THE ULTIMATE HANGOVER CURE

Step 1: Rehydrate, Duh Alcohol is dehydrating. Along with the loss of water is a loss of minerals. You need both. Drink a liter of natural spring water with the addition of a total of 5 grams of Himalayan salt within the first two hours of waking up. Keep drinking water heavily until you pee at least twice. Additional magnesium is also a really good idea before bed, as it further assists with step 2, the reduction of acetaldehyde.

Step 2: Reduce the Toxic Burden of Acetaldehyde Excessive alcohol puts a strain on the body, requiring the utilization of vitamins and minerals to assist with recovery. One of those crucial minerals is molybdenum. Never in the history of TV medical dramas has the mystery ailment been severe molybdenum deficiency, but molybdenum is essential for the body’s production of chemicals that neutralize acetaldehyde. What the hell is acetaldehyde? It’s one of the main toxins that the body produces as a result of alcohol ingestion. If we have been drinking, we are likely depleting our stores of molybdenum rapidly, increasing our acetaldehyde sensitivity. It’s one of the reasons we feel hungover in the morning, and why our bodies then begin to crave molybdenum-rich foods like legumes. In Texas, at least, classic hangover food is tacos, nachos, and burritos—all of them chock full of beans. In the Mediterranean? Hummus, made from garbanzo beans. Even after a night of crushing Jack Daniel’s or ouzo, our instincts can be incredibly accurate, cutting across cultures and cuisines. But rather than gorge on nachos, the best idea would be to supplement with some molybdenum (300 mcg) prior to bed, and again in the morning. Studies have shown it to reduce regular aches and pains, which if nothing else will make tomorrow’s walk of shame a little easier to endure!

Step 3: Balance Your Neurotransmitters Alcohol is a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonist, meaning that it produces more GABA in the brain. This is what results in the good, loopy feelings from drinking. Another neurotransmitter, glutamate, has the exact opposite effect on GABA. When you drink alcohol, after you are done with the flood of GABA, you experience a glutamate rebound where the body overcorrects for the problem with the release of excess glutamate. This is why you wake up so quickly and sleep so poorly, and it’s what leads to the anxious, light-headed, cracked-out feeling you can get from a hangover. To combat this, you should take things that support the GABA system. This is precisely why the “hair of the dog” seems to work. At least on a neurotransmitter level, you are getting more GABA in your system to balance out the glutamate. L-theanine, which occurs naturally in green tea, is great at mimicking the effects of GABA. Matcha, as we described in chapter 6, is the best source.

— from Own the Day, Own Your LIfe by Aubrey Marcus

How to win while drinking

Photo by Yutacar on Unsplash

Let’s face it, we know alcohol isn’t good for us but at the same time no one is going to completely cut it out of our lives because at some point we enjoy what it does for us. To counteract the negative effects of drinking in excess check out the following steps to lessen the toxic burden your next night on the town might have:

BEFORE YOUR NIGHT OUT

Eat a light meal. You want some food in your stomach to slow the absorption of the alcohol, but not so much food that you’re overloaded with calories from both the meal and the booze. If not, you risk flooding your body with too much ethanol too fast, and the subsequent conversion into acetaldehyde can overwhelm your antioxidant defenses. Preferably, the meal should include plenty of polyphenol-rich plants and spices, including turmeric powder, ginger, berries, and beets, since anything pungent or colorful is fantastic for alcohol metabolism, as well as quality protein. Adding in a spoonful each of extra-virgin avocado oil, extra-virgin olive oil, and red palm oil will provide the polyphenols and vitamin E that can protect against alcohol-induced oxidative stress, and the monounsaturated and saturated fats in all three protect the liver.

The easiest example of a light meal is a “meat salad”, think mixed greens with your choice of lean protein topped with beets, nuts or seeds, herbs like turmeric or ginger, sprinkle in your olive/avocado/red palm oil and enjoy. A light desert can be a square or two of dark chocolate (not only does the cocoa fat in chocolate protect against ethanol-induced liver damage, but the cocoa polyphenols can increase your antioxidant capacity) or a handful of berries. Make sure to salt the meal with a good mineral-rich salt, such as Redmon’s Real Salt. Another, and perhaps better tasting way to get the benefits of polyphenols without the plant matter is to add a scoop or 2 of Nutridyn’s Fruits & Greens to mineral water and sip on before your party bus arrives.

