New Vodka Is Claimed To Prevent A Hangover

While we all love to party hard, the after effects of it are not so pleasant. Drink too much and you’re possibly lying on your bed in the morning with headache and nausea – not exactly something great to think about. We all know you can avoid the hangover just by ending drinking – but then, you really do not want to stop when you’re having fun, right?

What if you could avoid the after effects of a long night of drinking in other way? Now, a vitamin infused vodka has been claimed to do what you needed all along – prevent your hangover!

Hangover-free vodka

The credit of the invention goes to Darryl Tombleson. He currently works in The Vitamin Alcohol Company, in Australia, and has created the vodka that you only dreamt of. This spirit is infused with vitamins that prevent hangover, what means that you can enjoy the taste of vodka without feeling bad in the morning.

The Vitamin Vodka is actually made from sugarcane in Australia combined with pure mountain waters. To keep things safe, the company distills it as many as 12 times in copper pots and makes it ‘diamond filtered’.

This isn’t the first known instance of hangover-free vodka hitting the market. Around 8 years back, in 2007, we had seen Lotus Vodka, a brand based in San Francisco, to come out with a spirit enhanced with B-Vitamins. There were different options as well available, with there being an ‘energy vodka’ drink as well that was loaded with other ingredients like guarana, caffeine and taurine. At the time of its launch, its creator Rob Bailey had humorously stated just how his drink was slightly lesser bad than alcohol.

However, Dr. R Curtis Ellison, a professor from Boston University, maintains that people should refrain from having any alcohol if they want to remain healthy. For him, the prospect of putting vitamins in vodka is similar to putting them in cigarettes – as they will still remain harmful.

It’s been years now that Lotus Vodka has disappeared from the shelves, and Vitamin Vodka has now come to take its place. This drink aims to make your morning-afters a lot less miserable.

What’s inside?

Vitamin Vodka has a unique taste and with organic ingredients and vitamin infusion, it aims to make your body reclaim some of the nutrients it loses when drinking alcohol. Some of the vitamins used are B, C and K. Vitamins B and C for instance, help keep you hydrated, as one of the major reasons of hangover is dehydration.

Among the different tests carried out by the company, the number of people experiencing hangover was significantly lower when they drank only the Vitamin Vodka. Having no preservatives, this drink is completely organic and does not have any nasty side effect issues.

Does it really work?

Nevertheless, there are serious doubts about the effectiveness of the drink, since its idea came from the belief that frequent drinkers have Vitamin B deficiency. In fact, this belief has not been scientifically proven, therefore does not guarantee the prevention of a hangover symptoms.

However, the main problem is a bit more than that. The Vitamin Vodka will set you back a whopping $1,600. Are you sure you value your hangovers that much?

How To Prevent A Hangover: 6 Tips

Since the hangover is a kind of illness, which has significant impact on daily life and can be a reason of decreased productivity, car accidents and injuries, the search for effective hangover treatment becomes highly important task. But as we know, the prevention is always better than cure, so knowing and practicing the methods of hangover prevention will help you avoid unnecessary problems and save your money on hangover remedies.

In general, the only guaranteed way to avoid hangover is not to drink at all. But let's face it, the party is not a party without alcohol and besides there are situations when you have to drinks (for example, when your boss insists). So, next simple rules will help you save your vitality and clear head next morning after booze.

Drink properly

Right drinking is a basic rule of hangover prevention. This means knowing what to drink, how to drink and how much:

• How much
  
  It is obvious that when it comes to preventing hangover, the lesser is the better. It has been proven by many studies that hangover severity directly depends on amount of consumed alcohol. So, drinking in moderation significantly reduces the risk of unpleasant symptoms next morning.
  
  
• What
  
  Experts recommend drinking clean colorless spirits like vodka or gin instead of whiskey or bourbon, because dark colored alcohol drinks include more toxic substances called congeners, which actually cause the heaviest symptoms of hangover.
  
