While you may have experienced a hangover and thought, “We’ve all been there,” research has shown that about 24% of moderate drinkers don’t get hangovers at all (1). For the remaining 76% of us, IV therapy Saint Petersburg for hangovers may help you alleviate your symptoms (2).
But why do the vitamins, anti-nausea agents, anti-inflammatories, and liquids found in IV therapy work so well to help you overcome hangovers?
To answer that question, let’s take a look at:
• What is IV therapy Saint Petersburg
• Some of the basic science behind a hangover, and
• Seven ways IV therapy Saint Petersburg can help a hangover.
What Is IV Therapy?
IV therapy, also known as an IV infusion, is a liquid treatment that contains vitamins and minerals to help you rebalance your system. The infusion may contain healthy compounds like antioxidants, amino acids, and anti-inflammatory agents, and it’s injected directly into a vein by a medical professional (3).
The benefits of IV therapy include higher levels of nutrients in your body and faster absorption rates than you’d experience by eating fruits, vegetables, and supplements that contain these same vitamins and minerals.
Many integrative healthcare practitioners across the country now provide outpatient or mobile (in-home) IV therapy (4), and it’s long been used in hospitals to help with a variety of conditions, including (5, 6):
• Dehydration
• Detoxification
• Immune Support
Let’s look at how a hangover from alcohol affects your body, plus seven ways that mobile or outpatient IV therapy may help you rebound more quickly after a night out on the town.
The Biology of a Hangover
Dehydration
Headaches, fatigue, dizziness, excessive thirst, nausea, saggy skin, and vomiting are some of the main symptoms of a hangover, and a number of them occur because alcohol is a “diuretic.” This means that it causes dehydration, which leads to your tissues contracting. This can put painful pressure on your nerves, causing the infamous “hangover headache.”
In fact, about 800-1000 mL of water is released for every 250 mL of alcohol you drink (7). What’s more, dehydration from drinking alcohol isn’t just from a lack of water. Salt and potassium, two extremely important minerals for numerous health processes, are also released (through urination). Low levels of these minerals can deplete your energy levels and cause nausea.
Toxin Overload
Dehydration isn’t the whole story of how your fun night out turned into a throbbing migraine the next day.
In order to process alcohol sugars, your liver must break them down. It begins this process by converting the alcohol into acetaldehyde using an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). Next, acetaldehyde is converted into acetate by an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), and in this form, it can be released from your body.
Sounds great so far, right? The problem arises when you drink too much alcohol for the liver to keep up with converting acetaldehyde (a toxin) into acetate (8, 9).
Typically, an adult human liver can process about 10 grams of alcohol per hour, which is about one standard-sized drink (10). Anything more than that, and symptoms of acetaldehyde overload kick in. These include nausea, vomiting, red or flushed skin, and sweating.
Low Blood Sugar
Alcohol breaks down glycogen, the form glucose (a simple sugar) takes when it’s being stored in the liver. As this happens, glucose is released in the urine, and the body’s energy supply drops, causing the person to feel lethargic, weak, and uncoordinated – – even after a full night’s rest.
Inflammation
To top it all off, alcohol can cause an acute (temporary) inflammatory response throughout the whole body (11).
Scientists have found that an excess release of cytokines, proteins normally released to combat infections, is correlated with this response. As a result, the face, hands, and feet may look puffy, and an inflammatory headache may develop (12). Plus, when alcohol hits the stomach and gut, it may inflame the lining by triggering an excess of pro-inflammatory bacteria.
7 Elements of a Hangover You Can Treat with IV Therapy
Luckily, IV therapy can help you better manage and even reverse many of the painful and energy-zapping symptoms of a hangover. Take a look at seven elements of a hangover that you can treat with IV therapy.
1. Relieve Your Headache
IV therapy includes anti-inflammatory and rehydrating agents to help ease your inflammatory headache and release the painful constriction on your nerves caused by tissue contraction.
2. Alleviate Nausea and Vomiting
Anti-nausea medication is also included in most high-quality IV therapy for hangovers. This helps ease the stomach upset resulting from dehydration and an excess of “acetaldehyde.”
3. Flush Out Toxins From Your Liver
The liquid and vitamins in IV therapy combine to help detoxify your liver of alcohol, so it stops breaking down glycogen into glucose, and your blood sugar can stabilize. Certain antioxidants like glutathione have been also shown to detoxify the liver by helping with the metabolism of alcohol to acetaldehyde and finally to acetate so it can be flushed from the body (13).
4. Rehydrate Rapidly
IV solution often includes saline, the world’s most common “crystalloid” (14). It is commonly used by nurses and other medical professionals for rehydration therapy. Lactated ringer (LR) solution that contains electrolytes at similar levels to those found in the blood is also becoming increasingly popular in IV therapy (15).
Having a healthy level of water and electrolytes in your system helps you reduce headaches, fatigue, and dizziness faster.
5. Replenish the Nutrients Your Body Needs
The vitamins in the IV solution help replenish nutrients lost due to the diuretic (dehydrating) effects of alcohol, such as salt and potassium loss (16,17). This is so important because both these nutrients are involved in creating proper fluid and electrolyte balance. They also generate nerve signaling to properly regulate muscle contractions and impulses so that your coordination can improve after a hangover.
6. Boost Your Energy Levels
The ingredients in IV therapy are formulated to work together to stabilize your blood sugar, which helps improve your energy levels. Their rehydrating effects also improve your fatigue. Plus, since alcohol is a depressant, it can alter your ability to get a good night’s rest (18). IV therapy’s ability to help flush out alcohol and its toxic byproducts can assist in restoring your natural sleep cycles.
7. Improve Your Appearance
Anti-inflammatories in IV therapy help reduce the puffiness, a common symptom of hangovers. Plus, with rehydration, your skin will be less drawn so your natural healthy glow can shine through again.
(1) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3864560/
(2) urgentmednetwork.com/can-vitamin-iv-therapy-actually-cure-hangover/
(3) healthline.com/health/under-review-IV-vitamin-therapy#What-kind-of-person-or-type-of-health-concerns-would-benefit-the-most-from-this-practice-and-why?
(4) ivtherapydirectory.com/find-iv-therapy-specialists/
(5) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8949912/
(6) biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13046-021-02134-y
(7) health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/drugs-alcohol/hangover2.htm
(8) smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/your-complete-guide-to-the-science-of-hangovers-180948074/
(9) mydr.com.au/addictions/hangovers-how-your-body-is-affected/
(10) mydr.com.au/gastrointestinal-health/liver-and-alcohol-breakdown/
(11) joinmonument.com/resources/alcohol-inflammation-causes-explained/
(12) brainfacts.org/diseases-and-disorders/neurological-disorders-az/diseases-a-to-z-from-ninds/headache
(13) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35883865/
(14) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545210/
(15) intermountainhealthcare.org/news/2022/06/intermountain-researchers-finds-better-and-safer-treatment-option-than-saline-solution/
(16) healthline.com/nutrition/salt-good-or-bad
(17) healthline.com/nutrition/what-does-potassium-do
(18) sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/alcohol-and-sleep