Swelling after alcohol and ways to eliminate them according to doctors

Redness of the eyes due to alcohol abuse

How do you imagine a person who had too much alcohol the night before?
Sickly appearance, poor coordination, a smell that gives the maximum idea of ​​the method of relaxation chosen last night. But if the fumes can be somehow hidden, then the face with a hangover clearly reveals the full scale of yesterday's abuse. Is it all about you? Then you need to figure out why your face swells after drinking alcohol. This phenomenon is caused by a violation of the redistribution of fluid in the body. Although alcohol is a strong diuretic, and you may notice increased urination during vomiting, there is no severe dehydration as such with a hangover. The feeling of dry mouth is caused by alcoholic hypoglycemia (low sugar levels) and a decrease in circulating blood volume, but there is an excess of fluid in the body.

It accumulates in the intercellular space of body tissues. The nature of this phenomenon is as follows: the ethyl molecule enters the blood from the gastrointestinal tract. It is relatively small and cell membranes are not an obstacle to it, so it spreads freely throughout the body, “grabbing” several water molecules with it. In such an “enriched composition”, ethyl remains to wait for its processing in the peripheral tissues of the body.

What can drinking alcohol and human vision have in common? However, ophthalmologists are sounding the alarm: the effect of alcohol on human vision is so negative that the problem becomes a reason for discussion at medical conferences.

People who drink gradually decrease the acuity of their perception of objects, and this is not the worst consequence. After drinking low-quality strong drinks, a person can remain completely blind.

Even young people notice a deterioration in the perception of objects after heavy drinking. But a healthy body recovers quickly and the symptoms disappear on their own without any treatment. However, with each new drink, vision decreases more and more, and recovery requires more time. Gradually, the visual organ wears out and ceases to clearly distinguish objects both near and far.

There are several reasons for visual impairment after drinking alcohol.

At the first stage after drinking ethyl alcohol, blood vessels dilate, a psychological uplift and pleasant excitement arise. Then comes the next stage - narrowing of the blood vessels, pressure increases in them and blood clots form.

After drinking alcohol, it is mainly the smallest capillaries that suffer - arterioles and venules, in which blood stops flowing normally. Insufficient oxygen supply to the retinal cells causes vision loss.

Alcohol dilates blood vessels, which become especially noticeable in a person's eyes. That is why, after a “well-spent” evening, you will not only be tormented by a hangover, but also a vampire who vaguely resembles you will look out of the mirror.

In this case, it is recommended to cleanse the body of toxins. Take a cool shower, relax and unwind. Drink soothing tea, make a compress from chamomile infusion, tea leaves, potatoes or cucumber, which will not only remove redness, but also relieve puffiness around the eyes.

If you need to run to work, an important meeting, etc., you will have to eliminate the redness in more radical ways. You can use eye drops (Vizin, Murin, Sofradex) containing an active vasoconstrictor that will quickly relieve redness. But do not abuse medications, as later it will be increasingly difficult for you to do without them.

The appearance of swelling and swelling of the eyes and face is a common occurrence after heavy drinking (after drinking). What to do in this case? Allergic reactions may be the cause. Redness of the eyes is, in turn, a consequence of rupture of blood vessels in the eyes; some capillaries located close to the surface of the eye white become visible.

To treat red eyes caused by both alcohol allergies and broken capillaries, you can use over-the-counter eye drops, such as preservative-free artificial tears (Visine, Okuflesh). Other products recommended by your pharmacist or doctor may be used. Place drops into affected eyes 4-6 times daily.

Since most drops have a shelf life of less than 4 weeks after opening, it is recommended to note the date the package was opened. Try not to touch the applicator with your hands. Some products can be stored for up to 3 months thanks to special closure.

We suggest you read: What you need to do to avoid a hangover

Slight redness of the eyes during a hangover can be quickly relieved with the help of herbs. The most commonly used are herbal infusions. They must be prepared under almost sterile conditions, boiled for 10 minutes to destroy bacteria. You should also strain the infusions through thick cloths or coffee filters to get rid of the smallest particles. Use decoctions to rinse red eyes.

