The last article we published talked about the primary ways CBD products might help motivate you to stick to and achieve your New Year’s resolutions for 2021. As we mentioned, 2020 has been a rough year and we need all the tools and help we can possibly get to ensure we start off 2021 right and make it a better year than this one.
This article, on the other hand, is dealing with a more immediate, practical concern related to New Year’s Eve: the hangover that follows.
For many of us, December 31st means friends, big dinners, parties, and, generally, lots and lots of alcohol. And whether you’re drinking champagne, your favorite beers, or cocktails, ringing in the new year tends to cause many of us to over do it, even if only slightly. What does that often mean for the first day of the next trip around the sun? That we spend it with a headache and upset stomach sleeping in and lying in our beds wishing for the discomfort to stop.
The question is, do you have to suffer powerlessly through the pain on January 1st? The answer is not necessarily. CBD may be able to help prevent and improve your New Year’s hangover.
CBD for Hangovers: What We Know
“Hangover” is essentially a catchall or umbrella term that describes the combination of all the symptoms typically associated with decreasing amounts of alcohol in the blood after drinking. Other than time, sleep, and maybe water, there is no known way to “cure” a hangover overall. The best we can hope to do is treat the various symptoms.
This is why CBD shows so much potential with easing the ill effects of a fun night out. Because there is ample evidence that it may have the ability to treat essentially all the painful symptoms of hangovers. These include:
- Headache relief
- Nausea relief
- Anxiety relief
- Antioxidant properties
- Liver damage
As a general rule, the more alcohol you drink, the more likely you are to have a hangover the next day. But there's no magic formula to tell you how much you can safely drink and still avoid a hangover. For some people it can be ten drinks and for others, just one. The good news is that, however unpleasant, most hangovers go away on their own, usually within 24 hours or fewer. Most of us who choose to partake know this going in and simply accept it. If you’re drinking on New Year’s and you don’t normally drink, then taking CBD to help mitigate the negative effects will be even more important.
CBD for Hangover Effects: Headaches and Nausea
Hangover headaches and nausea, in particular, are the very palpable effects of your body reacting to a substance it knows isn’t good. That splitting headache you are experiencing is the result of your immune system’s inflammatory response induced by alcohol. While nausea that has you running to the bathroom is thanks to an increase in acid production in your stomach. Alcohol is an irritant to your system and induces this surge of acid.
There is much evidence that CBD works great as an anti-inflammatory, which is exactly what you need to combat that pounding headache and any other aches you may be experiencing after heavy drinking. Studies also have shown that it may reduce the frequency of migraine headaches and neuropathic pain. When it comes to nausea, there is mounting evidence that CBD is effective at treating vomiting resulting from chemotherapy or other therapeutic treatments by interacting with serotonin receptors in your body. The same is thought to hold true for vomiting resulting from alcohol.
Fight the Hangover Low
Feeling depressed after a night of drinking is a common occurrence. It’s not quite understood why, but alcohol often leads to anxiety and the questioning of one’s entire life and existence the following day. One of the reasons is thought to be related to the fact that alcohol activates the reward system in our brains. The reason we feel good when we drink is that alcohol triggers the release of dopamine.
The flip side of that, however, is that it also interferes with the release of other neurotransmitters, like serotonin. Post alcohol woes may be the result of depressed levels of serotonin and dopamine after the night of drinking, leading to bad moods, negative emotions, and low energy.
Other than its anti-inflammatory wonders, one of the most common uses of CBD is to treat stress and anxiety. When it comes to alcohol, this means that CBD can potentially treat hangover induced feelings of low-ness, uncertainty, and sadness. The reason for this may be that CBD is thought to regulate the levels of serotonin, cortisol, and other neurotransmitters, keeping them in balance.
What we know is that cannabinoid receptors are found on serotonin neurons, as well as on their corresponding inhibitory receptors. Specifically, CBD is thought to interact with 5-HT1a receptors that control serotonin levels in the brain and body. This leads to the conclusion that cannabinoids may increase serotonin levels in certain conditions, and reduce them in others, providing the balance necessary for proper health—and necessary to not feel as crappy after a long night of drinking on New Year’s.
How to Take CBD this New Year’s Eve
The important thing to realize is that you will not feel the effects of CBD overnight. It takes time for it to build up in your system and act on your endocannabinoid system to help develop homeostasis, or bodily balance. For that reason, you can’t expect to start taking it the morning of December 31st and then be hangover free on January 1st. Your best bet is to start using CBD products now so they have a chance to build up in your body before New Year’s.
What’s the Best CBD Dosage for You?
Different CBD products affect people differently and there is no one size fits all when it comes to dosage. Among other potential factors, the way CBD affects your body depends on the following:
- The concentration of CBD – This is the total amount of CBD in a given product. Concentration is typically measured in milligrams (mg).
- The weight of the individual - Generally speaking, heavier people need higher doses to experience the calming effects of CBD; lighter people, on the other hand, may feel the same effects with a lower dose.
- The individual’s body chemistry – Each of our bodies are different. Your particular chemical makeup means that drugs, supplements, food—anything you ingest—will affect you differently than they will someone else. This includes any tolerance that you have built up to particular substances (like CBD).
- The severity of the condition being treated – This factor is largely subjective. If you are experiencing severe pain or anxiety, then you may need a higher dosage than if you have slight pain or feel mildly anxious.
- Prescription Therapy – The amount of previous prescription therapy used to treat a condition may impact the dosage required as well. For example, if someone has taken a large amount of opioids to treat chronic pain, they may require a higher CBD dose until their body adjusts.
The critical thing to remember is that, like most supplements, CBD dosage is highly personalized. This means that what works for someone else may not work for you. You should always keep in mind when trying CBD for the first time or when trying out a new product or consumption method that it is best to “start low and go slow”.
Nothing to Lose: Try CBD to Better Ring in 2021
We’ve said this many times before in our articles, CBD is completely non-toxic and there are no known serious negative side effects. What that means is that you can give our CBD products a try this New Year’s worry free and see if it makes you feel better on New Year’s Day!
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