My greatest buddy supplies me with limitless quantities of useful assist and knowledge, however one among her most enduring items of recommendation dates again to our faculty days, once we used to do some fairly irresponsible ingesting. We’d combine spirits, we’d drink beer earlier than liquor, we’d down sugary photographs virtually designed to present us pulverizing complications … just about every thing you’ve heard you shouldn’t do whereas consuming alcohol, we did.
To combat off the inevitable hangovers that might occur the subsequent day, my buddy got here up with a plan that she enforced with ruthless effectivity. After any of us completed an alcoholic beverage, she’d hand us a full glass of water and demand that we drink the entire thing. “Sandwiching” a glass of water between any two boozy libations was a hard-and-fast rule, and if we forgot and tried to order two back-to-back cocktails, we’d hear her voice over our shoulders: “Water sandwich, water sandwich, water sandwich.”
I can nonetheless hear my bestie chanting “water sandwich, water sandwich” behind my thoughts each time I’m going out for drinks, and, as a daily shopper of water sandwiches, I undoubtedly really feel like they’ve helped me combat off some probably devastating hangovers. However I discover myself questioning whether or not the water sandwich works as a result of I imagine it really works, or whether or not there’s some scientific foundation for its hangover-fighting energy.
To get the solutions, I consulted a gaggle of medical medical doctors, they usually gave the total scoop on how water sandwiches can impression alcohol’s impact on the physique.
A glass of water between every alcoholic drink can cut back dehydration.
The medical doctors I interviewed all identified that dehydration performs a serious function within the tough morning after. “Ingesting a glass of water between alcoholic drinks is an efficient solution to lower the dehydration that always comes from alcohol consumption. Alcohol acts as a diuretic, a substance that prompts the kidneys to provide extra urine, leading to electrolyte and water loss,” defined Dr. Krystal Green, a major care doctor at Inspira Well being in New Jersey.
Inexperienced went on to say that “this lack of fluid contributes to dehydration and should go away individuals feeling drained, thirsty and dry the subsequent morning.”
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However when you’re ingesting a glass of water in between every alcoholic beverage, you may “dilute the alcohol focus [in the body] and dampen the dehydration results that trigger the hangover,” mentioned Dr. Ronald Lee, a psychiatrist at the moment training in Massachusetts. Additionally, as a result of alternating water and alcohol will decelerate your alcohol consumption and make you’re feeling “full” extra rapidly, water “could cut back the whole quantity of alcohol consumed over time,” famous Dr. Sham Singh, a psychiatrist and holistic drugs knowledgeable at WINIT Clinic.
‘Water sandwiches’ could assist ease hangovers, however they received’t do away with them fully.
Water sandwiches could make up for the dehydrating results of alcohol, however the medical doctors reminded us that dehydration isn’t the one reason for painful hangovers.
“Although water could make you’re feeling higher generally, it is not going to sluggish the metabolism of alcohol into acetaldehyde, a toxic byproduct that results in hangovers,” mentioned Dr. Jasleen Salwan, a doctor specializing in inside drugs and habit drugs with Start Your Recovery.
Acetaldehyde will kind within the physique no matter whether or not you drink water, so water sandwiches may decelerate or reduce the hangover, however they received’t banish it utterly. Additionally, water can’t “restore depleted electrolytes and glucose — prime components that make the hangover extra extreme,” Singh mentioned.
On the finish of the day, there’s just one tried-and-true rule in place to stop hangovers in all instances. As Inexperienced mentioned, “The much less alcohol you drink, the much less doubtless you’re to get a hangover.”
Time is the one surefire remedy for a hangover, however there are a number of shortcuts that may velocity up the restoration course of.
Water sandwiches generally is a useful instrument to take the sting off your nastiest hangovers (earlier than they occur), and the medical doctors shared a number of different concepts that will cushion the ache.
Singh urged readers to “eat a meal wealthy in wholesome fat, proteins and complicated carbohydrates earlier than beginning to drink alcohol,” as this will “sluggish alcohol absorption and restrict variations in blood sugar ranges, which might produce unhealthy crashes resulting in that fatigue and nausea.”
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Additionally, ingesting liquids wealthy in electrolytes, similar to coconut water or sports activities drinks, earlier than or after ingesting alcohol can “assist substitute sodium, potassium and magnesium liquefied as a result of diuretic impact of alcohol, which finally can contribute to higher muscle perform and [reduce] complications,” he added.
Lastly, Singh mentioned, “Good, restorative sleep is essential as a result of alcohol disrupts REM cycles and leads to a poor high quality of sleep, which might result in a for much longer interval of fatigue.”
