Feeling unwell the morning after drinking alcohol is the downside of a party. Nausea is the most common symptom of ethanol poisoning, so it is useful to know why it occurs and how to eliminate it quickly and safely.
Ethanol poisoning
Any alcohol entering the digestive tract, under the action of liver enzymes, turns into the toxin acetaldehyde. The reaction in the form of nausea is a natural phenomenon that indicates that the body is trying to cope with poisoning and quickly remove all dangerous substances from the blood.
Alcoholics, as well as people, face the symptom:
- without alcohol addiction;
- drunk a lot of alcohol.
Some tolerate intoxication without unpleasant consequences. An exception to the general rule indicates that the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, which converts acetaldehyde into safe acetic acid, is produced in large volume. This physiological feature does not protect a person from dyspepsia after drinking alcohol for life: if he regularly poisons the body with ethanol, the liver will not cope with the load, which means that the production of the enzyme will decrease.
Ethanol also affects the brain: hundreds of neurons die during poisoning, blood vessels are affected, blood clots occur. These factors can provoke nausea, as well as vomiting, which occurs suddenly.
When looking for the cause of poor health, it is important to take into account other components in the composition of alcoholic beverages, as well as its quality. Preservatives, flavor enhancers and cobalt, which is often added to beer for foaming, increase the load on the liver and provoke malaise during the recovery of the body after poisoning.
Nausea and alcohol addiction
As alcoholism develops, at the second stage of addiction, a person is temporarily freed from the unpleasant symptoms of ethanol poisoning. The growth of tolerance to alcohol can be perceived positively by a person, but this impression is false. Despite the fact that an addict can consume large doses of alcohol without feeling the typical symptoms of ethyl poisoning, the symptom indicates the progression of the problem. The body, trying to adapt to the toxins that regularly enter the bloodstream, embeds them into the metabolism.
The situation leads to a paradoxical reaction: nausea and vomiting do not occur at the time of poisoning, but with a decrease in the concentration of ethyl alcohol in the blood. This phenomenon is popularly called a hangover, but its real name in narcology is withdrawal syndrome.
Nausea is one of the most frequent manifestations of withdrawal, along with:
- physical weakness;
- headache and dizziness;
- irritability, apathy, depression.
It may seem to the patient that drinking a new dose of alcohol (for example, a bottle of beer in the morning) improves the general condition. However, this leads to the progression of addiction and only aggravates the condition.
Alcohol and exacerbation of chronic diseases
Ethyl alcohol has a bad effect on the functions of all organs and systems. However, the most destructive effect is noted on the organs of the digestive system: liver, stomach, pancreas.
After drinking alcohol , the following diseases often worsen:
- pancreatitis;
- hepatosis;
- gastritis.
Nausea is a symptom that always occurs against the background of these diseases. If the sensation is combined with heaviness in the side, heartburn, abdominal pain, it is necessary to consult a gastroenterologist.
Ethanol also provokes fluctuations in blood pressure and affects the work of the heart due to potassium and magnesium deficiency, dehydration and "blood thickening" - violations of its rheological properties. In this case, the symptom will be accompanied by headache, tinnitus, weakness. With an increase in intracranial pressure, nausea is especially painful, does not bring relief after vomiting, and symptomatic treatment does not bring results.
In addition to exacerbation of chronic pathologies, dyspepsia can be caused by drugs that a person has drunk simultaneously with alcohol. You can clarify the information in the instructions for medicines.
How to eliminate nausea yourself?
If you feel unwell after taking alcohol, it is important to assess your condition and, if necessary, consult a doctor:
- to the ambulance service;
- to the narcological dispensary;
- to a private drug treatment service.
Signs indicating the need to abandon self-medication and entrust health to professionals include:
- severe incessant vomiting;
- pain in the heart area;
- difficulty breathing;
- loss of consciousness;
- convulsions.
In other cases, you can try to cope with the symptom at home. Usually, the symptoms of ethyl poisoning go away by themselves if favorable conditions are created.
- For recovery, it is important to give the body the opportunity to rest without increased loads. Sleeping in a ventilated room and emotional peace will contribute to the rapid relief of the condition.
- To relieve the load from the digestive system, it is useful to eat light fortified foods: broths, salads, yogurts. If there are no complications from the kidneys, abundant drinking is indicated, which will accelerate the elimination of toxins from the urine. It is useful to eat foods rich in ascorbic acid and potassium.
Drug therapy is carried out under the supervision of a doctor, since the risk of side effects from taking any drugs against the background of alcohol intoxication increases dramatically.
