Worse than a Hangover...

September 6, 2006 9:43 AM

I am plagued by painful beershits and a complete loss of appetite (sometimes days) after a night of drinking. Any ideas other than curbing my acoholism?
posted by anonymous to Grab Bag (27 answers total)

Stop drinking beer. Move to a drink like vodka & soda , or gin and tonic they're not so bad for that kind of thing
posted by grex at 9:51 AM on September 6, 2006

I have definatley taken that into consideration, but as a college student, that is often something easier said than done.
posted by nyu2 at 9:58 AM on September 6, 2006

Any ideas other than curbing my acoholism?

well, no ... if the pain and inconvenience of the aftermath outweighs the pleasure of drinking for you, then i should think your logical choice is obvious

(although you could try mixed drinks or wine ... and not that crappy stuff that's super cheap, either)
posted by pyramid termite at 10:04 AM on September 6, 2006

Could your diet possibly have something to do with this, too?
posted by dead_ at 10:08 AM on September 6, 2006

My formula for preventing stomach yuck.

1. Start with hard alcohol, preferably something without sugar. My drink of choice - scotch. Either stick to this all night, or switch to sipping beer after you've established a solid buzz.

2. Ideally, you've had a good dinner, not too greasy. Resist the urge to eat heavily later in the night. If you must eat, try to have at least 3 or 4 hours before you plan to pass out.

3. Water. At the end of the night and the next morning.

4. Upon waking and after water, consume coffee with breakfast / lunch. Again, as non-greasy as you can manage.
posted by utsutsu at 10:11 AM on September 6, 2006

Eat better food -- you need a higher-fiber, better-quality diet if you're going to deplete your body like that. Whole grains, lotsa veggies, multivitamin, yogurt.
posted by desuetude at 10:11 AM on September 6, 2006

the rock-bottom swill that i drank in college definitely has a worse effect than the marginally more expensive swill i drink these days. labatt's, genny cream ale, and (shudder) utica club? my intestines writhe at the thought.

you might also try sticking to darker beers; i have friends who can drink dark beers without incident, but can't have a single Bud without serious conseqences.
posted by sonofslim at 10:19 AM on September 6, 2006

Do you drink drafts or bottles? Do you go to the same drinking establishment every time you go out? If your answers are "drafts" and "yes," it could be mildewy/moldy tap lines that is giving you the problems. I can tell when a place is slack in keeping their lines clean because it will [eff] me up the next day.
posted by NoMich at 10:27 AM on September 6, 2006

I second the "stop drinking the cheap beer" idea. Also, if you're drinking Guinness, consider something else. I have friends that find themselves screaming for the toilet in the morning after drinking their beloved Guinness. Fortunately, I don't like the stuff and I stopped drinking anything cheaper than Heineken and have not suffered such a fate.

Oh, and eat a big steak before you go drinking. :) Your mileage may vary.
posted by drstein at 10:39 AM on September 6, 2006

I would definately have to aggree that most of it is probably due to greasy foods and very cheap beer. however, I don't see either of those changing too drastically until I get out of college. Is anyone familar with any kinds of supplements that I could take before drinking that might make it easier on my stomach the morning after?
posted by nyu2 at 10:44 AM on September 6, 2006

Metamucil. Seriously. It gives needed bulk to otherwise, uh, 'spurty' leavings.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:49 AM on September 6, 2006

Alcohol is hard on the intestines, but if the discomfort persists for days, you may have something more serious, like Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Crohn's disease. If foods other than alcohol also cause discomfort, pain, or diarrhea, you might want to see a doctor.

That said, the best solution in these cases is usually to avoid the food that pisses your system off. Start carrying a hip flask full of hard liquor to parties and mix your own drinks.
posted by chrisamiller at 11:05 AM on September 6, 2006

I'm with NoMich. Cheap or expensive beer, it makes no difference if they never clean the lines. Result: Beershits. Drink bottles or switch to a different joint.
posted by poppo at 11:06 AM on September 6, 2006

Cheap beer. I learned the hard way -- only having appetite enough for a single plum for an entire week! That's what evil beers like Carling, Fosters, Bud, Heineken... do to you. It's a crime that they manage to pass that stuff off on the general public; full of chemicals and sugar.

Real Ale and proper lagers all the way.
posted by popcassady at 11:15 AM on September 6, 2006

Painful? Are you sure you're not just really dehydrated? Stop drinking so many soft drinks and switch to water during the day, and drink a lot of it. Make sure your diet is reasonably balanced when you're not out drinking. Get some exercise other than walking to class occasionally. Eat more fiber.

