenaline can make you more alert and speed up alcohol metabolism and even clearance of alcohol from the brain. And from what? Also get some rest, make sure you get sleep. And that mitigates hangover symptoms. An observational study of 578 college students found that reduced total sleep time was associated with more severe hangovers. And students who slept more than seven hours consumed more alcohol and experienced longer hangovers, but their hangovers were less severe compared to those who slept less than seven hours. So overall, reduced total sleep time was associated with more severe hangovers. In the end, time is really the best medicine, right? It's the best cure for hangover. Your body needs time to process and eliminate the alcohol and all those toxic byproducts. So that's a lot. Okay, Alcohol, we know is a toxin. There's no safe dose if depleting vitamins and minerals. It affects your liver, affects your brain, affects your hormones, your microbiome, your immune system, but you know, occasional drinks. Okay, just be careful and understand that there's things you can do to mitigate its harmful effects, like eating beforehand with lots of high fiber, fat, protein foods, drinking more slowly over time, having water and electrolytes after each drink, and having the right vitamins and minerals including B complex, zinc and magnesium, as well as also herbs like milk thistle. All that can help. So I hope you found today's episode enlightening and packed with useful, good information to help you better understand and manage hangovers. We covered a lot of ground from the science of how alcohol impacts our bodies to those practical tips I mentioned on how to mitigate those horrible symptoms. But remember, the key to healing hangovers starts with prevention. Don't drink too much. Hydrate. Proper nutrition goes a long way in making sure your next morning isn't a total write off. Now if you found these tips helpful, I encourage you to start incorporating them into your routine. And of course, always listen to your body and make choices that support your overall well being. Our health is for sure a precious asset, and taking care of it means we can enjoy life celebrations without paying a hefty price the next day. So thanks again for joining me today and don't forget to rate, review and follow Health Hacks wherever you get your podcast. Stay healthy, stay informed and I'll catch you next Tuesday for another episode of Health Hacks.