  Also, the expensive premium liquors are much better than cheap ones, because they are made of best ingredients and thoroughly filtered to clean of contaminants.
  
  In addition, you should avoid drinks with bubbles like champagne or diet coke cocktails, because bubbles promote the absorption of alcohol, thus increasing your level of intoxication.
  
  And sure you should never mix spirits. If you want to avoid hangover - stick to one kind of alcohol drink.
  
  
• How
  
  Drink slowly - do not overload your liver. Give it time to process all alcohol and get rid of toxins. Eating during drinking, especially of high-fat and high-fiber foods, helps to break down the alcohol and decreases its absorption by the body.
  

Avoid Smoking

There are numerous evidences that smoking cigarettes increases chances of hangover and makes its symptoms much worse. The reason of this phenomenon is unclear, but most likely the case is that tobacco contains substances, which chemically react with alcohol and enhance intoxication.

Keep yourself hydrated

Dehydration is one of the most obvious reasons of morning thirst and dry mouth, as well as headache and fatigue. So, keeping yourself hydrated during booze can prevent or at least ease the hangover symptoms. You can drink water between alcohol drinks, and what’s more important, drink at least one glass before you go to sleep. Also, you can try sports drinks, which are specially designed to rehydrate body and restore energy and vitality.

Take Vitamins

Inflammation and oxidative stress are among the main reasons of hangovers. Fruits, vegetables and juices rich in vitamins and antioxidants help to prevent them. Take B and C vitamins or drink organic juices couple of hours before your booze. Multivitamins, acai and pomegranate juices, as well as prickly-pear extract are highly recommended.

Take Pills

Activated charcoal is well-known cure for alcohol poisoning. But it can also be used before drinking to prevent hangovers, since it absorbs impurities and reduces intoxication.

Taking painkillers before going sleep help avoid headache next morning. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen, also reduce inflammation caused by alcohol. But pills must be taken carefully, since mixing drugs with alcohol is dangerous - if done regularly, it can seriously damage liver.

Sleep Well

Sleep is very important for our health. Not getting enough sleep will make your hangover symptoms worse and enhance fatigue and irritability. Try to sleep as long as possible after heavy drinking - this will help your body recover better and faster. Plan your party on the nights before weekends or days off, so that you could sleep as much as you want. Turn off your phone before going to bed, close your windows with jalousies or use sleeping mask to prevent sunshine from waking you up the next morning.

Although the result depends on a lot of factors and cannot be 100% guaranteed, following the simple rules above will definitely help you at least relieve symptoms, and in some cases even completely prevent hangovers. Besides this, always remember that people with good health and physical shape have stronger immune system and thus more resistant to any kind of sickness including hangover. Exercises, proper diet and of course not abusing the alcohol do not only contribute your overall health and wellness, but also allow avoiding unpleasant symptoms the morning after drinking.

Hangover Immunity: Is It Real?

Hangover immunity means the complete absence of unpleasant symptoms usually experienced by most of people after excessive consumption of alcohol drinks. Since only less than 80% declare signs of hangover, there are more than 20% of people who claim to not experience any symptoms at all, i.e. have hangover immunity.

Is It Good Or Bad?

This phenomenon, if it really exists, could have positive impact on everyday life of the immune drinkers as well as on the world economic as a whole, as long as it loses hundreds of billions of dollars every year due to decreased productivity caused by hangovers.

On the other hand, all those terrible symptoms we have after excessive drinking are not useless, since they prevent us from alcohol abuse. Do you remember how disgusting is the look and smell of alcohol in the morning after booze? This is a signal our body sends to our mind meaning that we do something harmful. That is why some scientists claim that hangovers play significant role in preventing alcoholism.

So, having hangover immunity could’ve been not so beneficial as it seems, but is it really possible?

Does Hangover Immunity Exist?

