Researchers Have Bad News for People Experiencing Hangovers

The age-old folk aphorism, "Beer before wine and you'll feel fine; wine before beer and you'll feel queer" was recently dispelled by a team of European researchers. The team conducted a study to examine if a particular order of drinking alcoholic beverages helped experience less severe hangover. However, for the 76 percent Americans, who experience hangovers after a drinking session, the researchers have bad news. According to their study, no matter how much an individual tries altering the order in which they drink different alcoholic beverages, they would still face a hangover, if they drink too much.

Difference in order of drinking does not affect severity of hangover

In order to figure out a way of helping people facing hangovers, the researchers, as part of this study, recruited 90 German individuals in the age group of 19 to 40 years to consume alcoholic beverages such as wine, beer, or both. After randomly dividing the participants in three groups, the researchers asked the first group to consume 16 ounces of lager beer. After this they were asked to drink four large glasses of white wine. The second group was asked to initially drink the four glasses of white wine. After that, they were asked to consume two and half pints of lager beer. The third group was made to drink either white wine or lager beer. All the three groups were medically supervised overnight.

The researchers waited till the alcohol hangover effects faded out completely and everyone recovered fully. The following week, the scientists re-gathered everyone for a second round of drinking. They made the groups drink in the exact opposite order of what was followed last time. For instance, the group that drank beer first, was made to drink wine first this time and the group that drank wine was made to drink beer first instead. The third group who drank either of the two (beer or wine) were made to drink what they did not consume last time.

The results of the study displayed no differentiation in terms of hangover intensity caused by drinking either of the alcoholic beverages - beer or wine - in any particular order. Lead author, Joran Kochling, a researcher at the Witten/Herdecke University, said that the study ruled out the old folk saying that if an individual drinks beer before drinking wine, it gives the person a less severe hangover.

Vomiting and perceived drunkenness associated with severe hangover

Even after controlling for factors such as age, gender, body weight, frequency of hangovers, and drinking habits, no substantial difference was found in the hangover scores. It was observed that women suffered a severer hangover compared to men. Blood and urine tests were also conducted to predict the intensity of hangover, but with no success.

However, there were two factors that did seem to impact the intensity of hangover symptoms the following day. These included the level of headiness people experienced at the time of drinking and if they puked. The individuals who scored higher on a scale of 1 to 10 on how drunk they felt towards the end of the drinking spree and those individuals who puked while or after drinking, rated their hangovers as severe.

Pay attention to red flags while drinking

According to Kochling, the truth is that drinking too much of any kind of alcoholic beverage is likely to result in a hangover. He said that the only way of predicting how bad the hangover is going to be, is to realize how drunk one feels and whether one feels sick. He added that every individual needs to be aware of these warning flags while drinking. If people ignore these red flags at the time of drinking, dehydration, tiredness, headaches, light sensitivity, and gut issues, in the form of a hangover, would follow the next day.

Even though the quantity of drinks that lead to a hangover varies from one individual to another, a hangover means that an individual has far exceeded the permissible limit laid down by their bodies and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as moderate drinking. The CDC considers one drink per day for women and two drinks a day for men as moderate drinking.

Hangovers nature's way to mold future behavior

The researchers acknowledged that this study has its own restrictions. For instance, they were unable to allocate a control group to consume a non-alcoholic beverage, as the participants were not keen on being a part of group that did not drink alcohol.

Co-author Dr. Kai Hensel, a senior clinical fellow at the University of Cambridge said that even though hangovers are unpleasant, they do have one significant benefit. They act as a shield that would probably guide people over time, to alter their future drinking behavior.

Seeking help for alcoholism

It is possible for anyone to get affected by alcohol addiction, irrespective of age, gender, or social standing. One of the stepping stones for effective recovery from alcoholism is detoxification. The process of detoxification helps the body get rid of all the toxins accumulated in the body as a result of years of alcohol abuse, manage the withdrawal symptoms, and prepare the body and the mind for alcohol addiction treatment.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Researchers-Have-Bad-News-for-People-Experiencing-Hangovers&id=10094736

Signs of Alcoholism

 Given the reality and relative ubiquity of alcohol abuse in our country, it might be hard to figure out if you or someone you love deals with alcoholism. Alcoholism is a disease and people who have it need to seek out treatment. If people do not actively seek to work on their alcoholism, it will end up hurting themselves and the people they love.

Below are some signs that someone you love has an alcohol problem and should probably get help. It's never too early to get someone help for an alcohol problem, but it can prove too late.

