We all know that wisdom and irrefutable truth are almost always hidden.
However, when it comes to wine and other alcoholic beverages, it is widely believed that they are not real, or at best “half” true.
These are commonplace meals in Mediterranean culture, with a distinctly ‘wine-centric’ imprint.
On closer inspection, the most surprising aspect is that, in practice, the consequences of alcohol, especially when consumed in excess, are exactly the opposite of what was described and expected.
So, what we need to know is that before downing a glass of beer or repeatedly toasting, we hope to obtain the effects of alcohol, and neither wine nor drinking buddies can really guarantee it.
The reason for the “back wave”
What happens to our bodies when we’re addicted to alcoholic beverages and hungover?
The Anglo-Saxons use the untranslatable term “Hangover” and the French “Gueule de bois”.
However, both of these definitions only partially describe what it really feels like to drink too much.
If we also want to look at onomatopoeia, perhaps the most appropriate term is the one used by the Spanish, who use “resaca” for the typical alcoholic fatigue discomfort.
For us Italians, the medical term for the aftermath of alcoholism is veisalgia, a combination of the Norwegian word for restlessness (kveis) and the Greek word for pain (algia).
If we don’t want to bother with these much sought-after definitions, we have to accept the most popular hangovers, remembering that no matter where you are or what you call them, the manifestations of the disease are always the same.
Exhaustion, dizziness, uncontrollable thirst, nausea, weakness and a single desire, is to look for something that makes you feel better immediately.
The root cause of such severe discomfort is the severe dehydration of the body, because as the alcohol travels around the body, down to the base of the brain, it blocks the production of vasopressin.
Once the latter can no longer function, the kidneys reabsorb water from the urine.
This causes a change in the body’s water balance, eliminating more water through urine. The body cannot accept this (water is still the most important nutrient even with zero calories) and reacts by trying to find water to get it into circulation quickly.
Even forced to borrow it from a penny-pinching brain, resulting in shrinkage. Therefore, the symptoms of alcoholism are entirely a danger caused by the “drought” of the brain.
Most likely, overactivation of receptors in the dura mater (the membrane that surrounds the brain) registers the atypical narrowing, leading to the upset, headaches and exhaustion typical of a hangover.
In this case, the old remedies of the grandparents seem to be effective: they should drink plenty of water before going to bed to rehydrate and also dilute the alcohol entering the brain, because they always believed in the existence of Dionysus.
Excessive alcohol consumption also increases the breakdown of glycogen, a substance that stores excess glucose in the liver and muscles. Due to the effect of alcohol, glycogen will be converted back to glucose and excreted with urine, so you will have sugar in your urine.
Remedy?
In practice, there are no safe and effective hangover remedies.
A valid suggestion is to eat a sensible diet before or during drinking, followed by drinking plenty of water before going to bed, and making a cup of tea or coffee with sugar the next morning.
Alcoholic beverages help form close friendships in this area, and people have tried all of them to try to make the consequences less harmful.
Wise Romans and Greeks, even taking all possible precautions, such as diluting the wine in proportions prescribed by Magister Bibendi, and drinking it only at the end of the feast, to further ensure their happiness, please Invoke Zeus or the savior for protection and keep them from the vengeance of Bacchus.
heat…cold
In countries with particularly harsh climates, people develop the habit of regularly consuming alcoholic beverages in an attempt to keep warm or to cope with severe cold.
An old poem about combining cold and alcohol, this story involves the Saint Bernard, a loving mountain dog that specializes in mountain rescue. In fact, the myth of the dog with the barrel originated with the 19th-century artist Edwin Lanseer, who painted a mountain rescue scene in which the dog hangs a wine barrel around its neck.
Undoubtedly a success, the inspiration convinced generations that the St. Bernard “carries people’s hope among the glaciers”.
Alcohol, as we have seen, certainly does not help the unlucky man recover from a frost, the substances that actually help us recover from a cold should contain calories and sugar.
In fact, the belief that alcohol has a warming effect is a false belief that makes no sense. Let’s see why. Alcohol, especially when consumed in excess, has two parallel and negative effects on thermoregulation:
On the one hand, it’s an excellent peripheral vasodilator, so it increases the amount of blood flowing under the skin, creating a quick and temporary sensation of heat and warmth.
In fact, increased superficial vasodilation also favors greater heat dissipation in the external environment, thereby reducing body temperature.
Alcohol, on the other hand, in high doses, suppresses levels in the hypothalamus, where the thermoregulatory mechanism resides. In other words, alcohol causes this complex system to keep our body temperature constant, independent of external factors.
If the above wasn’t enough, like other neurosubstances, ethanol at the nervous system level alters the perception of sensory stimuli. It is because of this phenomenon that alcohol makes people less sensitive to the perception of cold, heat, pain, etc.
The cooler the outside temperature, the stronger the alcohol-promoted vasodilation. This helps us understand why serving alcohol to minors is an absolute no-no.
At the end of the day, the habit of drinking hard liquor when it’s cold is popular but doesn’t have any scientific basis.
The temporary relief of the cold by alcohol is nothing more than a deception, a perception caused by a combination of altered sensation and rapid peripheral vasodilation that quickly backfires.
The Paleo Latins would speak of sipping a steaming mulled wine in front of the fireplace, perhaps even enjoying it with a loved one on a frosty evening. In these cases, it’s just the soul that’s warm, but otherwise, it’s best to rely on blankets for warmth.
