Headache and alcohol! - Tiki Drinks and Food

V VampiressRN Grand Member (1 year) Sun City Lincoln Hills (NorCal) Joined: Nov 23, 2006 Posts: 6166	V VampiressRN Posted posted on Mon, Mar 5, 2007 6:53 PM C&A is right in that it could be a food-allergy, or it might be a reaction to other chemicals in the alcohol. Here is a simple overview of some basic information about alcohol's affect on your body.... The fall of the Roman Empire has been blamed on the consumption of alcohol! Wine at the time was fermented and stored in vessels made of lead, and an additive was put in the wine to enhance the flavour and stop fermentation. The additive had a very high lead content, and it is believed that most of the Roman nobility who drank wine suffered from lead poisoning, of which mental instability is a symptom. Alcohol in low and moderate doses causes a dilation of blood vessels in the skin. This is why drinkers sometimes have a flushed face and heavy drinkers a red nose. As well as causing the skin to turn pink, alcohol also makes the skin feel warm, which is why one of its traditional uses has been to treat people who have been exposed to the cold. Brandy especially is supposed to warm the body. The fact is, alcohol has the opposite effect. This dilation of vessels actually causes heat loss from the extremities, which makes you more vulnerable to the cold. The vessels constrict in the first place to conserve heat, a defence the alcohol undoes. A single dose of alcohol, if large enough, can be lethal. A blood alcohol level of about 300-400 mg per 100 ml will usually cause loss of consciousness. However, highly tolerant individuals may show only moderate drunkeness at 400 mg per 100 ml, the normal LD50. Death by alcohol usually results from respiratory failure, because of alcohol's depressive effect on the respiratory centre. Alcohol, then, is a rather toxic substance with the lethal dose uncomfortably close to the usual social dose. Hence the expression "dead drunk". Fortunately, alcohol has a built-in safety feature: we either vomit or pass out before we have a chance to kill ourselves. The trick is not to do the two things simultaneously, otherwise you risk doing the rock star thing of choking on your own vomit. There are two broad categories of hangover. One is really withdrawal. People who drink all the time build up a tolerance to alcohol. Symptoms occur when this amount is withdrawn. These are tremors, irritability, anxiety and heightened sensitivity to light, noise and pain. In severe cases, hallucinations, delirium and even convulsions may occur. The other is the old fashioned hangover. Symptoms typically emerge when our BAL (Blood Alcohol Level) starts to drop. These intensify thereafter but have usually dissipated within 24 hours, provided we haven't had anything more to drink. A number of mechanisms appear to be involved in hangover. The "homeostatic rebound theory" is proposed to explain withdrawal and hangover. The body of an alcholic adapts to having a certain amount of alcohol present more or less all the time. Withdrawal is what happens when they're deprived of alcohol, which their body now needs to function "normally". Conversely, the person with a hangover is not used to alcohol in their system. This means that when they stop drinking and their body returns to normal, they experience unpleasant symptoms. Hangover may also be due to the congeners in drinks. These are the additional chemicals found in alcoholic beverages which are usually produced during the fermentation and distillation processes. Another culprit implicated in hangovers is acetaldehyde. Alcohol is converted to this chemical by the enzyme dehydrogenase in the first step of alcohol metabolism. The conversion rate of alcohol to acetaldehyde is determined by the amount and activity of dehyrogenase a person produces. If acetaldehyde is not converted quickly, the levels of this toxic substance may rise and persist for longer in some people's systems. Finally, your state of health when you drink is quite important in predicting the severity of hangover. While it's clear that heavy drinking is very unhealthy, there is also evidence that light alcohol consumption can decrease the probability of death from ischaemic (loss of blood supply) heart disease. But there's a catch. It depends on how old you are. For people under 35, any benefits are negligible, mainly because at that age, there's no heart disease to prevent. Also this age group is involved in the vast majority of car accidents caused by alcohol. For people over 35, it's less straightforward. In light drinkers, there is less heart disease than in non-drinkers. However, there's more cancer. But the reduction in heart disease is much greater than the increase in cancer, so there does appear to be a net benefit. The amount of alcohol required to produce this benefit in healthy adults - less than one standard drink (10 grams of pure alcohol) a day for women and about one for men - is much less than the upper limits set by the NH&MRC. There are no further health benefits to be gained by drinking more than this amount. Alcohol makes you sleepy, but it affects the kind of sleep you have. By slowing the cortigal EEGs (the electrical activity of the cortex), alcohol suppresses REM or dreaming sleep so you sink into slow wave sleep instead. Often when the suppression of REM sleep ends (which usually coincides with diminished BAL), there is a "REM backlash", during which you spend more time than usual much later on in the night in dreaming sleep. This may expain why you feel irritable and a bit vague the next day. Measuring Alcohol Levels in the Blood. Alcohol in the blood circulates through the lungs and vaporises into the air, so it's possible to measure the alcohol level in the blood and the rest of the body by measuring the alcohol vapor