Tolerance

Increased tolerance is one of the major signs that someone has started on the road of alcoholism or is already there. A higher tolerance is the ability to drink an increased amount of alcohol without feeling the effects. As the body learns to expect the overhaul of alcohol in its system, it adjusts to minimize the damage to the body. It's a downward spiral, as an individual's tolerance will continue to rise and if he or she continues to drink then it could cause even more damage on the body.

Inability to Stop Drinking

For people with a drinking problem, one of the biggest issues is controlling usage. If you go out and drink way more than everybody else, you might have a problem. Most people can have control of their liquor, but people with an addiction problem can't. The people who can't control their drinking often are hard wired differently than others. Their ability to impulse control might be lesser than another individual.

Legal Problems

When drinking leads to an arrest, it's a definitive sign that alcohol is a problem in your life. Drunk driving isn't the only offense that can come from drinking. People can get arrested for theft, assault or other crimes as alcohol cripples judgement. Fortunately, when an arrest happens because of drinking it could be a good time to schedule an intervention before their legal problems amplify.

Withdrawal

People who have developed a physical dependence on alcohol will have withdrawal symptoms generally within five to 10 hours after their last drink. These symptoms can last for days after their last drink. Symptoms are most pronounced within 48 to 72 hours into withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, restlessness, sweaty skin, nausea, vomiting and shaking. In extreme cases, an individual might experience delirium tremens, which cause intense confusion, hallucinations and seizures.

Alcohol withdrawal is the most dangerous form of withdrawal. People who try to withdrawal from alcohol without doctor's help put themselves at severe risk. It is strongly advised that people with alcoholism seek out professional help in the form of a treatment center.

Though alcohol is legal, it is one of the most dangerous substances around. What determines whether someone develops an addiction is multifaceted. But, what's not debatable is that when people do, they will need professional help to overcome it.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Signs-of-Alcoholism&id=9570169

Are you drinking because you're working long hours, or are you working long hours to justify drinking?

A new study finds a link between working long hours and drinking alcohol at risky levels, but it might not be as simple as it seems

    

An international study released last week has identified that those who work more than 48 hours a week are 11% more likely to drink alcohol at risk levels than those working a standard week.

The study was compiled by Finnish researchers, sampling 300,000 subjects across Europe, Australia and North America. Health guidelines suggest that consumption of more than 14 drinks a week for women and 21 drinks for men poses a significant health risk.

It’s no surprise that it’s a team of Finnish researchers who are examining the stats around unsafe drinking. Nordic Finland may be a well-known haven of progressive social policy, with an enviable living standard, cradle-to-grave welfare and the world’s best education system, but there is one social problem the Finns have not yet licked. Alcohol-related illnesses and incidents (including accidents, violence and suicide in which alcohol has factored) are the most common cause of death for both working age men and women there – and have been so for many years.

The study is of useful consideration for Australians, of course – we’re afflicted with alcohol problems of our own. Australian research released only last July revealed up to 15 people die and more than 430 are admitted to hospital every day in Australia for alcohol-related reasons. That’s 5,554 deaths and 157,132 hospital admissions a year, and four times the rate of the road toll.

That working longer hours has a detrimental effect on an individual’s health is well established. Some have suggested from the results of the Finnish study that alcohol abuse is symptomatic of the “work hard, play hard” cultures around professions – especially because workers who shifted into longer-hours jobs during the study were 12% more likely to develop risky drinking habits as a result.

Some have also suggested that the scarcity of leisure time for people who work long hours may result in habits of using alcohol as a concentrated form of relaxant. This is the opinion of Cassandra A. Okechukwu, assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health who declared of the Finnish findings that “people are self-medicating” due to work-life time constraints.

Alternatively, Dr Richard Wise, psychologist at Windana Drug and Alcohol Recovery, believes the relationship between work and drinking may be bi-directional. “As stress increases the activity of brain regions responsible for drug seeking and craving, stressful work is often ‘addictive’ in itself,” says Wise. “This could be a self-perpetuating cycle – work causes stress, which renders people more prone to addictions to substances and work.”

Significantly, the study itself does not claim to prove a causation – leaving open the possibility to discuss the pink elephant that lurks in the room behind all social discussions of problem drinking: the prevalent, if sometimes well-camouflaged, existence of actual alcoholics.

