Nutriton Tips to Beat A Hangover

Top Nutriton Tips to Minimise Your Hangover

As fitness junkies, we all know not drink too much or too often but in the real world, some of us occasionally overdo it and actually, when done occasionally, a little libation can be fun and harmless. For many in the fitness industry, one of these “occasions" is the Olympia weekend in Las Vegas or the Arnold Sports Festival. Since I’ve been making this trip most years since the late 1990’s and have managed to balance a few late nights with full days of work…and since I have some scientific insight into diet and alcohol metabolism, along with a few tried-and-true tricks to avoid hangovers, I thought Muscle Insider readers might be interested. 

OK, some of this stuff is fairly hard science and is based upon how your body metabolises alcohol  and the nutrients that can be useful in this process but there are also a few recommendations based upon experience, observations and trial and error over the years…

Before You Drink

This is one area where most people make a cardinal error. They figure if they stay off the booze for a week or more, their liver will be detoxed and it will have a better chance of dealing wth the alcohol. The opposite is true. NEVER go out drinking excessively after a few days of abstinence! You see, your body’s key enzymes which break down and detoxify alcohol are alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase. They can take a while to kick in and they seem to take longer if you haven’t had a drink in a while. More importantly, another enzyme, called CYP2E1, only kicks in when larger amounts of alcohol are consumed. If you’ve been teetotaling, then these enzymes won’t be activated as fast or to as large a degree and the toxic byproducts of booze will accumulate to higher levels, causing more drunkenness and a worse hangover. So rule number one, have a few drinks the night before and perhaps even have a beer or two earlier in the day.

Hangover Support Supplements 

Another thing you may want to do before drinking is take a good multivitamin, which contains a good dose of B vitamins and zinc. These, and other micronutrients are involved in alcohol metabolism. B vitamin metabolism is altered by drinking and zinc is required for the enzymes to function optimally.

Obviously, the single most effective recommendation would be to pace yourself - it takes a little over an hour for an average-sized male to metabolise two standard drinks (less in bigger people and more in females), so if you go slowly enough, you won’t need to worry too much about the other recommendations. However, as I said in the opening sentence, I’m trying to look at the “real world” here - most people, for a variety of reasons, don’t achieve this moderate drinking pace. Of course there is a strong genetic component, meaning that some people metabolise alcohol substantially faster than others.

There are a variety of other strategies you can use, like having water between drinks, drinking light beer, etc but again, for the more typical big night out, these strategies seem to go out the window in real life. Several supplements have been suggested to help increase the elimination of alcohol and its byproducts but from the research I’ve looked at, most have poor-to-moderate evidence.

However, there is one that has been proven effective - NAC (N-acetyl cysteine). This modified amino acid is used to treat liver damage associated with drug overdose (primarily paracetamol) in humans and in studies with rodents given alcohol it has been shown to protect the liver from damage. It has its effects by acting as an antioxidant and by reducing inflammation, which are caused by excess alcohol. So taking 400-1200mg of NAC after your last drink can be quite effective. Other nutrients that work are sulforaphane (one of the healthy chemicals from cruciferous vegetables), which can boost alcohol dehydrogenase (especially in people who genetically can’t tolerate drinking, particularly many East Asians). Interestingly, lemon and pear have several positive effects on alcohol metabolism and the diabetes drug, Rosiglitazone, significantly accelerates alcohol detoxification. The other thing that has been proven to protect the liver is coffee. British research shows that several cups not only seems to help with a hangover but protects the liver from damage by a huge 65 percent (and decaf seems to have the same effects)! So a NAC, coffee, lemon, pear, kale cocktail during or just after your drinking session may save you a great deal of pain and damage in the morning!

The Next Day

This is the time to try to limit the damage and discomfort and the obvious thing is to do is hydrate - drink lots of coffee and water. Of course, anti-inflammatories help with the pain but some can be hard on your already battered stomach and some can put extra load on your already stressed liver - take these if the pain is bad but don’t make a habit out of it. This may also be a good time for another multivitamin and some of the other ingredients from the cocktail.

I usually just stick with a multi, the NAC and lots of coffee but try all of these and see which seems to work best for you…and have a great Olympia weekend - hope to see you there!