Take 500 to 600 mg of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and 1 g of vitamin C. NAC is a precursor to glutathione, the antioxidant responsible for metabolizing alcohol. Hospitals give NAC megadoses to treat Tylenol-based and alcohol-based liver poisoning. Vitamin C helps NAC supply glutathione, an essential antioxidant.

Take 300 to 400 mg of magnesium. Alcohol depletes magnesium and can also cause constipation, and this helps with both. You may want to save this tactic for after the party if you find the magnesium gives you loose stool, which is common, or use a time-release magnesium formula such as Jigsaw MagSRT.

Mix a few spoonfuls of collagen powder into a smoothie or drink of your choice (such as green tea—see below) or drink a cup of organic bone broth. The glycine in collagen and gelatin reduces lipid peroxidation and antioxidant depletion in the liver. Adding vitamin C with a supplement or a squeeze of lemon can increase glycine absorption.

AT THE PARTY

Drink only the highest-quality alcohol available and avoid high-fructose corn syrup, added sugars, and other nasty ingredients. A few good choices are gin or vodka mixed into sparkling water with bitters or a splash of fresh juice; organic or biodynamic wine; or a noncaloric soda such as Zevia mixed with wine and ice for a sparkling cooler. Unless you are drinking the super-fancy, expensive stuff, dilute wine and other spirits with sparkling mineral water to improve hydration. If people ask why you’re ruining the wine with water, inform them that you are making yourself a fancy French sparkler. Add a pinch of salt or one effervescent electrolyte tablet to each glass of water you consume (ideally from a glass bottle, such as Pellegrino or Gerolsteiner).

BEFORE BED

Be sure to get some electrolyte’s in. Mix 1 scoop of your favorite Electrolyte mix (be sure to pick one without added sugars like Dynamic Hydrate) into mineral water, add additional salt to taste. Drink this 30-45 minutes before bed to give yourself enough time to pee before you fall asleep. You can also include up to 1500 mg of any vitamin C supplement with this water..

Consume another 200 mg of magnesium, or a full 400 to 600 mg if you haven’t taken any magnesium yet.

Take four capsules of activated charcoal to sop up any toxins in the gut. Contrary to popular belief, charcoal does not absorb alcohol, but it does absorb toxins, so this step is only truly necessary if you’re unsure of the purity of the compounds you’ve been consuming, or if you have gas and bloating from excess sugars or strange party foods.

Take 3 to 10 mg of melatonin. Alcohol reduces melatonin secretion, which can contribute to annoying early awakenings when all you want to do is sleep in.

IN THE MORNING 

• Drink the same pre-bed drink from the night before, and/or consume a scoop of Fruit’s and Green’s.

• Take two more capsules of activated charcoal and another cap of vitamin C.

• Consume a fatty/protein breakfast that includes eggs so that you can get the benefits of choline..

• Exercise lightly (e.g., take a walk in the sunshine) or sit in a sauna. Do anything that gets you sweating (infrared sauna therapy is best due to the added detox effect). Afterward, take a cold a cold shower to reflect on the previous nights bad decisions!

Alcohol & Weight Loss

Alcohol & Weight Loss | After Your First Two Drinks

After your first drink, your body starts to get rid of the alcohol quickly using the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) pathway.1 In this pathway, ADH converts the alcohol into acetaldehyde, which gets further broken down to acetate. These by-products (acetaldehyde and acetate) are considered to be highly reactive and can increase oxidation throughout the body, but especially in the liver.

Because your body sees these by-products as dangerous, it wants to use them as fuel.This means your body will significantly blunt fat-burning close to 75% after just one and a half drinks.2 And it will stop using carbs for energy. Therefore, although very little alcohol will be stored as fat (less than 5%), the fat and carbs you are eating have an increased risk of being stored as fat.

Your liver can process these toxins through the increased use of certain vitamins, such as the water soluble vitamins B1, B3, B6, folate and C, while also possibly depleting some of the fat-soluble vitamins, A, E and K1. Over-time these decreases in vitamins can play a secondary role in loss of motivation, energy, and well-being.

After your first couple of drinks, your brain also starts to increase its usage of GABA. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain and is a large reason why alcohol is known as a “depressant.” Over time, the GABA receptors get used to the effects of alcohol, which is a reason why people may need more and more alcohol to feel the effects from alcohol consumption.3 GABA is also the neurotransmitter, principally responsible for allowing you to stay asleep. Therefore when your brain uses more of it before you go to sleep, you have less while you’re actually sleeping, causing a disruption in restful sleep.