1. If your eyes are red, the first herb used in treatment is chamomile. It is used both for compresses and for rinsing red eyes.
2. Eyebright helps relieve inflammation and eliminate redness.
3. Compresses made from agrimony decoction relieve fatigue, redness of the eyes, and relieve inflammation.
4. Rinsing red eyes with a decoction of calendula, which has an antiseptic effect, eliminates inflammation, redness, and maintains visual acuity.
5. Lanceolate plantain has a healing and anti-inflammatory effect, which is important not only for skin wounds, but also for red eyes.

Herbs do not work as well as antibiotics prescribed by doctors, and they will not help with severe inflammation that causes red eyes. Therefore, if there is no improvement (or even worsening) of symptoms after 2 days of home treatment, contact a specialist.

The most common symptom of a painful hangover is a headache - it occurs in 25% of cases, tears the brain apart, makes you hate bright lights, loud noises and even yourself. The only thing you want at such moments is to get rid of these pains as soon as possible. So why do you get headaches from a hangover and what can you do about it?

In fact, there are several reasons, and they are all related to human physiology, redox processes and toxicology:

1. Intoxication is the main cause of hangover headaches. Those. Too many toxins and poisons accumulate in the body, which need to be neutralized and eliminated as soon as possible with the help of the liver and kidneys. And for this they need a lot of energy and water. Therefore, human regulatory mechanisms begin to redistribute fluid primarily in favor of these organs, but at the same time to the detriment of others. The same pathological redistribution of fluid occurs, which is often mistakenly called dehydration.
2. Due to lack of water, the brain is the first to suffer, because it consists of 75% liquid. As a result, there is a slight temporary reduction in this important organ. Moreover, although it is believed that the brain itself is immune to pain, scientists suggest that during a hangover the dura mater (outer) also contracts - it is precisely connected with those fibers that can sense pain.
3. Another reason is that under the influence of alcohol, the blood becomes thicker, as a result of which its transport functions for delivering oxygen to brain cells are disrupted - hypoxia occurs, which is the cause of cranial headaches.
4. Moreover, due to oxygen starvation, brain cells begin to die, after which they are excreted using a special liquid. It’s the rush to the head that causes pain. In addition, it leads to increased intracranial pressure.
5. Processing ethanol requires a lot of energy - as a result, glucose deficiency occurs, leading to a decrease in brain performance. And the lack of nutrition for this unique organ is again a reason for headaches.
6. Often we are faced with an unbearable heaviness in the head during a hangover. In this case, the causes are vascular disorders, changes in hemodynamics - a real increased intracranial pressure occurs, which experts call intracranial hypertension.

The most popular and well-proven remedies for hangover headaches are:

• Cold compresses on the head (fill a bag with ice cubes and apply) - this helps to narrow the blood vessels and relieve unpleasant symptoms.
• Aspirin, analgin or other pharmaceutical drugs. But you should not take paracetamol or citramon - they will become an additional burden for an already tortured liver.
• Strong coffee or green tea - due to this, blood vessels narrow, which leads to the relief of a number of unpleasant symptoms. The herbal decoction of mint, rosemary, dandelion and milk thistle is especially good.
• Cucumber or cabbage brine is a source of liquid and a number of vitamins and minerals, or better yet, mineral water rich in potassium and calcium ions.
• Contrast shower - restores performance and relieves the feeling of heaviness in the head.
• Walking and physical exercise in the fresh air are very good - at the same time, the brain cells are saturated with oxygen, and the head comes to its senses.
• And the most effective way is not treatment, but prevention, i.e. We try to drink in moderation and not mix different types of alcohol.

We suggest you read: Does milk help with a hangover?

What to do if your face is swollen after drinking? You should seriously think about the state of your health and temporarily or permanently stop drinking alcohol. In case of severe edema, when even the limbs become swollen, there is no need to self-prescribe treatment by taking a large number of diuretics, the effect of which is insignificant and short-term.

After alcohol, a swollen face appears in 90% of cases. Sometimes it happens that swelling goes away during the day along with other symptoms of a hangover (nausea, headache, dryness and disorientation). Often this process is facilitated by normal, sound sleep and good rest.

Charcoal can be replaced with any other sorbents that collect toxins in the intestines (“for example, neosmectin or enterosgel”).