in exhaled air. The device that performs this test is known as the Breathalyser. Over 90% of all alcohol consumed moves from the blood to the liver where it's metabolised. The remainder is either eliminated unchanged in breath, sweat, tears, urine and faeces, or metabolised in the stomach. The latter may account for the different effects of drinking between men and women. Men show significant amounts of alcohol dehydrogenase in their stomach linings (remember, the conversion rate of alcohol to acetaldehyde is determined by the amount of dehydrogenase available), which may explain why women, after drinking the same amount of alcohol, and allowing for differences in size, have a higher BAL than men. What is the most popular alcohol. Wine is the most popular alcoholic beverage with drinkers followed by regular beer. Alcohol related mortality. Alcohol is second only to tobacco as the major cause of drug related mortality in Australia. The most common alcohol related cause of death is cancer. ============================================================= This is also an iteresting article that proposes some specifics about the immediate and delayed headache related to alcohol...... By JOEL SAPER, M.D. Dec. 26, 2006 — The spirits in a bottle can quickly ruin the spirit of a holiday. Some people just drink too much, and some people drink only a bit but pay a heavy price. For 35 years, I have encountered people with big headaches and little headaches, simple headaches and serious headaches, once-a-year headaches and daily headaches. I have met people whose headaches result from just the smell of a beer and others whose headaches occur only after drinking a case of beer. Here is some new information and some tips to help you take the spirits out of the bottle without taking the spirit out of the holidays. Headaches From the Bottle There are two major kinds of headaches that might appear after a night — or afternoon — of drinking. The first I call the soon-after headache, which occurs within one to four hours of drinking some but not all alcoholic beverages. The other type of headache is the morning-after headache that occurs several hours after drinking has ceased and is usually part of the hangover. The Soon-After Headache Most people who experience the soon-after headache have had headaches in the past, usually migraine or related headaches. These headaches are actually genetic — the brain biology changes so that it overreacts to both internal (hormonal, for example) or external changes, such as a swig from the bottle. Ironically, even though alcohol is the intoxicating substance in these beverages, it is not usually the source of the headache. Certain nonalcoholic ingredients are more likely to induce the headache attack than alcohol itself. Since brands vary in the amounts and types of these ingredients, some drinks are more likely than others to produce the headache. Curiously, I have treated several individuals who can drink one brand of beer without developing a headache but can't stand even a sip of any other brand. Many people can drink white wine without developing a headache but will invariably experience a severe headache when they drink red wine. Surprisingly, — because hard liquor is more alcoholic than wine or beer, some people can drink vodka or gin (the crystal clear, light liquors) without developing a headache but cannot drink red wine, beer or the amber-colored hard liquors (rum, and the ever-gentle tequila). Why the Difference? As for beer, the ratio of hops, barley, malt and other ingredients distinguishes one beer brand from another. Red wine contains tyramine — which probably causes those red-wine headaches — but white wine contains little, if any. Hard liquor contains ingredients called cogeners — which also cause headaches. Darker, amber-colored liquors contain more congeners than light-colored liquors, such as vodka and gin. Recently, research has suggested that mixed drinks containing sugar substitutes, such as aspartame and saccharin, which may cause headaches in their own right, actually cause a more rapid rise in the level of alcohol in the blood after drinking. Therefore, beware of alcoholic beverages containing diet colas or diet tonics. The Hangover and Its Headache While the soon-after headache comes from nonalcoholic ingredients, the hangover comes directly from the effects of alcohol itself. The hangover occurs eight to 16 hours after drinking moderate to high amounts of alcohol, after all that alcohol is out of the bloodstream. The key symptoms of a hangover include headache (usually a throbbing headache), nausea and diarrhea, extreme thirst and dehydration, and excessive fatigue. In a recent study of college students, participants on average experienced five of 13 symptoms, with headache, extreme thirst and dehydration, and fatigue being the most common. A family history of alcohol abuse made the study participants more vulnerable to the most severe effects. Curiously, women generally had higher hangover scores than men did. Best advice — don't drink. Second best advice — do the following: Before drinking, hydrate with both clear water and sports drinks that contain sugar and important minerals and salts. Avoid too much plain water. Before drinking, eat fat-containing foods and those with high carbohydrate content. These ingredients slow absorption of alcohol and other ingredients from the stomach. Avoid sugar supplements that increase the speed of alcohol absorption. Drink slowly, sipping the drink, and minimize the amount of total intake. For those who have the soon-after headaches, drink "headache-safe" beverages, such as white wine and crystal-clear, light liquor. To prevent the effects of the hangover, if you can do so safely, take anti-inflammation agents, such as ibuprofen, naproxen or mefenamic acid before drinking.