Alcohol also affects the higher processing areas of the brain, the cerebral cortex, while leaving the lower areas of the brain somewhat unaffected. This leaves you more emotional than you would normally be. If you’ve ever experienced “drunk logic” while doing or saying things you would never think to do sober, then you’ve experienced the inhibitory effects of having your cerebral cortex taken out of the equation.

While your body has started to use the alcohol as energy, your body releases anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) to help your body rid itself of the alcohol. This basically means that your urine volume increases significantly (about 100 ml per 10 grams of alcohol).4 If you’ve ever “broken the seal,” you know that the more you continue to drink, the more frequently you use the restroom.

Since your kidneys are working over-time, your body releases an increase in certain minerals and electrolytes especially calcium, magnesium, copper, selenium and manganese. All of these play important roles not only in blood volume, but in bone health, blood pressure and the anti-oxidant pathways.

In addition to everything above, a small increase in cortisol typically occurs with moderate drinking while testosterone levels will drop about 6.8% in men (not so much in women).5 Aromatase will also increase. Aromatase is an enzyme that helps to convert testosterone to estrogen and is obviously not something that is welcomed by many guys.

Alcohol & Weight Loss | After Six to Eight Plus Drinks

If you’re drinking a moderate amount of alcohol, those things listed above are the main effects, at least short-term. If you drink heavily and drink often, another system called the Microsomal Ethanol-Oxidizing System (MEOS) system kicks in at the point when the ADH pathway becomes overwhelmed.

This system is interesting because it causes your body to generally burn off more energy as useless heat and probably saves your life from too high of a blood alcohol level. It is primarily controlled by a special enzyme that plays an important role in utilizing certain medications and the metabolism of fatty acids. This increased rate of medication breakdown can decrease their effectiveness, while the incomplete breakdown of fatty acids can cause an increase in oxidation. This increase in oxidation becomes exacerbated as the body’s main anti-oxidant (glutathione) is also impaired, decreasing your ability to fight the oxidation.

As your drinking levels continue to increase, testosterone levels drop from 6.8% with 4 drinks to 23% with 8 drinks.6 This drop, combined with a slowdown in protein synthesis, can cause havoc when trying to recover from a workout.

In addition to that, fluid loss will generally become more significant, causing dehydration that might affect you for days afterwards. Finally, with heavy drinking, the breakdown of alcohol can occur for up to 48 hours after your last drink. This means less glucose is reaching your brain and working muscles, making you both more tired and quicker to fatigue if you do exercise.

If You’re Going to Drink Alcohol, Drink in Moderation and Not Too Often

You would think after listing all that happens in your body after consuming alcohol, the no-brainer suggestion would be to not drink. What is missing though are some of the benefits from consuming moderate amounts of alcohol.

Alcohol is shown to increase insulin sensitivity, which basically means that your body needs less insulin to do its job. In addition to that, research has shown that women who drink a moderate amount will have the same or slightly lower BMI, as those who don’t drink.7 The same effect is not seen in men. Those who moderately drink are also at less risk of dying from heart disease and cancer while decreasing one’s risk of Alzheimer’s8and even slightly improving your immune system.9

In other words, complete abstinence may not be needed while trying to lose fat as long as it’s done in moderation and not very often (think one time per week). If you don’t drink, obviously don’t start, but if you want to have a couple of drinks on the weekend, there is nothing necessarily wrong with having one or two. In future articles, I will list some of the best and worst drinks to have when going out and 5 strategies you can implement to decrease the deleterious effects of having a night of heavy drinking.

Alcohol & Weight Loss | Wrapping It Up

In any fat loss plan, there are three main components that should be priority: Diet, Exercise, and Sleep.

As stated throughout the article, a moderate amount of alcohol can increase total calories, decrease your motivation for exercise, and negatively affect your sleep. Despite this, many people can enjoy a drink or two, without throwing those three components completely out of whack.

On the other hand, drinking heavily can significantly derail energy levels, has a larger influence on dehydration, negatively impacts hormonal levels, and can significantly disrupt your sleep. Therefore, limit your overall levels of alcohol and put yourself in the best position to reap some of the benefits of alcohol consumption, while not derailing your overall progress.