With prolonged binge drinking and, as a consequence, severe alcohol intoxication, it can be quite difficult to remove swelling from the face. This requires the use of additional means and measures. In severe cases, there is especially severe swelling of the face, which appears in the morning, when swollen eyes can barely open, and the puffiness of the face knows no bounds.

Why does vision deteriorate after drinking alcohol? Delivery of contact lenses and glasses in Moscow and Russia

It's no secret that alcohol is harmful to human health. Not only the liver and heart are at risk, but also other organs, including the eyes. Alcohol abuse can lead to severe eye diseases, severe vision loss and even blindness. Let's find out how this happens and how to restore vision after alcohol?

Why does vision deteriorate after drinking alcohol?

The eyes are very sensitive and vulnerable, so it is not surprising that alcohol has a negative impact on their health.

Ethyl alcohol has a bad effect on the functioning of all body systems, interferes with normal blood supply to organs, damages blood vessels, and causes surges in blood and intracranial pressure.

Even one-time consumption of alcohol can lead to severe intoxication and serious health consequences.

The effects of alcohol on vision may be temporary.

This manifests itself in symptoms such as redness of the white part of the eyeball, diplopia (double image), lacrimation (or, on the contrary, dry cornea).

Alcohol abuse also causes more serious consequences - atrophy of the optic nerve and a sharp deterioration in vision. A chronic drinker risks permanent loss of visual function.

At the same time, the harm that alcohol causes causes irreversible loss of visual abilities, that is, the resulting ailments cannot be treated. If this process is not stopped, it can result in incurable blindness.

The danger is that visual acuity after alcohol can drop rapidly, or it can deteriorate gradually. A person often does not notice this and does not turn to an ophthalmologist.

How does alcohol affect the eyes and why does vision worsen after drinking alcohol? Let's consider how ethyl alcohol affects various structures of the eye and worsens various vision functions.

Double vision after drinking alcohol

Diplopia (double vision) after alcohol is a very common phenomenon experienced by all people who abuse alcohol. At the same time, seeing double not only while drinking alcohol, but also later, in a state of hangover.

The toxic effect on the eye muscles leads to disruption of their functionality. They contract much worse, while the muscles of both eyes work uncoordinated, the visual axes shift in different directions, as a result of which double vision occurs in the resulting image.

One eye in this condition usually sees worse than the other.

Redness of the eyes after alcohol

Redness of the sclera after drinking alcohol is the most common symptom of a hangover. Alcohol entering the body leads to poor circulation.

The level of red blood cells in the blood decreases sharply, and their lack causes a rapid drop in hemoglobin levels and the formation of blood clots.

Organs and tissues receive less oxygen and other nutrients obtained from the blood.

The eyes need a constant supply of oxygen, otherwise they begin to suffer from hypoxia. The person’s vision becomes dark, the image seems blurry and indistinct. Hypoxia also manifests itself in redness of the whites of the eyes.

The vessels of the brain and eyeball are also responsible for supplying the eye tissue with oxygen. Vasoconstriction, which occurs during a hangover, causes an increase in intracranial pressure, due to which the thinnest vessels in the retina, the capillaries, burst. In this regard, after drinking alcohol, a person has a red network of burst capillaries in his eyes.

Redness is accompanied by a sensation of a foreign body in the eye, itching, pain, burning, and stinging. These symptoms disappear as soon as the person copes with the hangover syndrome.

They do not pose any particular health hazard.

However, systematic consumption of alcohol in large quantities will lead to the fact that all these symptoms will become chronic and will be observed against the background of a general deterioration of vision.

Narrowing of visual fields after drinking alcohol

When drunk, a person often gets injured or has accidents. This happens because the field of vision after drinking alcohol narrows several times. Side objects are almost completely out of sight.

With severe intoxication, the so-called “tunnel vision” effect occurs, when a person seems to be looking at the world as if through a spyglass.

When a person sobers up, visual functions are restored, but chronic alcoholism radically damages the tissue of the optic nerve with its subsequent atrophy, one of the symptoms of which is a severe narrowing of the visual fields.

Contrast sensitivity of the eyes and alcoholism

Another detrimental effect of alcohol on the eyes is impaired color vision. Scientists from the University of Chile have studied the connection between alcoholism and color blindness for many years. It turns out that color perception is affected by the condition of the liver: the more it is affected by alcohol, the worse colors and shades are perceived.

