Between your Thursday night wine and your Saturday night cocktail, you have a fairly good sense of what kind of hangover you’re in for does wine make you thirsty on Friday and Sunday mornings. But beyond the type of alcohol you’re imbibing, you might not realize how much dehydration enters into the hangover equation. Some drinks are more dehydrating than others, but the amount of dry mouth you wake up with has more to do with alcohol volume, how much you drink per session, and what you combine with your favorite tipple. It seems simple, but water truly is the best beverage when it comes to fast rehydration. It’s very easy for your body to process and for your intestines to absorb.
Drink an electrolyte solution or sports drink
Dehydration can happen for many reasons, including alcohol consumption. Alcohol can cause increased urination, increased heart rate or body heat, vomiting, and other issues that can increase dehydration. Avoiding alcohol is the best way to prevent this problem, but if you do drink alcohol, be sure to also drink extra water with solutes such as protein.
How to Prevent Dehydration from Alcohol
Over time, mass mineral and electrolyte deficiencies can lead to rapid dehydration when alcohol enters the picture. This is partly because our soil is incredibly depleted, so our fruits and veggies don’t have the mineral content they once did. Additionally, our tap water is heavily processed and filtered, leaving most of the minerals behind. Knowing and listening to your own body is the best way to prevent a https://ecosoberhouse.com/ hydration mishap — or really, any medical mishap.
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- However, when your body works to eliminate alcohol from your system through these processes, other crucial substances, like water and essential nutrients, are removed, too.
- Learning to listen to your body, recognizing the signs of dehydration, and drinking plenty of water during the day can also ensure you’re meeting your fluid needs.
- Social drinking is just part of the holiday package — and homemade cocktails, wine, and champagne all deserve a spot in your celebrations.
- “Once you drink a glass, alcohol is quickly absorbed into the blood and moves throughout your body,” Dr. Neha Pathak M.D., medical editor of WebMD, tells Bustle.
Drinks with a higher alcohol content — and therefore more potential to dry you out — include vodka, gin, rum, and whisky. Beer and wines, meanwhile, tend to have lower alcohol content, though fortified wines like sherry and Madeira pack a kick at above 14.5% alcohol. Doing things like eating food and drinking more water will help avoid a hangover more than your wine selection. Also keep in mind you can get part of your daily water needs from some of the foods you eat. In the United States it is estimated that about 22% of water comes from our food. Eat water-rich foods, like cucumbers (which are about 95% water) and watermelon (which is about 90% water).
- In the absence of adequate amounts of solute, kidneys hang on to more free water, thereby diluting the sodium concentration in the blood.
- You’ll hang on to only about half or a third of the extra water you drink.
- One trick that will help keep you hydrated is to drink a glass of water before you start drinking and then alternating an alcoholic beverage with water or a non-alcoholic beverage.
- Acetaldehyde is intrinsically produced in the body 53, 54; however, it is quickly degraded 37.
This is why breathalyzers are often used to check if someone’s driving while intoxicated. This test measures blood alcohol concentration (BAC), or the amount of alcohol in your blood. Drinking on an empty stomach can cause other long-term damage, particularly to the liver. Your liver is responsible for metabolizing alcohol, and heavy drinking over long periods can lead to irreversible damage. Liquor with higher levels of Acetaldehyde (considered a wine fault) has been shown to cause a more severe hangover.
Food Sensitivity Testing: Healthier Holidays Await
But not everybody processes alcohol in the same way, or at the same speed. The effects of alcohol after a 24-hour period, Dr. Pathak says, depend on how quickly your body can break down alcohol, whether you drank it on an empty stomach, how quickly you drank it, and your tolerance. If you have wine once in alcoholism a blue moon, chances are you’ll feel the effects faster and with more intensity than somebody who has Chardonnay after work a few times a week. And having food, particularly fatty food, in your stomach will delay how quickly your drink is broken down. Alcohol — despite being a fluid — inhibits the release of vasopressin, an anti-diuretic hormone that rushes to our defense when our concentration of electrolytes rise above a certain level. You can usually manage mild cases of dehydration by drinking more fluids that don’t contain alcohol.
Alcohol is converted in the liver and begins acting as a diuretic
Not only will you be helping yourself get your daily water needs, but you will also be getting critical vitamins and minerals your body needs to stay healthy. As a general rule of thumb, fresh fruits and vegetables have a higher water content than most foods. Eating soups, preferably homemade (canned soups have a lot of added sodium), are also a great option for “eating” your water. The Hangover IV is extra hydrating as well, as we know that many of the common symptoms of hangovers are directly due to dehydration.