C&A is right in that it could be a food-allergy, or it might be a reaction to other chemicals in the alcohol. Here is a simple overview of some basic information about alcohol's affect on your body....

The fall of the Roman Empire has been blamed on the consumption of alcohol!

Wine at the time was fermented and stored in vessels made of lead, and an additive was put in the wine to enhance the flavour and stop fermentation. The additive had a very high lead content, and it is believed that most of the Roman nobility who drank wine suffered from lead poisoning, of which mental instability is a symptom.

Alcohol in low and moderate doses causes a dilation of blood vessels in the skin.

This is why drinkers sometimes have a flushed face and heavy drinkers a red nose.

As well as causing the skin to turn pink, alcohol also makes the skin feel warm, which is why one of its traditional uses has been to treat people who have been exposed to the cold. Brandy especially is supposed to warm the body.

The fact is, alcohol has the opposite effect. This dilation of vessels actually causes heat loss from the extremities, which makes you more vulnerable to the cold. The vessels constrict in the first place to conserve heat, a defence the alcohol undoes.

A single dose of alcohol, if large enough, can be lethal.

A blood alcohol level of about 300-400 mg per 100 ml will usually cause loss of consciousness. However, highly tolerant individuals may show only moderate drunkeness at 400 mg per 100 ml, the normal LD50.

Death by alcohol usually results from respiratory failure, because of alcohol's depressive effect on the respiratory centre. Alcohol, then, is a rather toxic substance with the lethal dose uncomfortably close to the usual social dose. Hence the expression "dead drunk".

Fortunately, alcohol has a built-in safety feature: we either vomit or pass out before we have a chance to kill ourselves. The trick is not to do the two things simultaneously, otherwise you risk doing the rock star thing of choking on your own vomit.

There are two broad categories of hangover.

One is really withdrawal. People who drink all the time build up a tolerance to alcohol. Symptoms occur when this amount is withdrawn. These are tremors, irritability, anxiety and heightened sensitivity to light, noise and pain. In severe cases, hallucinations, delirium and even convulsions may occur.

The other is the old fashioned hangover. Symptoms typically emerge when our BAL (Blood Alcohol Level) starts to drop. These intensify thereafter but have usually dissipated within 24 hours, provided we haven't had anything more to drink.

A number of mechanisms appear to be involved in hangover.

The "homeostatic rebound theory" is proposed to explain withdrawal and hangover. The body of an alcholic adapts to having a certain amount of alcohol present more or less all the time. Withdrawal is what happens when they're deprived of alcohol, which their body now needs to function "normally". Conversely, the person with a hangover is not used to alcohol in their system. This means that when they stop drinking and their body returns to normal, they experience unpleasant symptoms.

Hangover may also be due to the congeners in drinks. These are the additional chemicals found in alcoholic beverages which are usually produced during the fermentation and distillation processes.

Another culprit implicated in hangovers is acetaldehyde. Alcohol is converted to this chemical by the enzyme dehydrogenase in the first step of alcohol metabolism. The conversion rate of alcohol to acetaldehyde is determined by the amount and activity of dehyrogenase a person produces. If acetaldehyde is not converted quickly, the levels of this toxic substance may rise and persist for longer in some people's systems.

Finally, your state of health when you drink is quite important in predicting the severity of hangover.

While it's clear that heavy drinking is very unhealthy, there is also evidence that light alcohol consumption can decrease the probability of death from ischaemic (loss of blood supply) heart disease. But there's a catch.

It depends on how old you are. For people under 35, any benefits are negligible, mainly because at that age, there's no heart disease to prevent. Also this age group is involved in the vast majority of car accidents caused by alcohol.

For people over 35, it's less straightforward. In light drinkers, there is less heart disease than in non-drinkers. However, there's more cancer. But the reduction in heart disease is much greater than the increase in cancer, so there does appear to be a net benefit.

The amount of alcohol required to produce this benefit in healthy adults - less than one standard drink (10 grams of pure alcohol) a day for women and about one for men - is much less than the upper limits set by the NH&MRC. There are no further health benefits to be gained by drinking more than this amount.

Alcohol makes you sleepy, but it affects the kind of sleep you have.

By slowing the cortigal EEGs (the electrical activity of the cortex), alcohol suppresses REM or dreaming sleep so you sink into slow wave sleep instead. Often when the suppression of REM sleep ends (which usually coincides with diminished BAL), there is a "REM backlash", during which you spend more time than usual much later on in the night in dreaming sleep. This may expain why you feel irritable and a bit vague the next day.

Measuring Alcohol Levels in the Blood.

Alcohol in the blood circulates through the lungs and vaporises into the air, so it's possible to measure the alcohol level in the blood and the rest of the body by measuring the alcohol vapor in exhaled air. The device that performs this test is known as the Breathalyser.