The last stage of cirrhosis in almost all cases provokes complete color blindness (color blindness). All organs are interconnected and damage to one system of the body leads to a decrease in the functionality of other systems. Alcohol causes a deficiency in the liver of enzymes that are involved in the synthesis of the light-sensitive pigment of the retina, which is responsible for the contrast of the image.

Alcohol and the condition of the eye lens

The lens consists of proteins, and alcohol oxidizes them. This is one of the main causes of cataracts - clouding of the lens. Scientists have long come to the conclusion that the predisposition of people who smoke and drink alcohol to cataracts is much higher.

Vision is severely impaired after drinking alcohol: what to do?

Alcoholism leads to a very severe ophthalmological pathology - optic nerve atrophy, which can cause blindness. Of course, a one-time intake of alcohol-containing drinks is not capable of provoking such a disease. We are talking specifically about chronic alcoholism.

Atrophy occurs as a result of ethanol preventing adequate nutrition of the nerve. Because of this, its fibers die, which cannot be restored.

Optic nerve atrophy has the following symptoms:

• color vision impairment;
• loss of entire sections of the image from the field of view (so-called “blind spots” appear);
• severe narrowing of visual fields;
• My eyes and head hurt when I move my eyeballs.

The pathology progresses very quickly, but a person who drinks too much may not notice them. He is in danger of losing his visual acuity to the point of complete blindness.

The harm of alcohol increases many times over if the alcoholic drink is of poor quality. Surrogates can cause complete blindness and other severe eye diseases even after a single use.

It is worth saying that there is no harmless alcohol. Ethanol, which is dangerous to health, is found in varying quantities in all alcohol-containing drinks, including low-alcohol cocktails and light beer.

The face turns red after drinking alcohol. What to do?

If your face turns red and “burns” after drinking alcohol, it is recommended to consult a doctor: for starters, a therapist, an endocrinologist and a neurologist. There are more than a dozen possible reasons: allergies to alcohol, intestinal dysbiosis and many others. Therefore, before treatment, you need to find out the cause.

Facial redness may be a type of alcohol allergy, read about this below.

If the redness of the face is not severe, goes away easily and is not accompanied by other alarming symptoms, then this can be ignored.

What to do if your face darkens (blackens) after drinking alcohol

If, after heavy drinking, a dark (as if tanned) complexion occurs and lasts for some time, then you need to consult a therapist and take a bilirubin test to assess the condition of the liver.

Read interesting and funny articles on our blog!* Types of wine.

* History of the appearance of liqueurs.

* Smelly colleague. Story.

To learn how to understand for yourself that something is wrong with your liver and what tests will help, read the article “How to check your liver.”

How to relieve facial swelling on your own after heavy drinking

Experts recommend several simple, affordable and safe ways to get yourself in order after drinking too much.

1. Drink plenty of fluids , with preference given to drinks that will help restore electrolyte deficiency. Brine is ideal (yes, the old “old-fashioned” method really works), alkaline mineral waters (preferably slightly or still). You can purchase special medications for oral dehydration at the pharmacy. As a rule, they come in powder form and are intended to be dissolved in warm boiled water. The preparation method and dosage are described in detail in the instructions for the drug.
2. Reception of adsorbents. Activated carbon is effective only for acute intoxication. To relieve hangover, long-acting drugs (for example, Atoxil, Sorbex) are suitable. Combination medications containing an adsorbent in combination with a hepatoprotector are now available.
3. Water procedures. A contrast shower helps a lot. Alternating cool and hot water activates microcirculation, improves tissue respiration, speeds up metabolism and will help relieve swelling after heavy drinking in the shortest possible time.
4. Proper nutrition. Due to nausea, dizziness and general malaise, the feeling of hunger is dulled. However, you should not completely give up food, but you should refrain from “heavy” foods. Vegetable salads and soups, stews, porridges, and boiled lean meat are ideal.

How to remove facial swelling after heavy drinking: a few simple recipes

The fastest way to get rid of the external consequences of excessive drinking: cosmetic masks that are easy to prepare yourself. For example:

• grated cucumber;
• parsley ground in a blender (it can be mixed with sour cream, yogurt, crushed boiled potatoes);
• strawberry pulp;
• strong chilled tea, milk, chamomile decoction, calendula (you can add mint leaves): you need to moisten gauze or loose cotton cloth and put it on your face.

