I'm having a hard time finding inspiration lately, but finally I have something worth sharing with the internet world. I recently was made aware of the cure for one of lifes most nasty and disabling self-induced illnesses - the hangover. I've been having Hallelujah moments every weekend since a friend let me in on a little secret = Glucose prevents hangovers. Technically it doesn't cure them because when you take glucose you don't even get one. It's like you never ingested those 6 rum and cokes or that last red bull and vokda shot (I'm talking in general...nothing I write reflects upon my actual habits or behavior).
I did a bit of googling and found some tried and true research on this very topic. All this time it's been at my fingertips and I was ignorantly suffering through my Saturday and Sunday afternoons (not every one...just those few random occasions). Can you imagine what college would have been like had I, I mean people in general, known about this?! It's mind-boggling! I'm not even going to talk about those international weekends we all spent enjoying the sights and sounds of beautiful Windsor, ON. It's almost cruel that doctors aren't legally obligated to tell you about this as soon as you turn 21 (or 19 for our neighbors to the north). Don't take my word for it though - here's what some website called Health News has to say about it:
"Once you start drinking, the body stores the alcohol in your system which is why the effects can come on strong and last for hours. The alcohol you let absorb into your body disrupts the production of glucose (natural sugar) and makes your liver work overtime which explains the feeling of sluggishness you receive upon waking up, among the many other symptoms already mentioned. Glucose feeds the brain and accounts for the weakness encountered after your body has been taken over by the drowning qualities of alcohol."
It's nature's all natural organic preventative! And you can buy it at your local grocery store! You can find it right in the medicine aisle with the diabetes medications. I haven't actually bought any and keep bumming it off people like a bad habit, but it's there and just waiting to be discovered. There is even a pretty solid little factoid on the Hangover wikipedia page:
A 1976 research has come to the conclusion that "The results indicate that both fructose and glucose effectively inhibit the metabolic disturbances induced by ethanol but they do not affect the symptoms or signs of alcohol intoxication and hangover."
Translation: take it before drinking and you're golden.
In my recent experience, if you take one or two of these little (alka-seltzer sized) orange flavored tablets after one or two drinks, your symptoms will either be non-existent or greatly reduced. They are actually kind of delicious because, well, they obviously taste like sugar and sugar is delicious. I liken it to a giant Smartie with life-saving abilities. Now, I need to give credit where credit is so completely due. The glucose didn't fall out of the sky like manna from heaven - it came to us on the advice of our friend Ben Davis. He apparently learned about it during a top secret military campaign in a land where the glucose flows like honey. I'm not sure where that is, but I'm glad he was able to bring his well-earned knowledge back with him and share it with us glucose-deprived casual drinkers. The world will be a better place because of it and my couch will miss me on Saturday afternoons.
So next time you're planning a night on the town, just remember to play it safe. Take your glucose.
9 comments:
Just FYI...glucose is actually really just sugar. Its pretty much the driving force behind all biologicals (and a precursor to vitamin C). Most likely you've got some hypoglycemia going on there post-drinking and by taking these tablets during you are bringing your blood sugar levels back up to baseline and keeping them steady. That, combined with severe dehydration, causes the alchey-alchey shakes (as I call them).
Here is my confusion, I think the paper you are talking about is from the Journal of European Clinical Investigation, Ylikahri et al?? The conclusion of this paper is actually that while the ingestion of glucose and fructose may inhibit metabolic disturbances, they actually have no effect on the actual symptoms of having a hangover, mostly because hangovers are not thought to be derived from metabolic byproducts of ethanol:
"Glucose and fructose significantly inhibited the metabolic alterations induced by ethanol. In this respect fructose was more effective than glucose. The results indicate that both fructose and glucose effectively inhibit the metabolic disturbances induced by ethanol but they do not affect the symptoms or signs of alcohol intoxication and hangover. The results support the view that hangover is not directly related to the metabolic effects of ethanol or to its metabolic products."
At any rate, I will have to at least try this method for sure because I definitely have some pretty severe hangovers.
Thanks for the article, I find this stuff interesting. Just your local neighbordhood neuroscientist here to be a gigantic nerd... Squirrel out...
Iron Squirrel...it could absolutely be a placebo but I'm telling you there's something to it! In the past few weeks there have been a few (ok several, I mean the Wings are in the playoffs!)occasions when I drank enough to 1. want to die or 2. been bedridden the whole next day and yet I woke up free of headaches, naseau and the shakes (still had a case of the stupids but whaddaya gonna do?). I suppose this could be the result of a far greater problem: I'm too good at drinking...
I'm gonna stick with the glucose as miracle cure!
...OR, you could save the two dollars for these sugar pucks and use that to buy yourself another well drink. Here's the kicker...when you order that extra drink, ask for a glass of water. I would do this with every other drink or as often as you'd like. They're free and most bartenders are more than happy to provide them to you. Water; nature's miracle elixir since the beginning of time. Good stuff, believe me.
At best, glucose tablets are inconclusive as far as being a hangover remedy. They seem to be the best thing to ever happen to the Brentwood crowd for morning-after weekend enjoyment, however. So who am I to refute their claims of "miracle tablet."
What are our diabetic friends supposed to do with this information? This is like making someone sit and stare at a pizza.
I actually have no idea what I wrote about. I was at the NIN/Jane's Addiction show until almost 1am on Sunday night and I could have used a glucose or two. I wrote this while firing on zero cilinders, so if there any factual inaccuracies I apologize. But nice responses people!
Ok, now that I actually read the responses (sorry work is a bisatch this month), I have to get my two cents in here. Aaron...yes, I have heard of water. It might surprise you that I've even ordered one or two glasses of the beverage at the bar while drinking and after and during the night and in the morning while HUNGOVER. Water alone does not prevent hangovers in my experience. Now, I hate Gatorade so I've never tried that method and perhaps it would be a solution on par with glucose (sugar). I prefer to take one of these tablets instead of making 25 potty breaks after drinking a jug of sugar water. But that's just me. Are you just upset that you didn't discover this?
I interpreted the quote that's causing confusion to mean that if you take it before getting wasted, it can prevent you from feeling sick. You can't take it while hungover because it doesn't have any effects on the actual hangover, once hungover. For example, once you have a headache it's not going to do anything to help you. BUT if you took it before drinking it might have prevented that headache. Does that make sense? It seemed to in my head late last night but my head was a very fuzzy place.
I'm just here to use my knowledge and experience to keep everyone honest
Hey Lisa, I am picking up what you are throwing down for sure.
I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade here! There is just so much information on the internet today I can't help be interested. The actual study they did in '76 used 109 male adult participants and they did two cohorts- a group that received glucose while drinking the alcohol and a group that received glucose following the alcohol. The results were conclusive in that it had no effect. Of course, this is under lab conditions, which means the subjects were not eating or dancing or anything else. They just got straight up alcohol and one hell of a hangover afterwards.
Also, I checked out that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangover and glucose is listed under "ineffective remedies." So most likely it was just firing on zero cylinders that did it....
By the way, Gatorade grosses me out too...way too much high fructose corn syrup. I personally have never found anything that would preemptively cure my hangovers, so more power to you if its working.
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