Health Fitness

Have you ever had a severe headache, stomach pain as well as a feeling of nausea the morning after binge drinking? Hangovers are a global pain following excessive drinking and one of the most reported aftermaths of yearend parties and other events encourage excessive drinking.

The liver can take up to 160 grams of alcohol, equivalent to three bottles of soju or 16 bottles of beer, within 24 hours. If you drink more than that, the longer and harder you will suffer.

According to Dr. Lee Jung-kwon of the Samsung Medical Center, extreme hangovers cause inflammation of the stomach and disorders of the heart and liver. Also, alcohol affects the brain, heart and testicles and causes brain nerve disorder and heart disease.

``It is true that the more often you drink alcohol, the less drunk one feels because his or her body gets used to it. Some studies showed that the capacity of the liver to deal with alcohol goes up by 30 percent if one drinks alcohol for two weeks straight,'' he said. ``And some people with good self-control tend to get less drunk than others. However, the alcohol still affects the organs,'' he said.

Lee and Dr. You Joon-hyun of the same hospital answered some of the most frequently asked questions involving drinking and hangover.

1. Why do we feel hungry and thirsty the next morning?

Because alcohol intervenes in the synthesis of glucose, the blood sugar level goes down the next morning. Eating a normal breakfast will help recovery. However, do not eat too much since it will cause even more problems by pulling the blood sugar level up too high.

Excessive urination after drinking causes thirst the following morning. The loss of minerals and water keeps affecting the body. Acetaldehyde the liver did not manage to filter lingers in the body causing other kinds of problems.

Drinking sports drinks, water or juice will help recovery.

2. Will drunk-prevention drugs work?

There are several ``drinking agents'' advertised to prevent people from getting drunk or suffering from hangovers ― mostly based on aspartic acid. However, doctors say it is not a good idea to drink them and go ``wild.''

``The drinks may enable one to drink much more than one can handle. That's a bad sign,'' they said. ``After all, the effect of the alcohol still occurs.''

3. How does liquor affect pregnant women?

Women who drink an average of 90 grams of alcohol everyday through pregnancy have high chances of giving birth to babies with deformities, heart disorders and mental retardation.

However, it isn't yet verified what amount of alcohol, whether a sip or a little glass, has an influence on the fetus.

``A small amount of liquor can be helpful and play a very limited part in physical health. However, it is never recommended for pregnant women," the doctors said.

4. How can we get away without a hangover?

Drinking sports drinks, juice or spicy soups will help.

Drinking coffee isn't encouraged since it will stimulate urination, which could worsen the effect.

The doctors advised people not to drink heavily more than three days a week. ``Eating lots of snacks during drinking will help nutrition and prevent the liver from having to excessively control toxic alcohol,'' they said.

Before drinking, try to eat as much food as possible and as slowly as possible. The body takes more than one hour to process a glass of whisky. Moreover, about 30 percent of Koreans lack the synthesizing enzyme other races have, so do not drink quickly.

Do not drink dark colored drinks ― vodka or white wines are better because they have less additives but bourbon, scotch and red wine have more, which means a worse hangover.

Do not mix drinks ― mixing beer, soju, whiskey or even soda together will hit the stomach harder.

Try to take vitamin C, which may help the liver process the alcohol better.

Also, don't smoke while drinking as it deprives the body of oxygen. The doctors claimed the chances of getting cancer increases too ― for esophagus cancer it goes up 30 times and for throat or oral cancer, over 10 times.

TKT