Plus, how much beer are we talking about? Start alternating some water into rotation with the beer.
posted by mikeh at 11:37 AM on September 6, 2006

Most likely your popular drinking hole hasn't cleaned the beer plumbing in years and they don't plan on doing it anytime soon, so switch to bottles even though that probably means drinking half as much due to higher costs.
posted by Vindaloo at 11:38 AM on September 6, 2006

Is anyone familar with any kinds of supplements that I could take before drinking that might make it easier on my stomach the morning after?
I've heard from people that swear by supplements that are high in vitamin B12. They pop however many early in the evening then go out and get hammered and suffer no (or significantly reduced) hangover the next morning. I don't know if they would work on your very specific problem though. Just thought I would throw that out there.
posted by NoMich at 11:59 AM on September 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

popcassady: i can't believe i left black label off my list. that's got to be one of the top 3 undrinkable beers on taste alone, up there with genny cream.

back on point, if you're looking for a supplement, try a vitamin B complex. your body uses a lot of B12 to metabolize alcohol, and a vitamin deficiency definitely won't help a hangover. unfortunately one symptom it won't help is the bowl-painting, but it will turn your pee neon yellow, which i guess is kind of cool.
posted by sonofslim at 12:02 PM on September 6, 2006

I second the psyllium husk (metamucil). You're gonna want to let your body get used to it though so start taking it several days ahead of a big night out. My friends have complained about gas induced pain in the intestines when they started and decided to stop. It didn't bother me too much and don't even notice it now. I wish I would have known about soluble fiber earlier.
posted by kookywon at 12:41 PM on September 6, 2006

Possible allergy to one of the ingredients in beer? Wheat, Rye, Barley, corn, Hops... Even if you aren't normally allergic to the ingredients in other forms (bread for instance) you could be sensitive to the converted products of malting and or fermentation.
posted by Gungho at 1:54 PM on September 6, 2006

I was going to mention exactly what Gungho noted (and was surprised no one else had yet), that you have a mild allergy to one of the major ingredients in the particular type of beer you favor. I have a corn allergy, and I dump pretty much any corn in my diet because my body refuses to digest it. Your body may be telling you, hey, we don't accept that kind of stuff around here, which is why it's being rejected so quickly. Like with lactose intolerance (as I am), if I drink a glass of milk, within hours I'll be offering up sacrifices at the porcelain altar because my guts just flat reject it.
posted by vanoakenfold at 2:10 PM on September 6, 2006

There is some junk from Trader Joes (and probably other places too) called Emergen-C. I don't know why it works and I don't care. Whether I'm drinking or not every morning I dump two packets into a small water bottle and sip at it till it's gone. Not only do I not get hang-overs, but I haven't had a cold in over a year.

(not an advertisement)
posted by snsranch at 4:32 PM on September 6, 2006

Get tested for celiac sprue (gluten allergy)...
posted by mdiskin at 5:29 PM on September 6, 2006

Dude.

Stop drinking.

If something makes you not want to eat for days, stop doing that thing. Your body is banging on the ceiling and telling you to stop, because you are hurting it.

Maybe you don't have to stop forever. Stop now, go to a doctor. A friend found he had developed a severe allergy to beer, which would have been very bad had he continued drinking it. He switched to the hard stuff (not necessarily more healthy...) Look in to that.

If that isn't it, just keep stopping. If you have some permanent health problems as a result of soldiering on bravely with getting shitfaced, you're not going to say, years on, "well, at least I had a bunch of great nights I can't remember."

I went to university too, and I was a much better partier than studier. And I would have said it then, too: drinking is really not as important as we're made to believe.

Luckily, you may be given a wonderful opportunity to discover how you can be funny, loose, creative and the life of the party without spending a bunch of money and killing brain cells.
posted by poweredbybeard at 6:33 PM on September 6, 2006

And yeah, I know you didn't want to hear any of that
posted by poweredbybeard at 6:34 PM on September 6, 2006

Treating your intestines like this can lead to all sorts of problems down the road. You don't want to end up with a colostomy bag when you are 70! How about you really do try curbing your alcoholism? Think of all the money you'll save (on beer and toilet paper)!

If you do have celiac sprue, like me, a lot of other things would make you ill, like pizza, pasta, bread. It can also trigger diabetes, excema, asthma, and even intestinal cancer. It ruins the absorbtion abilities of your intestines. The test for it is a blood test, make sure they do the right one, it is not a wheat allergy test. If you have celiac sprue, you would need to stop drinking beer altogether and really change your diet. Btw it is technically an intolerance, not an allergy. And about 1 in 130 people in the US have it, say the scientists.
posted by Eringatang at 6:47 PM on September 6, 2006

Also: my biggest symptom for celiac sprue was a complete loss of appetite for about four months of and on, until I figured out what was going on.
posted by Eringatang at 6:50 PM on September 6, 2006