Relatively safe means are:
- aspirin and drugs based on it that will eliminate intracranial pressure;
- oral absorbents that bind toxins in the digestive tract and take them out;
- oral saline solutions for relief of dehydration;
- mild sedatives that reduce withdrawal and restore sleep.
If the patient is constantly taking medications indicated to him for the treatment of chronic diseases (pancreatitis, peptic ulcer, hypertension), he can drink the medicine. It is important to take into account that many drugs cannot be taken simultaneously with ethyl alcohol, so you need to wait for a decrease in the concentration of ethyl alcohol in the blood (about 8-9 hours) before taking them.
Calling a doctor for nausea after intoxication
Nausea can be a safe symptom, indicating a temporary functional disorder that will pass without intervention in a few hours. But without a diagnosis, a person cannot differentiate the severity of the problem, so if there is any doubt about the harmlessness of the malaise, it is better to consult a doctor.
Therapy under the supervision of a narcologist includes three stages:
- Diagnostics to identify the cause of nausea and the degree of risk of dangerous complications, including laboratory tests, ECG, examination, palpation of peritoneal organs and anamnesis collection.
- Removal of ethanol breakdown products from the body using infusion therapy - dropper with detoxification solution.
- Relief of hangover symptoms with the help of symptomatic therapy.
In difficult cases, hospitalization and extracorporeal detoxification methods are required, as well as physiotherapy and other procedures. To consolidate the effect of therapy, you can use encoding.
The therapy program in private clinics and state drug dispensaries is approximately the same, but in commercial clinics, services are provided anonymously, with the possibility of specialists going home.
Ineffective and dangerous methods of treatment
Traditional medicine offers different approaches that supposedly help to get rid of nausea after drinking alcohol.
- Provocation of vomiting is a dangerous method of internal bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract and dehydration. Self-arising vomiting allows you to quickly bring the patient out of an acute state. But excessive vomiting with bile does not bring relief, since the toxins are already in the blood. With severe vomiting, a doctor should be called who will put a cleansing dropper, normalize the water-salt balance and give an antiemetic drug.
- Increased physical activity, a hot bath and a contrast shower do not improve well-being, but they often cause complications from the cardiovascular system. The idea of "removing toxins with sweat" is relevant only if you feel well and there are no contraindications.
- Uncontrolled medication intake is the main cause of dangerous complications. In addition, there are many ineffective and dangerous drugs that are positioned by the manufacturer as the latest pharmaceutical development that is guaranteed to get rid of any manifestations of alcohol poisoning and abstinence in a short time, but do not correspond to the declared properties.
If there are doubts whether the chosen method is safe or not, you can call the drug treatment service for consultation.
How to prevent the appearance of nausea?
The best way to prevent deterioration of health after drinking alcohol is to limit the amount of alcohol consumed. The permissible dose of alcohol is determined individually, depending on:
- production of liver enzymes;
- health conditions;
- body weight;
- age.
On average, women need a smaller dose of alcohol for intoxication, but individual characteristics of the body that are not related to gender are more important in alcohol tolerance.
The quality of alcohol is also important. For example, "pure" drinks with a simple composition, under other equal conditions, are better tolerated than cocktails.
The list of tips on how to prevent deterioration of health after an alcoholic party includes:
- You should not drink on an empty stomach. At the same time, the advice to eat a piece of butter before drinking alcohol is also not safe, since fats increase the load on the liver and pancreas. Instead of butter, it is better to choose banana, broth, porridge.
- It is not recommended to mix different types of alcohol: it is better to choose one alcoholic drink, and use it only during the evening.
- Together with alcohol, it is recommended to drink water: about 1 glass of pure or mineral water per glass of drink. This will help to avoid dehydration and accelerate the elimination of toxins from the body.
- Before going to bed, it is recommended to drink an oral adsorbent, take a warm shower. Sleep after intoxication should be long and deep – this will allow you to wake up in the morning without symptoms of malaise.
- You should not drink a new dose of alcohol in the morning. But recommendations to drink brine or eat sauerkraut can be effective, since fermented foods accelerate the breakdown of toxins and help restore the water-salt balance.
If the malaise persists for more than 1-2 days, you need to consult a doctor to undergo an examination and get an appointment.
Abstaining from alcohol or moderate use of it is the key to well-being. If a person cannot cope with the craving for alcohol and regularly faces an overdose of ethanol, only drug treatment can help him. Modern rehabilitation programs allow you to get rid of addiction forever, preserve your reputation and health.