Writing in Business Insider, journalist Kevin Loria asked of the study: “Long hours may not cause dangerous drinking, but why is there a relationship between those two things at all?” The answer is this: there is not one clear relationship, but potentially several. We know, for example, that those suffering active alcoholism seek out environments that facilitate and camouflage their drinking. Why would the workplace be an exception?

Demanding jobs not only deliver alcoholics out of the worksite just in time for socially-acceptable drinking hours, but the stresses associated with long-hours work provide pretexts aplenty for “self-medicating” with booze. Our community continues to excuse the practise of drowning one’s sorrows, but forgotten is that active alcoholics often go looking for sorrows in order to drown them.

The recovery community calls this phenomenon “drinking on it” – it’s not hard to find a pretext to slam down some craved-for cold ones at the end of the day if you’ve just spent 10 hours at a desk. And if there’s one thing an alcoholic can use to deny the extent of their drinking, it’s the company of others who share the same problem. The common logic of alcohol addiction brings alcoholics together in work environments as much as it does social ones.

Yet while study after study identifies alcohol as a health, economic and justice burden on the community, and with the statistical acknowledgement that 3.7 million Australians are currently “drinking at long-term risky levels”, we’re still – still – struggling to break our social addiction to the old stereotypes of alcoholics being weak-willed, staggering hobos rather than predominantly people with jobs, relationships and families who are sick with a dangerous medical problem. If we choose to believe someone is drinking because they work long hours, we may be ignoring that someone is working long hours because it enables their drinking.

A failure to identify behaviours symptomatic with alcoholism delays treatment and increases the danger alcoholics pose to themselves and to others. Go back and look at the figures above: 5,500+ deaths and 150,000+ hospital admissions a year are not the result of mere casual tipples. They’re the stats of widespread abuse that needs more than loose causation and euphemisms to treat it.

The Finnish study is valuable because it identifies a possible workplace component to the alcohol problem. With 3.7 million Australians presently at risk, the time is now to be realistic that a broader context of alcoholism exists.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/20/are-you-drinking-because-youre-working-long-hours-or-are-you-working-long-hours-to-justify-drinking

Quitting Booze For A Month Has Some Awesome Benefits

This is crunch time. Are you really going to commit to that resolution or have you already thrown in the towel after just six days? Well, if it has to do with cutting back on the booze, power through. You're not alone. Many people are participating in what's called "Dry January" or "Drynuary," which means giving up alcoholic beverages for a month. And apparently, it's worth it.

The staff at the magazine New Scientist decided to find out if such a short-term period of alcohol abstinence could actually have health benefits, using themselves as the lab rats. The findings of their small experiment suggest the answer is yes.

In late 2013, 14 members of the magazine's staff — all of whom consider themselves to be "normal" drinkers — went to a hospital in London and answered questionnaires about their health and drinking habits, then underwent ultrasounds and gave blood samples. Then, 10 of them gave up alcohol for five weeks, while four of them continued drinking normally. After, they returned to the hospital to repeat the tests.

"Normal" drinking for this group ranged from 10 units of alcohol per week — which is about eight bottles of beer — to 80 units, or 64 beers, per week. This may seem high, but keep in mind that drinking is a national pastime in England, and the doctor told them that none of them were "problem drinkers."

Now, listen to these findings. You'll want to put your wine glass down so you don't spill anything.

Dr. Rajiv Jalan, a liver specialist at the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health at University College London, analyzed the results. He said that that among the abstainers, liver fat — a preface to liver damage — fell by at least 15%. For some, it fell almost 20%.

Surprisingly, those who quit drinking also saw their blood glucose levels — a key factor in determining diabetes risk — drop by an average of 16%.

"I was staggered," said Kevin Moore, consultant in liver health services at UCLMS. "I don't think anyone has ever observed that before."

The only negative was that people reported less social contact.

However, the findings cannot predict how this abstinence would work in the long-run. Blowing off booze for the month of January surely makes for a healthier entrance into February, but we don't know if the benefits would persist come March, April, and so on.

Just because you stop for a month doesn't mean you can just go on a crazy binge for the 11 other months. Do that, and you'll likely just drive your liver fat and blood glucose levels right back up. What's so exciting about this study is that it shows how quickly the benefits were evident, so we can only imagine the effects of prolonged abstinence (or even just cutting back).

And if these British journalists who are accustomed to drinking 64 beers a week can do it, why can't you? Try it out and let us know how you feel at the end of #Drynuary!

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-16932/quitting-booze-for-a-month-has-some-awesome-benefits.html