You had a rough week at work and so you decide to follow-up with a wild night to forget the memos and e-mail task lists. Maybe you have one too many and wake up the following morning holding on to your head.

No one likes hangovers. They are painful and they zap the day’s productivity and you’re in the business of time saving and maximizing your day. Outside of sipping a sports drink and munching on crackers, is there any way to speed up that recovery? Studies suggest that a sauna suit may just be the answer.

Although it is specifically designed for sports performance, the Kutting Weight sauna suit benefits extend into other areas of your health and lifestyle. Case in point: the hangover cure. First, let’s understand why your head is pounding, your stomach is unsettled, and you feel like you’ve been hit in the head with a brick.

What Causes a Hangover?

Alcohol is a tricky thing. Our bodies tolerate alcohol to a moderate and responsible point. Over doing it just means an incredible amount of work for your body. A hangover is thought to take place for three primary reasons:

1. Dehydration

On a normal day-to-day, your body requires a decent amount of water to assist in everyday tasks. When you drink alcohol, you are consuming ethanol. Ethanol is a known dehydrating compound. It triggers increased urination. When you pee, you lose fluids including necessary electrolytes that assist with your body’s messaging network between cells.

When your body starts calling out for a refill of high quality H2O, you respond with more alcohol. This vicious cycle quickly leads to dehydration.

Once dehydration sets in, get ready for a wild ride. Dehydration causes the blood vessels to constrict and red blood cells to swell. What you have is a narrow space for extra-large objects to move through. The result is that infamous hangover headache. (1-2)

2. Inflammation

Your body is not a fan of the inflammatory response. Inflammation, which necessary in most cases, just plain sucks. When you drink an overabundance of alcohol, you know which organ doesn’t appreciate it? Well… None of them enjoy it but in particular, your stomach isn’t a fan.

Alcohol can severely irritate the lining of your stomach. In response, you end up hugging your toilet for most of the night. As you vomit, you increase your dehydration, which, as we mentioned above, will only increase the pain from the headache you have. (1-2)

3. Congeners

This funny, French-looking word is what happens during the natural fermentation process of alcohol. When alcohol is becoming… alcohol, congeners are produced. These compounds give alcohol its distinct taste and aroma of that particular drink of choice. Different types of alcohol have different levels of congeners. For example, red wine has a lot and gin doesn’t have that much.

Studies show that the more congeners in an alcoholic beverage, the greater chance for a hangover AND the greater the severity of the hangover. (1-2)

Individually, these three things aren’t too bad and probably not terrible enough to warrant the hangover of a lifetime. However, since they are working together, you’re in for trouble when you drink too much.

Sweating it Out: Fact or Fiction?

When you wake up in the morning, you don’t realize it but your body has been hard at work throughout the night trying to get rid of the toxins from the alcohol. This means it’s been working overtime to filter those toxins through the liver; however, it’s been working without the proper tools because you’re dehydrated. It needs water and electrolytes to help do its job. You’ve been providing neither of those things.

In order to feel better faster, your body needs to get rid of the problem: the alcohol still floating around your bloodstream. This means you need to crank up your body’s ability to start ditching toxins. One of the best ways to get rid of toxins is through sweating. As you already know, the high heat environment that you’ll find in a sauna is the perfect place to sweat.

Since you aren’t able to move further than the kitchen, this is where the Kutting Weight sauna suit can help. Capturing that same high heat environment and the same benefits of a sauna, the Kutting Weight neoprene sauna suit can help increase your sweating rate and detoxification phase. (3)

Sweating Safely: Detoxing from a Hangover (Without Making Yourself Worse)

It is extremely important to understand this:

YES, the sauna suit can help you sweat more and detox faster; however, you need to be well hydrated before you even attempt this.

Remember that you are dehydrated from the over consumption of alcohol. Since the suit will immediately trigger an increased rate of sweat, that means you’ll be losing even more fluids.

If you’re already running low on fluids, your body is going to be in big trouble. Increasing your sweating rate when you’re already dehydrated is extremely dangerous. Do NOT put on the suit until you have re-hydrated yourself.

Here are the steps to follow to safely detox from a hangover with the Kutting Weight sauna suit:

1. Rehydrate

The first thing you must do before setting foot near the suit is to get more fluids into your body. Not just any fluids, you need water and electrolytes. The fastest way to do this is to drink a bottle of mineral water followed by a sports drink. Sip each one and gradually consume them. If you chug them all at once, your stomach might respond by sending it back up.

The exact amount of water you should drink is tough to say. It’s going to vary based on the individual and the condition of the person. A safe bet is at least a liter of water and sports drink. Remember that you’ll need to drink more than you think because soon you’ll be sweating it back out.

2. Wait

After you consume enough fluids, wait for 30 to 60 minutes to make sure your body is okay and will be able to tolerate getting into the suit.

3. Suit Up

Put on the Kutting Weight sauna suit and relax. Give yourself 15 minutes in the suit. This is an ideal timeframe that allows you to increase your sweat and detox rate without over doing it.

4. Listen to Your Body

Your body is already in a frail state so you want to be careful. Stepping into a sauna or putting on the sauna suit is like a form of exercise so you have to listen to your body’s cues. If you start to feel faint or dizzy, take off the suit immediately.

5. Repeat the Process

After your 15 minutes in the suit, get back to rehydrating yourself. Again, wait for an hour and then suit up again to sweat out those toxins. With the amount you’ll be sweating, you’ll probably only need one to three sessions in the suit followed by proper hydration.

Tell Us What You Think!

What methods do you use to cure a hangover?

Have you ever tried the sauna suit?

Let us know in the comments below!

References

1. Swift, Robert, M.D. "Alcohol Hangover: Mechanisms and Mediators." Springer Reference 22.1 (1998): 1-6. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol Health & Research World, 1998. Web.

2. Jones, A.W. Elimination half-life of methanol during hangover. Pharmacology & Toxicology. 60(3):217–220, 1987.

3. Hannuksela, M. L. & Ellahham, S. Benefits and risks of sauna bathing. The American journal of medicine 110, 118-126 (2001).