SFH #150: Hangovers and Help with Health
2 for 1 ✌🏽
I just spent a quite enjoyable Saturday celebrating the birthday of a one-year-old boy named Adrian. He's the son of our friends Radek and Alex. We played soccer, cornhole, ate delicious food and cake, caught up with friends—outside in the heat of New York in August. Excellent party! 🎉
After a long day in the sun and some stiff drinks, I was headed for a rough 24 hours. Of course, I could've made better decisions to avoid the impeding path. C’est la vie. Here I am on the tail end of a full day of my restorative process, and what better way to cap it than to share how I get through it.
Here's how I avoid and recover from hangovers.
1) Hyper hydration. The biggest key to prevent a hangover other than not partaking in alcohol is to hydrate appropriately. Sadly, most of us aren't adequately hydrated as an operating baseline. There are a few reasons for this, but we will get to that in a future post. The key is to be well hydrated before and during a session of imbibing. This isn't done with just water. Consuming too much water without an appropriate balance of electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium) can be hazardous. My hack uses Endurolytes (SaltStick is another brand/option) or my latest find, LMNT. These products were built for athletes during extreme or intense performance sessions, and they work wonders in hangover prevention. Taking a dose as if you just did a killer workout session before, during, or the following day can go a long way. 💫
2) Eat balanced. Eating, in general, is always recommended when consuming alcohol. We all absorb alcohol at a different rate, and eating plays a significant role in how our bodies handle alcohol. When we eat before drinking, alcohol is absorbed more slowly, lessening the side effects of drinking, such as your ability to think and coordinate your body movements. I like to eat a macronutrient balanced meal before or during consumption. It helps keep my metabolism primed and ready to deal with the processing of any toxins my body needs to expel (aka alcohol).
3) Support metabolic functioning with activity or thermogenesis. Alcohol in excess is a bain to our metabolism in that it depletes our organs, throws off our hormone balance, and activates our appetite. A small amount of alcohol can cause a thermogenic effect and help our metabolism, but once we hit the hangover stage, we need to do the work to keep things churning and moving through our system. This is why I like to do light activities like walking and expose myself to heat via a bath, sauna, or just hot weather. Then, I want to contrast it with a cold shower or plunge to get the most out of my body's ability to return to homeostasis.1
Do you have any favorite hangover remedies that work well for you?
In all honesty, I came up with the 'two-fer' idea for tonight's entry because I was not in any shape to write when push came to shove last night. The ship had sailed. I thought it was just a fun way to make up for the lost day. 😉 Plus I was excited to get the word out about this.👇🏽
If you've been reading regularly, you probably realize that I've been thoroughly enjoying my daily blog experience over the last five months. Well, I've reignited the bug to coach and guide others in new and more dynamic ways as a result. Therefore, I decided to put up a flag in the sand for my guidance. So I'm pleased to unveil my updated website for coaching and consulting.
Poke around, feel free to give me any feedback or send questions along. I'm here, I'm ready, and I'm psyched to be coaching again ;)
Here to help with your health,
Brian
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17118706/