Pay attention to drinking health during the Spring Festival
With the Spring Festival approaching, drinking is an essential activity. To liven up the atmosphere and enhance relationships, people find reasons to have a few drinks no matter the occasion. Since drinking is inevitable, we can only remind you to pay attention to your health while drinking.
1. Do not drink alcohol with coffee
Alcohol is harmful to the body, and caffeine has stimulating, refreshing, and stomach-toning effects, but excessive intake can also cause poisoning. If alcohol and coffee are consumed together, it's like adding fuel to the fire. It can exacerbate brain damage, stimulate blood vessel dilation, accelerate blood circulation, increase the burden on the cardiovascular system, and cause harm many times greater than drinking alone, and it can even be more life-threatening.
2. Do not drink alcohol when you have a cold
Drinking alcohol when you have a cold can worsen your condition. Cold patients, especially those with severe cases, often have a fever and typically take fever-reducing medication, such as paracetamol. Once you consume liquor or strong spirits, the metabolites produced can cause severe damage to the liver, even leading to complete necrosis.
3. Patients with liver disease should abstain from alcohol
Patients with acute hepatitis, fatty liver, cirrhosis, or liver disease with diabetes should absolutely abstain from alcohol, including beer. For those in the recovery stage of hepatitis or with chronic persistent hepatitis, if liver function is basically normal, they may moderately drink beer, as beer can promote the secretion of digestive juices and increase appetite. Beer also contains various amino acids and B vitamins, but generally should not exceed half a liter per day.
4. It is not advisable to drink tea after alcohol
Drinking tea after alcohol is not a good habit. About 80% of the alcohol consumed is gradually broken down by the liver into water and carbon dioxide and excreted from the body, which has a sobering effect. This decomposition process usually takes 2-4 hours. If you drink tea immediately after alcohol, it will cause the acetaldehyde in the alcohol to be rapidly excreted through the kidneys, damaging the kidneys and reducing their function. At the same time, drinking too much tea increases water intake, which also adds to the burden on the heart and kidneys, which is especially unfavorable for patients with hypertension and angina. Therefore, it is best to eat fruits like pears or watermelon after drinking.
5. It is not advisable to take medication after alcohol
All alcoholic beverages contain varying degrees of alcohol. Taking certain medications after drinking can increase their toxic side effects. For example, taking drugs like Furazolidone or Pargyline after drinking can lead to arrhythmia and elevated blood pressure. Similarly, taking sedatives, hypnotics, anti-epileptic drugs, antihistamines, or antihypertensives after drinking can, on one hand, increase the depressive effect on the brain, and on the other hand, sharply increase the drug's potency beyond the body's normal tolerance, leading to danger. This is especially true for the elderly, the weak, or those with heart, liver, or kidney diseases, who should avoid taking medication after drinking.
6. Do not watch TV after heavy drinking
Drinking alcohol causes bloodshot eyes. If you drink too much, the harmful components in alcohol can cause significant damage to the eyes, leading to optic atrophy, and in severe cases, even blindness. Watching TV can cause vision to deteriorate, and alcohol damages the optic nerve. Doing both at the same time is like adding fuel to the fire and is very damaging to your vision. Therefore, you should not rush to watch TV after drinking, a point that the elderly should pay particular attention to.