The dreaded hangover—that painful reminder that you overindulged. Isn’t it true what we ALWAYS say? I’m never doing that again! And yet, after a few days or a few weeks, we find ourselves suffering again because of our own poor decisions.

Dr. Scott Walker, DC, one of my mentors and the developer of the Neuro-Emotional Technique, says, “God will forgive you, but your body won’t.” What he means is that your body still pays the price for choices you make, good or bad.

According to the Mayo Clinic, hangover symptoms include:

• Fatigue and weakness
• Excessive thirst and dry mouth
• Headaches and muscle aches
• Nausea, vomiting, or stomach pain
• Poor or decreased sleep
• Increased sensitivity to light and sound
• Dizziness or a sense of the room spinning
• Shakiness
• Decreased ability to concentrate
• Mood disturbances, such as depression, anxiety, and irritability
• Rapid heartbeat

 What can you do to recover from such a horrid, self-inflicted condition? There are a number of steps to take. Let’s look at the reasons we get a hangover after drinking too much and then discuss what we can do to alleviate them.

Alcohol Is a Diuretic (and a Bummer in the Bedroom)

Alcohol inhibits the pituitary secretion of the anti-diuretic hormone (ADH), which acts on the kidney to reabsorb water. Alcohol also effects the hypothalamus/pituitary by reducing the circulating levels of ADH. As blood alcohol increases, sexual behavior increases. But sexual performance declines. Bummer.

When ADH levels drop, the kidneys don’t reabsorb as much water and consequently produce more urine. You get dehydrated, causing the tissues around your brain to contract. Now that your hangover has caused a great thirst, you’ll have to drink lots of water to get the tissues rehydrated.

To assist, Standard Process A-C Carbamide can move water into the cells, thus hydrating them and reducing the duration of the hangover. A-C Carbamide is a fluid regulator and helps normalize the cell membrane, whether it’s retaining too much water or is dehydrated. A-C Carbamide can also help with cleaning up the debris from cell die off.

Alcohol Increases Insulin Secretion

The high sugar levels in alcoholic beverages will mess with your blood sugar. But on top of that, the alcohol forces the liver and pancreas to produce more insulin. Low blood sugar causes symptoms such as shakiness, weakness, and moodiness.

Also…Inflammation

Alcohol initiates an inflammatory response in the body. When inflammatory pathways are stimulated, your body produces prostaglandins—hormones that signal the immune system to ramp up. The immune systems then gets to work removing cell debris caused by cell death, which is often caused by…alcohol.

A Few Handy Tips

Many times, hangover sufferers will look for greasy food—a fat hamburger, some crispy bacon, etc.—as a cure. That’s because the fat causes the gallbladder to dump. This allows the liver to detox poison via the bile, which is then eliminated from the bowels. This may also explain the bowels being active after a night of indulging.

To assist this process, I recommend Betafood from Standard Process. Made from the beet root and leaf, it helps the gallbladder move the bile, which carries toxins, to the intestines.

Lastly—and most importantly—are the fatty acids from SP Black Currant Seed Oil. High in gamma linolenic acid (GLA), this supplement reduces the inflammatory response in the body, thus reducing your headache and other symptoms.

Make no mistake, Black Currant Seed Oil has a number of uses. It’s good for dry skin conditions as it helps the skin make its own natural fats. It also helps with hormone production to reduce PMS symptoms and hormone imbalances.

More to the point, Black Currant Seed Oil can be used for pain relief, much like aspirin or ibuprofen, because it normalizes the inflammatory pathways. But unlike aspirin or ibuprofen, it’s not harmful to the liver or the stomach.

In closing, if you’re planning a night of adult beverages, make sure you eat good food, drink plenty of water, and keep these Standard Process supplements on hand, both while you drink and certainly in the morning!

Images from iStock/SaraBerdon (main), Nikolay_Popov (post).