I must confess that I am partial to a few drops of the electric sauce. Have you noticed that after having one over the eight and laying down your weary, aching head on the pillow, the room seems to go round and round? Have you ever tried to gather what few grey cells are still functioning to wonder why that is?
It seems that this phenomenon is all down to the effect that alcohol has on your ears and, in particular, on three semicircular canals. These canals contain a fluid called endolymph and a gelatinous structure filled with cells covered in fine hair-like stereocilia called cupula. Alcohol thins your blood, and when the red stuff gets to the inner ear, it creates a difference in density between the cupula and the endolymph.
The little hairs in the cupula bend. In normal circumstances they send a signal to the brain telling you that your position has changed. Under the influence of alcohol, they are tricked into thinking that you are moving and send signals to the brain that makes it believe that you are rotating – hence the feeling that the room is moving even though you are motionless.
If you close your eyes whilst experiencing this phenomenon, it just makes the sensation worse because you have no visual point of reference to contradict the illusion. My best advice for you in these circumstances is to open your eyes and stare at a fixed object.
The next problem, after a few hours of fitful sleep, is that you wake up with an enormous headache, you are good for nothing, and you are on the search for a pick-me-up. The efficacy of your hangover cure is entirely dependent upon how quickly it reduces what acetaldehyde is left in the body.
Our livers, or what is left of them, release an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, which gets to work on the ethanol content in alcohol to form a chemical called acetaldehyde. This in turn is broken down by an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) into a chemical called acetate. Once this has been accomplished, your feeling of normality and at ease with the world returns.
Perhaps one of the most famous and, by all accounts, efficacious of hangover cures is Jeeves’s pick-me-up as described in P G Wodehouse’s Jeeves Takes Charge:
‘If you would drink this, sir,’ he said, with a kind of bedside manner, rather like the royal doctor shooting the bracer into the sick prince. ‘It is a little preparation of my own invention. It is the Worcester sauce that gives it its colour. The raw egg makes it nutritious. The red pepper gives it its bite. Gentlemen have told me they find it extremely invigorating after a late evening.’
Chinese scientists, as reported in Chemistry World, have carried out research into the restorative powers of fifty-seven drinks and potions, although not Jeeves’s panacea. The most efficacious of the drinks for reducing the effects of alcohol on the body and promoting the ADLH process proved to be Sprite, that colourless, lemon and lime, caffeine-free soft fizzy drink that was developed by the Coca-Cola company in the early 1960s to counter the popularity of 7 Up. Some trendier and allegedly healthier hangover cures such as herbal tea actually make matters worse by inhibiting the ALDH process.
Reluctant as I am to promote the cause of an American multinational, needs must in these circumstances. I am keen to see if it works!
Martin Fone is author of 'Fifty Curious Questions', from which this piece is an excerpt – find out more about his book or you can order a copy via Amazon.
Credit: Alamy
Curious Questions: Why do you wake up just before the alarm goes off?
Credit: alamy
Curious Questions: Why is a day divided into twenty-four hours?
We've been counting things in convenient chunks of ten for thousands of years, so why on earth is a day
Credit: Alamy
Curious Questions: Do carrots really help you see in the dark?
We've all been given the familiar advice by parents anxious to get us eating our vegetables, but is there any
Credit: Photo by FLPA/Hugh Lansdown/REX/Shutterstock – Bullet Ant (Paraponera clavata) adult, standing on leaf in rainforest, Tortuguero N.P., Limon Province, Costa Rica
Curious Questions: What is the world’s most painful insect sting – and where would it hurt the most?
Can you calibrate the intensity of different insect stings? Martin Fone, author of 'Fifty Curious Questions', investigates.
-
Curious questions: Why do we use Seville oranges to make marmalade?Why do we use Seville oranges to make marmalade when there are more than 400 other varieties available worldwide? And do they really make the best preserve? Jane Wheatley investigates.
-
Mince pies really did once contain meat — and this Victorian recipe will convince you that they should to this dayOnce packed with meat, such as ox tongue and mutton, alongside dried and candied fruit and extravagant spices, the mince pie is not what it once was — and food historian Neil Buttery says that's made them worse.
-
Curious Questions: Margarine used to be pink — but why?Margarine has been a staple of our breakfast tables for over a century, but it hasn't always had a smooth ride — particularly from the dairy industry, who managed to impose a most bizarre sanction on their easily-spreadable, industrially mass-produced rival. Martin Fone explains.
-
Curious Questions: Wine has been made in Britain for over 1,000 years — so why have we only just turned it into an industry?With the UK wine industry booming, Martin Fone takes a look at its history.
-
Curious Questions: What is mock turtle soup? And did it come before or after 'Alice in Wonderland'?Martin Fone delves into the curious tale of an iconic Victorian delicacy: mock turtle soup.
-
A game of two halves — how the sandwich went from humble fare to a country-wide lunchtime obsessionWhat started life as a way to eat and play cards at the same time (so the story goes) is now the lunch of choice for the working world.
-
Where to find the world's best club sandwich — and the story of this triple-layered paean to poolside delightThe club sandwich, arguably the most famous of all sarnies, is a poolside staple, but its origins are tricky to trace, says Tom Parker Bowles.
-
Curious Questions: Why do we eat hot cross buns at Easter?Annunciata Elwes traces the curious history of the hot cross bun in Britain.