The research group from Utrecht University in Netherlands conducted a study to answer this question. The analysis of information from more than 5000 Dutch students was performed for this study. The number of drinks they consumed, time frame of drinking, gender, body weight and the presence or absence of hangover was analyzed. Their estimated Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) was calculated to measure the level of intoxication. Finally, to determine the possible hangover immunity, the BAC of students who had hangover and of those who hadn’t was compared.

Near 32% of students reported they didn’t have a hangover, but analysis founded correlation between the BAC (and therefore amounts of consumed alcohol) and hangover symptoms. It was discovered that the higher BAC people have during drinking, the more prone to subsequent hangovers they are. About 54% of those who did not have hangovers have had only 0.08% or less of peak BAC. This number equals just about 4 bottles of beer or 4 shots of spirits during one hour for middle-weight men and even less for women. In the most states of USA as well as in the United Kingdom this is a legal limit for driving car.

In general, with the growing number of BAC, the percent of those who did not have a hangover decreases quickly.

So, it is clear that the majority of those, who claim to be immune, actually just do not drink too much and don’t have enough alcohol in their blood to initiate the hangover.

The research will go on to verify the result, but now we can say that most likely there is no such thing as hangover immunity. It all depends on how much you drink, and if you drink a lot you will suffer. This means that you have to control yourself and drink in moderation or at least take some measures to prevent severe hangover symptoms.

What Do We Know About Hangover?

More often than not, about 77% of people have some signs of a hangover after excessive drinking, while others tend to not experience any at all. Fatigue, headaches, dizziness, clumsiness, increased light sensitivity, stomachaches, and dry-mouth are the classic signs, but loss of concentration and memory, irritability, diarrhea, and sleep deprivation may be seen as well. There are times, though, that hangovers can be so serious that they are considered life threatening. Unstoppable vomiting, seizures, hypothermia, bluish or pale skin, slow or irregular breathing, and going in and out of consciousness are signs of severe alcohol intoxication, which shouldn’t be ignored.

Most signs and symptoms of hangovers will wane and disappear in 24 hours. Resting, drinking pure water and eating food high in sugar and fructose may help relieve some of the symptoms.

What causes

Drinkers experience first symptoms mostly at the morning after a night of heavy drinking. They usually appear when the body’s alcohol level has dropped drastically or has almost returned to its normal level. However, the reasons of hangover are still not clear and its symptoms may be caused by different factors:

• Dry-mouth and lightheadedness may be attributed to dehydration, because people who drink alcohol tend to urinate more.
• A drop in blood sugar levels can cause fatigue and a feeling of clumsiness.
• Your immune system might also react negatively to the alcohol, causing concentration and memory loss.
• Dilated blood vessels caused by drinking can lead to headaches, which can lead to irritability.
• Stomachaches, vomiting and diarrhea can be the result of high stomach acid levels caused by alcohol consumption.

Statistics

As mentioned above, about 8 out of 10 people who consume alcohol experience one or more symptoms of hangover, and statistics show that 50% of all workers in the US have tried to work through their hangovers. This problem also caused around 20% of workers to call in sick, and 25% of them to run late to work. According recent studies, annual lost in productivity due to hangovers in US is about $160-200 billion.

Another survey of the effects of alcohol in a college showed that 25% of students have hangover at least once every week and no less than 29% had to miss classes because of its symptoms.

Impact on daily life

With all the signs and symptoms associated with hangover, it’s quite easy to see how and why it affects the lives of drinkers and those who surround them. Eventually the cost of drinking goes beyond what you’ve been billed for the night. A person suffering from a bad hangover will miss a day of work and, if done several times, this could take a big cut out of the household’s budget. Trying to work through a hangover may seem like a logical solution, but dizziness and clumsiness leads to poor performance and even increases likelihood of being injured at work or at home.

Aside from total abstinence, responsible drinking is by far the best way to avoid hangovers. Know just how much you can handle and you can still have a good time without having to deal with serious consequences the morning after.