Jake's body was strewn across the bed replicating the dirty towels dangling from his desk and chair. It was his roommate's bed because he couldn't make it to his own - way over on the other side of the room - too drunk the night before to know or care where he landed. The sunlight now beamed through the broken shades targeting his left eye. It hurt, but not as much as when he opened both eyes ? trying to find the rattling alarm clock. He swore he would never move his eyeballs again! The taste in his mouth was so foul he knew someone wrapped his tongue with an old gym sock. During the night, he must have wrestled the front line of the football team ? muscles all over now aching; bruises painting his skin. Veisalgia once again!



Veisalgia is from the Greek ?algia? meaning ?pain.? The Germans call it ?katzenjammer? or wailing of cats; Italians call it ?stonato? or out of tune; French call it ?gueule de bois? or woody mouth; Norwegians call it ?jeg har tommermenn? or workmen in my head; and the Swedes use my favorite term ?hont i haret? meaning pain in the roots of my hair. We call it a ?hangover.?

What causes a hangover, can we cure it and what impact does it have on students? A hangover is the body's way of telling us we had too much to drink. Contributing factors include dehydration, congeners, the chemical by-products resulting from the metabolization of alcohol, and low blood sugar combined with the depletion of essential vitamins and minerals.

Causes:

1. Dehydration: Dehydration is a cause and a symptom of hangovers. Since alcohol is a diuretic. the body loses water due to increased urination. The more alcohol you drink, the more water your body loses. Water loss in the brain contributes to a headache.

2. Congeners: Congeners are chemicals contained in alcoholic beverages that are formed during alcohol fermentation and contribute to the intensity of the hangover. These substances provide the unique flavor, aroma and color to alcoholic beverages. As your liver breaks down the alcohol, congeners are dispersed throughout your system.

Dark liquors, including red wine, brandy, whiskey, sherry, and tequila contain the most congeners and will generally cause a more severe hangover. Clear drinks, such as gin, vodka, and white rum generally contain fewer congeners and are less likely to cause a hangover. More expensive alcohol generally contains fewer congeners while cheap liquor is more likely to give you a hangover.

3. Toxins: Acetaldehyde is produced when your liver breaks down alcohol. Its exact role as a cause of hangovers is not clear, but it can be toxic even at moderate doses causing sweating, nausea, and vomiting. At higher levels it contributes to headaches, body aches and other symptoms.

4. Low Blood Sugar and Other Factors: Alcohol can cause a drop in blood sugar causing symptoms such as trembling, nausea, and irritability. This hypoglycemia can also contribute to weakness, fatigue and depression.

As the alcohol wears off, the body overcompensates for the lack of glutamine, a stimulant, by producing more of it thus preventing deep sleep and perhaps causing early-morning insomnia. Loss of fluid is accompanied by loss of essential salts like potassium and magnesium which also contribute to the hangover.

Cures:

There are as many hangover cures as there are cultures around the world. Voodoo legend suggests you stick pins into the cork of the bottle from which you drank. The Norwegians drink heavy cream. Russians prefer salted cucumber juice. The Swiss use brandy with peppermint. In Poland, they mix honey and pickle juice.

In one way, none of these work, and in another, all of them do. The reason: the most powerful hangover remedy is belief in the curative value of whatever you do, whether it is sweating in a sauna or sticking your head in a freezer. Yet, after about 5,000 years, we still haven't found any true hangover cures. Nothing truly CURES a hangover. There are however, certain things we can do to help RELIEVE some of the hangover symptoms:

- Consuming 500 milligrams of Vitamin C or eating vitamin C-rich foods like oranges or grapefruit may help.

- Eating fruits and vegetables can help replenish lost nutrients.

- Replacing lost Vitamin B with a Complex Vitamin B tablet may help a bit.

- Honey contains large amounts of a natural sugar called fructose and glucose, which is burned very quickly by the body. By stimulating metabolism, theoretically the body will burn off alcohol faster.

- Ginger is an anti-nausea treatment and a powerful antioxidant and anticoagulant. Whether taken as a pill, in tea, or in a juice, it may decrease some of the hangover blues.

- Drinking plenty of water before going to bed helps counteract dehydration and dilutes the congeners. Replacing lost fluids by drinking water in the morning might also reduce the hangover's intensity. NOTE: Chugging too much water too quickly, can lead to hyponatremia or ?water intoxication? diluting the sodium in the body. This could even be fatal.

When considering relieving your hangover remember:

- Caffeinated drinks like coffee are diuretics

- Ibuprofen is metabolized in the liver and may increase your risk of liver damage when combined with large amounts of alcohol.

- Taking aspirin while you drink or before you sleep can be very dangerous. Aspirin and alcohol can irritate your stomach by increasing your stomach acid.

- Tylenol (acetaminophen), like aspirin, is harmful when mixed with alcohol.

- Drinking more alcohol won't help. It simply postpones the inevitable.

Sleep! You're probably feeling fatigued and drowsy because you didn't sleep very well. When you go to sleep with a high amount of alcohol in your system, you are unable to enter the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep. Without it, your brain is unable to dream and achieve the relaxation it needs. So while you may sleep for eight or ten hours, your brain will not get the rest it desperately needs.

Prevention:

Of course the best way to deal with a hangover is prevention. Abstaining completely from drinking or simply drinking alcohol in moderation will prevent a hangover. So-called hangover prevention/treatment pills available commercially mostly rely on pharmaceutical activated charcoal. Some people swear by them while others indicate the pills contain so little charcoal they may have no effect. While abstaining may be the most efficient way to prevent a hangover, it's not very realistic for some college students. If drinking:

- Drink no more than one drink per hour. This will minimize the negative impact of your drinking.

- Drink water. Alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages will help hydration.

- Food in the stomach slows the absorption of alcohol into the system.

- Congeners are a major contributing factor. Consume alcoholic beverages with low congener content like vodka, gin or light beer.

Campus Impact:

In a 2005 survey of 33,000 randomly selected college students, 62.8% reported at least one hangover in the year prior to the survey. These hangovers probably led to 21.8% of these students reporting doing poorly on a test or other academic project and 30.7% reporting missing a class due to alcohol. In fact, studies indicate students with an "A" average report 3.3 drinks per week; ?B? students 4.8 drinks; ?C? students 6.1 drinks; and students with a "D" or "F" average report consuming 9.0 drinks per week. Also frequent heavier drinkers - high-risk drinking three or more times in the two weeks prior to the survey - reported even more extensive problems: 60% reported missing class and 46 percent reported falling behind in school because of their drinking.

Even if a student is able to drag his or her struggling body to class, mental capabilities are far from optimal. For up to as much as seventy two hours following heavy drinking, several physiological and psychological effects that inhibit the academic performance are present. Just small amounts can have a negative impact on cognitive abilities that can persist for a substantial period of time after the acute effects of drinking disappear.

So, Jake finally opens both puffy reddened eyes and rolls to the floor as he slams the alarm. He knows he must make it to class. Too many previous cuts have rendered him on the edge of failing. No time for a shower but enough time to throw on some deodorant. His hair is mangled, but it always is. He grabs some clothes from the pile in the corner and stumbles over to the dining hall. Three large cokes and one donut later he hustles to class. Back seat, head on the desk, his $35,000 a year education continues.