If your face is swollen after a binge, it is recommended to wash your face with cold water; you can also wipe your skin with an ice cube.

Medications

On various forums, there are quite often recommendations for eliminating swelling with the help of diuretics, venotonics, cardioprotectors, etc. But doctors warn against such experiments. Even in a healthy person, uncontrolled use of such drugs can provoke quite serious adverse reactions. Therefore, they should only be prescribed by a doctor after a preliminary examination.

You need to see a doctor in the following cases:

• swelling persists for several days;
• redness of the skin, appearance of spider veins;
• hypertension, arrhythmia;
• pain in the abdomen, lower back, chest;
• urination problems, changes in the color of urine and feces.

These symptoms may indicate the development or exacerbation of quite serious diseases of the internal organs, which require mandatory diagnosis and treatment. If there are signs of withdrawal syndrome (tremor, sweating, psycho-emotional disturbances, weakness, nausea, headache), it is necessary to call a narcologist to drug cleanse the body of ethanol.

Medicines for recovery

How long it takes to come to your senses depends on the duration of the binge. If we talk about how to restore the body after binge drinking, this can be done at home using products that will help cleanse the body of toxins and normalize the functioning of internal organs.

Activated carbon and its analogues (white carbon, pancreatin, filtrum and other sorbents) can normalize the functioning of the digestive system after a binge, when the stomach hurts, hiccups are observed.

The liver, which is signaled by pain in the right side in the lower part of the rib, will be helped by hepabene, essentiale forte, and holosas. They will help cleanse the organ of toxins. Among the folk remedies, rosehip decoction, grape and birch sap will help relieve pain. If a person stops drinking in time, the liver, although it takes a long time, recovers.

To normalize the functioning of the cardiovascular system after heavy drinking: validol, valocordin. Such measures will not only improve the functioning of the heart by removing pain from the left side of the sternum, but will also help restore the face by removing swelling caused by disruption of the heart due to alcohol abuse.

A sedative will help normalize sleep and improve the functioning of the immune system.

For allergies, in which the face becomes covered with spots, the body itches, the stomach hurts, and the eyes water, the doctor will prescribe antiallergic drugs, as well as drugs to remove toxins.

Vitamin and mineral complexes will help strengthen your health, improve immunity, metabolism, and the functioning of the central nervous system after binge drinking. First of all, vitamins B6 (thiamine), C (ascorbic acid), glycine. Medicinal herbs and decoctions will be useful.

The procedure for taking medications does not include combining medications with alcohol, since you can achieve the opposite effect and further undermine your health. This also applies to validol if the alcoholic has problems with the heart.

If you take validol and alcohol at the same time, then alcohol, which is an stimulating drink, completely neutralizes the effect of validol. That's why the medicine won't do any good. In addition, after some time after drinking alcohol, the body relaxes. Validol enhances this effect, reduces blood pressure, and slows down the reaction. Side effects such as dizziness, nausea, lacrimation, and increased salivation are also possible.

But with the help of validol, recovery of the cardiovascular system after binge drinking is possible. At the same time, you should not swallow Validol in packs in order to come to your senses and normalize your heart function: the dosage must be specified by the doctor, otherwise you can harm yourself.

We suggest you read: Why there is no sleep after a binge

Pharmacy products

After the party, you can use medications to eliminate swelling and improve your well-being. To remove excess fluid from the body, you need to take diuretics. Most swelling occurs after drinking beer, not vodka or whiskey. Only a small part of the water is excreted in the urine immediately, and the main volume accumulates. Various salty snacks such as taranka, chips and other snacks enhance the effect.

To eliminate severe swelling, you can take the following medications in the morning:

• Hypothiazide;
• Diacarb;
• Trigrim;
• Veroshpiron.

A single dosage of these drugs is half a tablet. You should not drink more, otherwise the effect of dehydration will increase. To avoid disruptions in the water-salt balance, it is necessary to take solutions of Regidron or Gidrovit along with diuretics. They contain minerals and glucose - substances that are necessary to restore physical and mental activity.

