Most of us have experienced it. The feeling you have a second heartbeat in your head, the churning stomach, the eyes which look like one big vein and the four cups of coffee, one litre of water and glass of orange juice which haven’t worked.

Hangovers leave us under-performing, lacking energy and enthusiasm and can impact on the rest of the family.

Liver cells can process only a certain amount of alcohol per hour. If you drink alcohol faster than your liver can deal with it, the level of alcohol in your bloodstream rises which can lead to serious health conditions.

Acetaldehyde is just one of the products of the breakdown of alcohol and is, in fact, more toxic than alcohol itself. The liver produces a substance called glutathione which attaches to acetaldehyde to help lessen the toxicity and allowing the body to rid itself of this toxin.

This process usually works well but the liver’s stores of glutathione quickly run out when larger amounts of alcohol enter the bloodstream.

Drinking alcohol also causes the body to block the production of a hormone called vasopressin. Without this hormone, the kidneys send water directly to the bladder instead of reabsorbing it in the body. This is why when we drink alcohol we have to make frequent trips to the bathroom.

The herb milk thistle contains active compounds called silymarin which protect the liver from increased alcohol consumption by stimulating glutathione production and excretion of alcohol from the liver. 

Bupleurum is an herb used to treat the liver in cases of overindulgence and initially appeared in the literature of ancient China as one of China’s so called “harmony” herbs.

The Chinese “harmony” herbs are a class of plants believed to be involved in maintaining the internal energies within the body of a person and aiding in the maintenance of a balance among all the different organs inside the body including the liver.

A good night out doesn’t necessarily need to involve alcohol but, if it does, it pays to include a herbal tea or tonic to help lessen the effects of a good night out.