Hangover Cure
Congener congeniality
19 March 2005 NewScientist.com news service I recently picked up a leaflet published by Health Scotland which said the darker the colour of my alcoholic drink, the worse my hangover would be. Whisky, red wine and brandy would lead to a worse morning after than would vodka or white wine, because the darker drinks contained something called congeners. After experimenting, I have to say this seems to be the case. But is it the congeners? If so, what are they and what do they do? Most people consume alcoholic drinks for their ethanol content. However many such drinks also contain amounts of other biologically active compounds known as congeners. Congeners include complex organic molecules such as polyphenols, other alcohols such as methanol, and histamine. They are produced along with ethanol during fermentation or the drink's ageing process.Congeners are believed to contribute to the intoxicating effects of a drink, and the subsequent hangover. People who drink pure ethanol-based alcohols such as vodka have been shown to suffer fewer hangover symptoms than those who drink darker beverages such as whisky, brandy and red wine, all of which have a much higher congener content.
The congener denounced as the main hangover culprit is methanol. Humans metabolise methanol in a similar way to ethanol, but the end-product is different. Ethanol generates acetaldehyde, but when methanol is broken down, a major product is formaldehyde, which is more toxic than acetaldehyde and can cause blindness or death in high concentrations. Ethanol inhibits the metabolism of methanol, which may be why drinking "the hair of the dog" can alleviate hangover symptoms.
Studies have found that the severity of different drinks' hangover symptoms decline in this order: brandy, red wine, rum, whisky, white wine, gin, vodka and pure ethanol.
Eric Albie, Hull, East Yorkshire, UK From issue 2491 of New Scientist magazine, 19 March 2005, page 89
posted by Nick at 10/03/2005 07:30:00 pm
2 Comments:
START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment)
START is an expedient triage system that can be performed by lightly-trained lay and emergency personnel in emergencies. It is not intended to supersede or instruct medical personnel or techniques. It may serve as an instructive example, and has been (2003) taught to California emergency workers for use in earthquakes. It was developed at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California for use by emergency services in Orange County, California. It has been field-proven in mass casualty incidents such as train wrecks and bus accidents, though it was developed for use by CERTs and firemen after earthquakes.
Triage separates the injured into four groups: The DECEASED who are beyond help, the injured who can be helped by IMMEDIATE transportation, the injured whose transport can be DELAYED, and those with MINOR injuries—the walking wounded who need help less urgently. Other regions may use different designations. Use the designations of your area.
Only perform triage for two or more injured persons. For a single injury, always perform first aid!
Some form of marking is very helpful to ration care. If you have triage tags—the right solution—immediately available, use them. If you have a marker or lipstick on your person, mark foreheads with "D" for deceased, "I" for Immediate, "DEL" for Delayed or "M" for "minor injuries." Unmarked or untagged persons should be considered unevaluated. If you cannot mark or tag, proceed anyway.
Triage 1: Loudly and authoritatively ask the group to get up and walk to a safe area that you designate. Do not ask them to walk to the sound of your voice. Designate a particular close area. Anyone who can walk does not need immediate life-saving help in a mass casualty situation. However, people can change categories, and the walking wounded are usually the largest category of victim. A person in shock, for example, might start an incident able to walk, and then faint in the walking-wounded area.
Those with minor injuries are your human resources to perform first aid. You will tell them what to do.
If you have not called for help, point at a particular person, and forcefully ask them to call for help. Make eye-contact, and get them to promise to do it. Say, "You! Get help, and get back to me! Will you do that?" Ask them to call for help using the local emergency telephone number (9-1-1 throughout the United States and most of Canada, 1-1-2 throughout most of the European Union, 9-9-9 in the UK).
Triage 2: On each remaining person, check RPM—Respiration, Perfusion, and Mental state. For each person, follow this procedure:
Triage 2R: If a person is not breathing, adjust their head and clear their airway. If that does not restore their breathing, they are beyond your ability to help. Tag them as DECEASED. Do not start CPR as several other persons may die while you are trying to save just one.
If a person is breathing, check the rate. If it is more than twice as fast as yours—more than 30 inhale/exhale cycles per minute—they are entering shock. Mark them IMMEDIATE; have a person with minor injuries lay them down, elevate their feet, and warm them with a blanket or jacket. As soon as you have instructed the walking-wounded care-giver, move on.
Triage 2P: If a person is breathing, but less than 30 cycles per minute, check their perfusion (blood circulation) by pressing and releasing a fingernail, or the ball of a finger, and seeing if it turns pink within two seconds. Use the ball of the finger if they have nail polish. If it's dark, use your flashlight, if you have one on your person. If it's dark and you have no flashlight, you may check for a pulse at their neck. If they are not perfused, tag them as IMMEDIATE.
Checking the fingernail is both faster and more reliable than checking the pulse, if the light permits, and this means you are less likely to mismark a person as "IMMEDIATE."
Triage 2M: If they are breathing and perfused, check their mental state. Ask them their name, and what happened. If they cannot reply, or say something unrelated, ask again, and tell them that you are testing to see if they are mentally confused. If they are confused, it may indicate a brain injury, which is beyond your ability to help. Tag them as "I" or IMMEDIATE for immediate transportation.
If the person is not confused, mark them DELAYED to indicate that they are stable and their transportation to the hospital may be delayed.
Now quickly check the person for bleeding. If a large wound is arterial bleeding, determine the first aid method of treating it, and ask the victim (if they are rational) or a particular person ("YOU, yes YOU...", not "Somebody") with MINOR injuries to perform the care.
Now, go back and repeat the process for the next person. Using this process, a trained responder can evaluate most injuries in less than thirty seconds. Remember, do not give care yourself. Give the care-giving tasks to walking wounded on the scene, so you can be free to evaluate other people.
Triage 3: Evaluate the IMMEDIATE injuries to prescribe first aid. Deputize people with MINOR injuries and bystanders to perform first aid operations, by telling them what to do for each person. There are almost always enough people to perform the needed first aid when given instruction.
Triage 4: Evaluate the DELAYED injuries to prescribe first aid. Recruit the victim to self-treat, or people with MINOR injuries to perform the first aid operations, by telling them what to do for each person.
Triage 5: Train one of the persons with MINOR injuries to watch the other MINOR injuries for signs of shock. As time permits, examine the victim, including the MINOR injury patients for shock. Look for very rapid breathing, more than twice as rapid as yours, and confirm by touching their skin. If they are clammy or cold, or the breathing is sufficiently rapid, they are entering shock. Have them sit down. If they are sitting, have them lay down. If they are lying down and you have no reason to suspect spine injury, have them raise their legs. The object is to raise the blood pressure to their inner organs to prevent oxygen starvation of major tissues, which is one way that shock kills. If possible, try to keep shock victims dry and warm to reduce their need for oxygen. If you have oxygen, and know how to administer it, do so. As you have time, tag walking wounded as "WALKING" and upgrade shock victims to "IMMEDIATE".
Lovely. My hangover wasn't so bad, I guess because it was mostly gin and vodka, although I did have rum and even beer and red wine (after the vodka finished), which is probably never a good thing.
Now, wouldn't it be scary if someone marked a big "D" on your forhead with lipstick and zipped you up while you were in an alcoholic stupor? As does happen, I'm sure.
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