A popular and affordable drug that can be bought at any pharmacy, narcologists do not recommend taking . This drug helps remove potassium from the body, and this increases trembling of the hands and the appearance of cramps in the legs. The rest of the previously listed remedies retain potassium, therefore they are more favorable for the cardiovascular system and the whole body.

It is also useful to use sorbents. They will ensure rapid removal of toxic compounds from the body and cleanse the liver. This is a large list of drugs. You can choose activated carbon, proven for centuries, or more modern options: Enterosgel, Atoxil, Smecta, Polysorb.

What causes the color of the tongue to change after drinking alcohol?

After drinking, the color of the “pattern” on the tongue may change: become more yellow, dark, bluish or something else. This means that intestinal intoxication has also been added to alcohol intoxication. The tongue reflects the state of the gastrointestinal tract, the work of which is inevitably disrupted due to drinking.

If a yellow coating on your tongue persists for a long time and does not go away, this may mean that something is going wrong in your body. Such a symptom may be harmless, or may indicate incipient jaundice, gastritis, eczema or other diseases. How to get rid of this trouble yourself, and in what cases you need to go to the doctor - read the article about yellow coating on the tongue.

Alcohol can affect skin condition indirectly: problematic skin can be the result of damage to the liver, intestines or pancreas. Therefore, if your skin condition has worsened due to regular alcohol consumption, then you won’t be able to limit yourself to a visit to a dermatologist: the reasons lie much deeper, and finding out them is important not only for beauty, but also for the health of the entire body.

Literature:

1. Eryshev O.F., Rybakova T.G., Shabanov P.D. Alcohol addiction: formation, course, anti-relapse therapy. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house "ELBI-SPb", 2002. - 192 p.
2. Malin D.I., Medvedev V.M. Clinical narcology in diagrams, tables and figures: textbook. manual - 4th ed. - M.: University Book, 2012. - 172 p.: ill.
3. Yu.P. Sivolap, V.A. Savchenkov. Pharmacotherapy of acute neurological conditions in an alcoholism clinic. - M.: Anacharsis, 2001. - 45 p.
4. Pogosov A.V. Problems of addiction (lecture course). - Kursk: KSMU, 2005. - 216 p.

Why do people swell after drinking?

If the skin dries out after drinking alcohol, a feeling of “tightness” appears on the face, if the lips crack and the mucous membranes hurt, then this is either an allergic or autoimmune reaction to alcohol. If dry skin is observed only after a certain alcoholic drink, then the only way out is to give up this drink for at least a year. If after a year of abstinence the reaction resumes, you will have to quit this drink completely.

Sorbents (activated carbon, smecta, enterosgel or others) and choleretic drugs (Liv-52, choleretic preparations from the pharmacy, rosehip syrup, corn silk) will help get rid of dry skin after alcohol. They will help you quickly remove those substances to which your body has reacted.

You can also suspect an allergy to alcohol if the following symptoms occur: rough, flaky spots on the face, red and hot facial skin, red and watery eyes, severe swelling, a small rash resembling a nettle burn. Allergic reactions can be much more dangerous. Read the special article to know what to do if a severe allergic reaction develops, and also why an allergy to alcohol occurs in the first place.

Swelling of the face in the morning after a feast is very common. This happens because alcohol molecules, which accumulate in soft tissues, attach to themselves several molecules of liquid in the body. At the same time, swelling and dehydration appear, which are accompanied by dry mucous membranes and a constant thirst for water.

The main causes of edema from drinking alcohol:

• drinking alcohol with plenty of water or carbonated drinks;
• salty or pickled snacks that provoke fluid retention;
• metabolic disorders due to alcohol abuse;
• intoxication of the body with alcohol;
• cardiovascular diseases;
• lack of vitamins due to constant consumption of strong drinks;
• a consequence of lack of sleep or night drinking;
• allergic reaction to alcohol.

If, after stopping drinking, the swelling does not subside, the cause may be serious pathologies of the endocrine system and genitourinary area. The person may suffer from kidney or liver failure. Fluid retention in the body indicates abuse of strong drinks: too frequent feasts or large quantities of alcohol.

