Alcohol - How Well Do You Recover?

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WitWonder

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SO alcohol affects all of us in different ways and some worse than others. Im not talking about the happy/sad whatever reaction whilst were drinking, Im talking about the next day or later in the night after youve stopped and how you recover. There are people who claim to never have hangovers whilst others have stopped drinking because of the adverse reaction. I guess I fall somewhere in the middle and one of the main benefits for me of homebrewing is that I dont suffer anywhere near (if at all) the after effects of a heavy night like I would if I was out drinking most commercial beers.
A night of drinking commercial beer usually ends up with me chundering my guts up the next morning somewhere around about 12 hours after Ive stopped drinking, usually. Most often this is accompanied by a fairly consistent pounding in my head whilst nursing an unsettled stomach they feed off each other until, most often, it ends up with the inevitable driving the white porcelain bus, after which I feel considerably better unless I still have a pounding headache in which case, if I can stomach it, I take panadol. The strange thing is most of the time when I go to bed I feel fine the fact it takes about 12 hours for me to feel sick is what I find weird.

The other reaction I get sometimes is having an unexplainable headspin after drinking far less than what I have consumed on other occasions with no ill effects. The only way to manage this is to find a quiet spot somewhere and focus on a particular object until the spinning subsides some time later. Probably the worst example of this I can remember is from about three or four years ago when I went to a local pub for grand final day celebrations. I had 3, maybe 4, of the popular Mexican beer (yes yes, I know) in about one and a half hours and, without feeling even mildly inebriated, my head started spinning quite badly and I had to leave the pub. I walked/stumbled toward my car, lay on a park bench staring at the clouds until this subsided some time later, continued walking to my car and drove home. I had dinner that evening, went to bed feeling fine then, if I recall correctly, got up several hours later and chundered my guts up.

I had a similar experience last week (though with probably closer to 6 or 7 pints) with the head spinning routine followed by the usual stomach-emptying exercise the next morning. However what did strike me was that it was just liquid there was no food at all. Its like my bladder/stomach/liver/whatever just cant process the alcohol or something else in the beer and the only way its coming out is the way it came in.

Anyway, how do you react to alcohol?
 
Anyway, how do you react to alcohol?

If I drink more than my liver can handle, without sufficient hydration I too get ill. It's mild alcohol poisoning.

The trick is not to drink too much too quickly.

See a doctor for the best advice on your spining out. Shouldn't be spinning out with 3 or 4 bottles - do you have an Asian genes? Many Asian people lack an enzyme or something and get smashed on 1 beer.
 
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So many variables. Do you eat before you drink, during your drinking, after drinking or never at all? How hydrated are you prior to drinking? Pure H20 that is, coffee and tea don't count and do you slip in a glass of water every 2-3 beers.

I went out on the town with the boys last weekend and knew I would get messy so during the morning I had a few liters of water a substantial lunch, and a snack around 2pm, taxi picked me up around 2:15 and we were into it around 2:30. We had a meal around 5:30 By 7:30 we were toasted. It was on the work credit card so the bar was high. We all talked about our lead up to the session the next day with 2 mates not eating and 2 admitting to not being hydrated. We all felt a little woosie but the 1 mate that didn't eat before and have some water had to be tucked into bed by the rest of us.

I know different body types and all that but we are all big lads who can do some serious sessions so food and water were possibly the biggest variables.

I don't wake up any different on home brew to mega swill. If I have had to much I will pay for it. When I've had one too many I will still be able to function the next day but be a little tyred and dehydrated.

Drew
 
Interesting topic. I've found that I can be out with mates and drink just the same amount as them, we're all as smashed as each other. But the next morning most of them suffer alot more than me. I hardly ever have a headache let alone vomit. I can wake up early the next morning, maybe feeling a little groggy for half an hour or so, but once I'm fully awake I feel fine.
I've heard that hydration (or lack there of) comes into play, but really I don't drink much water at all. I'm not sure why some people feel the effects more than others, maybe someone else can shed some light on the matter?
 
See a doctor for the best advice on your spining out. Shouldn't be spinning out with 3 or 4 bottles - do you have an Asian genes? Many Asian people lack an enzyme or something and get smashed on 1 beer.

Nah, they might tell me to stop drinking :)

No asian genes and as I said, I can drink homebrew without issue (except the obvious dehydration). I'm guessing there's some secret ingredient in Carona derived from horses piss that my body particularly doesn't like. Never touched it since.
 
I don't wake up any different on home brew to mega swill. If I have had to much I will pay for it. When I've had one too many I will still be able to function the next day but be a little tyred and dehydrated.

Drew

I am from the other end of the spectrum, quite a sensitive individual, my drinking habits are one beer a night with the odd days off, usually around 330ml worth.
Has been more recently due to the Vic case swap, necks, a couple of which i am recapping and finishing next day.
Its more so for the sake of my liver and mental state the following day, coupled by i take pain meds here and there.

At the swap i drank way more than i intended and felt quite loose. Drank some water, ate some sandwiches when i got home, woke up much later the next
day and felt quite ok.

I can safely say that if i had drunk the same amount of mega type beer, i would have been experiencing the pounding head , spinning and nausea.

A couple of months ago i bought some melbourne bitter, carlton draught , couple of cans, and one VB, just to reset things, for my palate.

Anyway , they all gave me headaches, akin to my past experiences, i dont know why? as i said i am a sensitive individual and i generally allow for that.

Overall i find beer i make from grain to be quite beneficial to my health in amounts that are right for me, but if i do have a heavy night once in a blue moon
the price is much less drinking homebrew.
 
