If you are a social drinker, how often are you tempted to have an extra glass of wine? In most cases, you may just feel a little light-headed because of the extra alcohol. However, sometimes, you wake up the next day feeling like a train has run over your head. Read on to find out how to drink safely and avoid the unpleasant after effects.

What causes a hangover?

The set of unpleasant symptoms you experience after you consume a large amount of alcohol are commonly called hangover. Most of these are due to dehydration, since alcohol acts as a diuretic. This means it increases the amount of urine produced to remove salts from the body. To accomplish this, an excess amount of water is drawn from the blood and into the kidneys from where it is passed out as urine.

Some of the symptoms you experience during a hangover include:

• Fatigue and muscle aches
• Headache
• Sensitivity to light and noise
• Nausea and vomiting
• Excessive thirst
• Red eyes

What can you do to minimise the chances of getting a hangover?

The best solution is, of course, to avoid social drinking. Substitute it with sipping water or some other non-toxic beverage like tea or a fruit juice. There is no one-stop solution for preventing ahangover. But there are a few precautions you can take to protect your body from the harmful effects of alcohol.

Eat something: While consuming alcohol, there is a tendency to avoid food. However, this only magnifies the dehydrating effect of alcohol on your body. Food helps to absorb alcohol, giving the body more time to process it and reducing the risk of a hangover. So try to eat a meal before you start drinking. Keep munching on a sandwich or some chips between drinks to maintain a steady intake of solid food.

Replenish your fluids: Drink plenty of water to avoid getting dehydrated. Besides water, also try to have a sports drink. Sports drinks provide electrolytes, sugar, and other nutrients that replenish the minerals that kidneys excrete because of drinking. They can also help prevent the bad taste if you throw up while drinking.

Do not mix drinks: Different alcohols consumed at one sitting will cause weariness faster. They also increase the intensity of the headache you experience the next day. Darker coloured drinks like brandy and red wine tend to cause more severe hangover symptoms. This is because they contain greater amounts of toxic compounds called congeners, which are by-products of the alcohol-making process.

Avoid drugs: Do not consume painkillers like aspirin as they can further irritate your stomach and increase nausea. If you really need an over-the-counter remedy for your headache, then try a Paracetamol-based analgesic instead. It is better to use this only as a last resort, if the pain is truly unbearable.

What home remedies are there to deal with a hangover?

If you do wake up with a nasty hangover, there are a few things you can try to settle your stomach and reduce the pain of the headache.

• Add the juice of a lemon to a cup of black coffee and drink it. Do not put any milk or sugar in the coffee.
  
  
• Take a tablespoon of honey every half hour, from the time you wake up until you feel better.
  
  
• A vegetable or chicken soup is a good way to replenish the minerals lost by your body.