What causes swelling

Alcohol in large doses acts as a poison on the body and has an aggressive effect on the kidneys and other organs of the excretory system. Swelling that appears after drinking strong drinks is an external manifestation of internal intoxication.

Acetaldehyde and other components of alcoholic beverages affect different organs:

1. Heart . Ethanol inhibits the functioning of the heart muscle, causing it to contract more slowly. Therefore, the blood is less saturated with oxygen, it becomes thicker, because its chemical composition undergoes changes. Due to such disorders, fluid begins to accumulate in the intercellular space. This is one of the reasons for swelling after a stormy feast.
2. Liver . When alcohol enters the body, this organ takes the brunt of the impact. The liver is responsible for the synthesis of albumin - proteins that retain fluid. With a significant load on this organ, its diseases, or damage, the concentration of proteins in the blood decreases. This is another reason for the accumulation of fluids in tissues.
3. Kidneys . They also suffer from exposure to ethanol and their function is impaired. But this is the main organ responsible for removing fluid. The load on the kidneys is especially high during beer alcoholism, when the volume of incoming fluid is large. Swollen arms and legs, bags under the eyes are an indicator that the kidneys cannot cope with the load.

After drinking alcohol, two opposite trends are observed. On the one hand, ethyl alcohol makes the skin dry and water leaves it. On the other hand, it accumulates in the subcutaneous layer, which causes swelling. If you drink alcohol only from time to time, then swelling during a hangover is not too noticeable, it goes away quite quickly. Additionally, the situation is aggravated by lack of sleep and allergies to the components of drinks, which is more typical for cocktails. With alcoholism, swelling becomes permanent. During binge drinking, they go away no less than 8-10 days after stopping drinking alcohol.

Why does my head hurt after a hangover?

An unsightly appearance is far from the worst thing that a hangover can lead to. Sometimes, against the background of alcohol intoxication, some dangerous disease worsens or appears for the first time, but it is not always possible to recognize it in time behind the symptoms of a hangover. Read our article about what symptoms are normal for a hangover, and if any signs appear, you should not be shy and immediately call an ambulance.

This article was last updated: 11/15/2019

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Professional help

In addition to folk remedies, to eliminate hangover symptoms, incl. its external manifestations, you can resort to drug therapy. Drug treatment centers offer a service such as calling a narcologist to your home. The doctor will arrive with everything you need and will put in a hangover drip with saline and other medications. This will quickly eliminate dry skin, dehydration of the body, and ensure the removal of toxic compounds. Along with this, swelling will also disappear. If desired, detoxification can be done in a hospital setting under the supervision of a professional narcologist . This service is also anonymous. Along with cleansing the body, specialists will conduct an examination to find the reason why your arms, legs, and face are swollen. Perhaps this is a consequence of metabolic disorders and the presence of chronic diseases.

Why do facial muscles tremble after alcohol?

Small involuntary trembling (or, scientifically, tremor) of the hands, tongue and head is a sign of chronic alcoholism. In the morning and on an empty stomach, this tremor intensifies. Sometimes it disappears after eating or after drinking alcohol, so alcoholics try to get hungover in the morning. Doctors say: for a person who does not suffer from alcohol addiction, in a hangover it is usually disgusting to even think about alcohol.

A large tremor covering the entire body occurs after a single binge and does not mean the development of alcoholism. This is a symptom of acute alcohol poisoning, you can get rid of it with the help of detoxification: read above in the section on edema, as well as in a separate article on how to quickly and effectively remove toxins from the body during a hangover.

Facial swelling after heavy drinking: the most common causes

• Deficiency of vitamins, macro- and microelements. The diet of addicts with an alcoholic “tailspin” is usually extremely meager, monotonous, consisting mainly of snacks, semi-finished products, and canned food. Naturally, such nutrition cannot meet the need for vitamins. Violation of their absorption in the intestines also contributes.
• Eating fatty, fried foods, smoked meats, and pickles.
• Sleep disorders. Insomnia is a frequent “companion” of alcoholism. But during heavy drinking, sleep is more reminiscent of short periods of oblivion, accompanied by nightmares, a constant feeling of anxiety and fear.
• Allergic reaction associated with autoimmune processes and/or consumption of low-quality (and sometimes not intended for ingestion) drinks.