Health – Counteracting too much Christmas cheer

Here come Christmas parties and end of year celebrations galore. This often comes with excess eating and, unfortunately for some, excess drinking.

We all know that the best way to avoid a hangover is to not drink alcohol in the first place, or at the very least, drink in moderation.

Products are now arriving in pharmacies that claim to “allow you to enjoy your social life without compromising the next day”. But just what are they and do they actually work? The products I reviewed are pre-drinking supplements and try to help the hangover issue by coming from very different angles.

It’s not the alcohol itself that creates hangover symptoms the next day, but rather a toxic chemical that our body changes the alcohol into during the detoxification process, called acetaldehyde. During the second stage of detoxification, the acetaladehyde is metabolised into acetate, eventually further being further broken down and leaving the body as carbon dioxide and water. The second part of the detoxification process can take a while. In the meantime, acetaldehyde builds in the body while waiting to be processed and causes all those hangover symptoms. 

Some pre-drinking supplements use the theory of supporting that second process of detoxification so you can clear all the toxins from your body. They use ingredients such a curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, and other natural products with anti-inflammatory properties to support a reduction of inflammation in the liver.

A recently launched product instead works to break down the alcohol before it reaches the liver using a combination of two probiotics plus some other ingredients. It is thought that the product prevents most of the alcohol from being absorbed into the bloodstream, by breaking it down earlier, and that it is eliminated without undergoing any detoxification by the liver. A drawback may be that, because  the alcohol is broken down so quickly, you will also feel the “euphoric” effects for a shorter time. For greatest effectiveness, it states that the product is best taken daily for a week before the event. Note, that the product’s small published study had good results but more research needs to be done. 

What else can you do? Alcohol is a diuretic which causes you to urinate more. Whilst they won’t prevent a hangover, electrolytes (and drinking plenty of water) will help to restore fluids in your body and will certainly lessen the effects.

Having a drink or two to celebrate can be fun. However, both for hangovers and your overall health, nothing beats drinking in moderation, or not at all.