Haunted by Hangovers?
Moans, groans; items strewn about the floor. Is there a ghost in this house? A poltergeist perhaps? Or are you being haunted by Hangovers?
Besides the lingering reminder of your bad decisions, what exactly is a hangover? The spooky thing is…scientists do not completely understand the causes of a hangover. Causes aside, we are all too familiar with the miserable symptoms: headaches, nausea, upset stomach, fatigue, drowsiness, sweating, and cognitive fuzziness. (Not to mention the symptoms of those symptoms: blowing a workday, missing a workout, binge-eating greasy food, or half-watching a 9 hour movie-marathon of every single Planet of the Apes installment). Maybe that last one is specific to just me, regardless, however a hangover affects you personally, it ain’t good.
And that’s just at the all-too-apparent macro level. If you’d dare to take a microscope to your hangover, it would look even worse than those dark bags under your eyes. You know when you feel like you have so much of last night’s booze coursing through your veins that it seems like your breathing out alcohol fumes? It’s as if you can feel the toxicity levels of your body. Well turns out, after a night of drinking, a toxic compound called ‘Acetaldehyde’ accumulates, which is estimated to be 10-30 times more toxic than alcohol itself! In other words, those several beers, or cocktails you put down just turned your precious biome into a full on distillery/brewery. Acetaldehyde has been shown in controlled studies to be the culprit of symptoms like sweating, skin flushing, and the worst of all the symptoms: nausea and vomiting.
Your body is an amazing system. It is your temple. Love it. Respect it. Don’t be cruel to it. Don’t trick it. Studies have shown that when you drink alcohol you trick your immune system in the cruelest of ways. ‘Cytokines’ are molecules that signal the immune system to react in certain ways, for example by triggering an inflammatory response to fight an infection. As a result of consuming alcohol, the body releases these cytokines which negatively affect cognitive function causing headaches, memory loss, irritability, and inability to concentrate, in addition to more physical detriments like muscle-aches and fatigue. Your immune system is a friend that always has your back; that is willing to fight for you, so don’t send it on fool’s errands!
Look, we’ve all been there. Most people have been haunted by hangovers before, so don’t be too hard on yourself. There is a clear road to redemption. The sure-fire way to exercise the demons and make peace with your body once again is to quite simply refrain from consuming too much alcohol. “Easier said than done,” you say? Easier than ever with MONDAY’s zero-proof spirits.
Because look, WE GET IT, sometimes you just want a drink in your hand. Sometimes it’s the ritual itself of crafting a quality cocktail of complex flavors you crave. Sometimes you’re out at a social event and everything is just smoother when you have a cocktail to enjoy with the rest of the group. Other times it’s simply about being more mindful of your drinking by supplementing your alcohol intake with zero-proof cocktails. Whether you have a big workday that requires your best, a workout regime to stick to, or family-life events to be fully present for, there just simply isn’t any room on the calendar for a hangover to bring you down.
So go ahead, grab MONDAY’s zero-proof gin or whiskey; simply pour, mix, stir and thrive. It’s the only ritual you’ll need to put the hangover haunts on hiatus.
