Three easy rules to avoid a hangover that aren't just 'drink water'
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Health experts have shared their top tips for avoiding a hangover this Christmas that don’t just involve drinking more water. Over the festive season it is likely many of us will indulge in alcohol consumption more than usual. While a couple of glasses of your favourite tipple may be an enjoyable addition to the delicious food on offer, taking it too far could leave you feeling unwell for the rest of the holiday. Abstaining from alcohol entirely in the first place is the only way to guarantee a hangover-free Christmas.
However, if this is not likely to be something you can stick to, there are other tricks you can try to minimise the effects of drinking. Hangovers are very common in people who consume too much alcohol. In fact, it is thought around 75 percent of people who drink excessively will go on to have hangover symptoms such as a headache, disturbed sleep, nausea, and a low mood.
These are caused by a number of factors such as dehydration, inflammation and electrolyte imbalance caused by the alcohol. To combat this, experts at the Mayo Clinic in the US made some suggestions. You may not realise but certain alcoholic drinks often cause more serious hangover symptoms than others. More specifically, the Mayo Clinic advised picking drinks with lower amounts of congeners - compounds produced during the fermentation and distillation processes of alcohol.
“Lighter-coloured drinks like vodka, gin, light beer and white wine typically result in less severe hangover symptoms,” it said. “Darker-coloured drinks with high levels of congeners, like bourbon, scotch, tequila, brandy, dark beers and red wine, cause more severe symptoms.”.