Over 90% of all alcohol consumed moves from the blood to the liver where it's metabolised.

The remainder is either eliminated unchanged in breath, sweat, tears, urine and faeces, or metabolised in the stomach.

The latter may account for the different effects of drinking between men and women. Men show significant amounts of alcohol dehydrogenase in their stomach linings (remember, the conversion rate of alcohol to acetaldehyde is determined by the amount of dehydrogenase available), which may explain why women, after drinking the same amount of alcohol, and allowing for differences in size, have a higher BAL than men.

What is the most popular alcohol.

Wine is the most popular alcoholic beverage with drinkers followed by regular beer.

Alcohol related mortality.

Alcohol is second only to tobacco as the major cause of drug related mortality in Australia. The most common alcohol related cause of death is cancer.

=============================================================
This is also an iteresting article that proposes some specifics about the immediate and delayed headache related to alcohol......

By JOEL SAPER, M.D.

Dec. 26, 2006 — The spirits in a bottle can quickly ruin the spirit of a holiday. Some people just drink too much, and some people drink only a bit but pay a heavy price. For 35 years, I have encountered people with big headaches and little headaches, simple headaches and serious headaches, once-a-year headaches and daily headaches.

I have met people whose headaches result from just the smell of a beer and others whose headaches occur only after drinking a case of beer.

Here is some new information and some tips to help you take the spirits out of the bottle without taking the spirit out of the holidays.

Headaches From the Bottle

There are two major kinds of headaches that might appear after a night — or afternoon — of drinking. The first I call the soon-after headache, which occurs within one to four hours of drinking some but not all alcoholic beverages.

The other type of headache is the morning-after headache that occurs several hours after drinking has ceased and is usually part of the hangover.

The Soon-After Headache

Most people who experience the soon-after headache have had headaches in the past, usually migraine or related headaches. These headaches are actually genetic — the brain biology changes so that it overreacts to both internal (hormonal, for example) or external changes, such as a swig from the bottle.

Ironically, even though alcohol is the intoxicating substance in these beverages, it is not usually the source of the headache. Certain nonalcoholic ingredients are more likely to induce the headache attack than alcohol itself.

Since brands vary in the amounts and types of these ingredients, some drinks are more likely than others to produce the headache.

Curiously, I have treated several individuals who can drink one brand of beer without developing a headache but can't stand even a sip of any other brand. Many people can drink white wine without developing a headache but will invariably experience a severe headache when they drink red wine.

Surprisingly, — because hard liquor is more alcoholic than wine or beer, some people can drink vodka or gin (the crystal clear, light liquors) without developing a headache but cannot drink red wine, beer or the amber-colored hard liquors (rum, and the ever-gentle tequila).

Why the Difference?

As for beer, the ratio of hops, barley, malt and other ingredients distinguishes one beer brand from another.

Red wine contains tyramine — which probably causes those red-wine headaches — but white wine contains little, if any.

Hard liquor contains ingredients called cogeners — which also cause headaches. Darker, amber-colored liquors contain more congeners than light-colored liquors, such as vodka and gin.

Recently, research has suggested that mixed drinks containing sugar substitutes, such as aspartame and saccharin, which may cause headaches in their own right, actually cause a more rapid rise in the level of alcohol in the blood after drinking. Therefore, beware of alcoholic beverages containing diet colas or diet tonics.
The Hangover and Its Headache

While the soon-after headache comes from nonalcoholic ingredients, the hangover comes directly from the effects of alcohol itself. The hangover occurs eight to 16 hours after drinking moderate to high amounts of alcohol, after all that alcohol is out of the bloodstream.

The key symptoms of a hangover include headache (usually a throbbing headache), nausea and diarrhea, extreme thirst and dehydration, and excessive fatigue.

In a recent study of college students, participants on average experienced five of 13 symptoms, with headache, extreme thirst and dehydration, and fatigue being the most common. A family history of alcohol abuse made the study participants more vulnerable to the most severe effects. Curiously, women generally had higher hangover scores than men did.

Best advice — don't drink.

Second best advice — do the following:

Before drinking, hydrate with both clear water and sports drinks that contain sugar and important minerals and salts. Avoid too much plain water.
Before drinking, eat fat-containing foods and those with high carbohydrate content. These ingredients slow absorption of alcohol and other ingredients from the stomach.
Avoid sugar supplements that increase the speed of alcohol absorption.
Drink slowly, sipping the drink, and minimize the amount of total intake.
For those who have the soon-after headaches, drink "headache-safe" beverages, such as white wine and crystal-clear, light liquor.
To prevent the effects of the hangover, if you can do so safely, take anti-inflammation agents, such as ibuprofen, naproxen or mefenamic acid before drinking.

Post #289901 by VampiressRN on Mon, Mar 5, 2007 6:53 PM