Doesn't seem to matter whether I drink HB or commercial beers I never get a crook stomach, but if I hit it too hard I get a pounding headache the next morning. 2-3 Nurofen plus and an hour later I'm good to go again.

It's really the lack of sleep that hammers me more than anything. My 3yo daughter doesn't give a damn if I've had a big night, if she wants to ride the bike around inside the house at 6:00am she's going to give it a bloody good go!
 
The spinning out would be vertigo, it can definitely be caused by drinking too much.

When I was younger I could drink all I want and never suffer the next morning, unfortunately these days I feel seedy the next day after only a few beers. It sucks but I usually don't drink to excess anyway.
 
I have found the difference between commercial beer and homebrew to have vastly different effects personally . Most nights I have a long-neck (weekend 2 or 3) and feel 100% the next morning ready for another day of work but if I had that much commercial beer I feel gluggy and in general pretty shitty.

I did read somewhere about Vitamin B12 (Being some what present in yeast) but there are mixed responses whether the amount in the yeast (if any) assist in replacing what the alcohol is taking out. The fact there is like no yeast in the filtered mega brews and after reading an article on all the chemicals that go into commercial beer its no wonder it doesn't agree with everyone. Everyone has different effects to different chemicals so there could be something in megaswill your body has a reaction too...not just the alcohol component :p
 
I either get no hangover at all or a crippling hangover. Unfortunately, there is no middle ground for me.

I've got a kid on the way so I've pretty much sworn off the big nights from now on. Don't get me wrong, I still have beers with the boys, but no more "mini-keg of Heineken and half a bottle of rum" nights. Also, I do boxing Monday nights, and I don't enjoy having my arse handed to me in the ring while hungover from a big weekend.
 
I asked a clinical haematologist once "what's the best way NOT to get a hangover". He said drink sugary drinks (coke full strength) before, during and after. It has worked for me. Megaswill gives me a mega headache - HB far less ........ although I find if I use lots of different grains in a grain bill (eg Dr Smurto GA) i handle this worse than smash ales and lagers.
Where I have woken up after a few hard nights will be another thread entirely .... <_<
Cheers
BBB
 
Im a pint glass of water by the bed kinda guy, which works well. I think hydration is the most important thing to look out for. also, i heard a while ago that super drunken sleep is pretty much the equivilant of not sleeping. So very often il walk home if ive been out smashing commercial stuff.

These days im more aware of the way i feel when combining food and alcohol. I seem to suffer from getting to many drinks in me, then not wanting to eat anything, even though i definatley should. Because your body processes alcohol before other carbohydrates if you've already saturated yourself with it then eating food doesnt seem to do much but make you bloated for ages. so i try to get a good meal in before to much drink, and hold off drinking for a bit after. Flame suit on for food and drink pairing.

Also, when only drinking beer i dont ever really feel super smashed these days, even when drinking like a fish, i hold it together and maybe get a bit slurrry, and dont really wind up feeling it much the next day. i think theres alot to be said for beer as a safe ish and social way to indulge in 'larger' amounts of alcohol (if its going to happen).


sim
 
Im a pint glass of water by the bed kinda guy, which works well. I think hydration is the most important thing to look out for. also, i heard a while ago that super drunken sleep is pretty much the equivilant of not sleeping.

This is what I do - when I have the pint of water before bed I am 100% ok in the morning. Sometimes I will also have a pot noodle - some magic in there I think.

I have never actually suffered from hangovers and when I am out will drink a lot (I am a big bloke and it takes a lot to take me down) but with the water + pot noodle combo i can count the number of genuine hangovers I have had on one hand.
 
I certainly have to agree with the water part. A big glass of water before hitting the hay makes a big difference to my mornings after.

Only problem is I'm usually wishing I hadn't forgotten to drink the water when I wake up in the morning with a pounding headache. Too late by then!
 
i dont get headaches unless i get passsout drunk the night before, but if i go overboard i definatly get a crook guts the next day and cant eat, struggle even to get water down. and no matter how much i drink i always finish the night with at least a litre of water before bed. except if i pass out wich could explain the headaches.
 
Don't have anywhere near as many big nights as I used to when I was younger. Back then I'd swap between beer, rum, bourbon, tequila, pretty well anything and I'd wake up pretty well ok. I remember walking to work at Red Rooster the next morning, back in the day. I think I was probably still drunk at the time though.

Worst hangover I've ever had though was a mates 21st. He booked one of those cruise boats on the harbor, on a Sunday night of all things. The only beer was VB, and after a while it tasted like ash trays. So I swapped to the cheap champers. Woke up with the most piercing headache that didn't subside all day. I think I passed out in the lecture theater, and slept on the grass outside between classes.

Nowadays I feel it a bit more in the morning. If I've just been on beer I'm generally ok (unless it's been a 4am finish). But since starting my new job and going out more for work, I find mixing red wine and beer kills me (even good red). Nine times out of ten I'll wake up and have a spew in the middle of the night. I'll feel bad all day and if it's a big one I'll feel it the day after as well. Trying to avoid those nights now but those account managers can be animals.
 
Spirits in large amounts give me a hangover. Red wine, even "good stuff" in moderation gives me hangover. Beer (megaswill / craft / HB...) by the gallon seldom gives me hangovers. Luckily, I really like beer. :)
 
The only commercial brew i can drink with no hangover is Coopers. Homebrew is fine too.
What %^cks me up badly is red wine
c
 
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