Does Pedialyte Help With Hangovers?
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You’re waking up from a night out, and you’re definitely not feeling your best. Your head is pounding, you feel nauseous, and, oh my gosh, you’re just so thirsty! Even though you feel terrible, you’ve got a big meeting to prepare for. You’ve just got to find something to help you feel better. Is there a magic hangover cure?
Today we’re looking at hangovers and determining whether Pedialyte is really a magic cure. (Spoiler: not entirely.) What’s happening when we’re hungover? Why does Pedialyte help? What hangover symptoms does Pedialyte address?
Let’s talk about hangovers first — we need to be clear about what we’re trying to cure. There are many common symptoms of hangovers:
We experience hangovers for a whole host of reasons. Today we’re focusing on just a few: dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and low blood sugar.
As alcohol increases urine production, the body loses electrolytes in the excess urine. Drinking excessively can also lead to loss of electrolytes through sweating. The electrolytes lost during drinking are sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Your blood sugar drops from drinking because your body loses sugar as it breaks down alcohol.
Pedialyte is a drink that formulated electrolytes into a liquid solution. It was created to rehydrate and replenish electrolytes in sick children after illnesses like stomach viruses. As it was originally marketed to children, it meets a Pediatric Academy standard for preventing dehydration in infants and children. In recent years, Pedialyte has become popular with athletes and with adults fighting off hangovers. But can it cure a hangover?
The classic recipe for Pedialyte contains the following key ingredients to help combat dehydration:
Although Pedialyte isn’t a cure-all for hangovers, it can ease symptoms caused by dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and low blood sugar.
Untreated, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and low blood sugar lead to headaches, dizziness, fatigue, confusion, thirst, and stomach pain. Since Pedialyte addresses the causes of these symptoms, it can make us feel better while we’re suffering with a hangover.
Pedialyte can help with some symptoms of hangovers. However, the research is unclear about whether vitamin or mineral supplements such as Pedialyte are effective. Every hangover is different, which makes it difficult to replicate the true experience — and therefore, it’s hard to confirm the effectiveness of Pedialyte for hangovers.
If we want to use Pedialyte to alleviate hangover symptoms, when would the best time to take it be? The ideal time to drink Pedialyte is before you go to bed: it’s better as a preventative than as a cure.
Drinking Pedialyte before bed would help prevent waking up dehydrated and may lessen some hangover symptoms. The amount of Pedialyte you should drink is unclear, but consider slowly sipping anywhere from a cup to a pint.
Pedialyte is not the only thing that can help with hangover symptoms. There are many supplements and remedies that people claim cure hangovers, but most are not backed by science. Let’s look at some hangover cures that can make you feel better after drinking alcohol.
Pedialyte does help with hangover symptoms — but not too much more than drinking water and having a healthy snack. It’s important to note that science has not confirmed Pedialyte as a tool for curing hangovers. Most hangovers will subside on their own within 24 hours through the body’s natural processes.
1. What are common symptoms of hangovers?
Hangover symptoms include fatigue, weakness, dehydration, nausea, vomiting, vertigo, sensitivity to light and sound, anxiety, irritability, sweating, elevated blood pressure, and low blood sugar.
2. Does Pedialyte cure hangovers?
No, just helps with certain symptoms such as dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and low blood sugar.
3. When should I drink Pedialyte to help with hangovers?
It is best to sip on Pedialyte after you are done drinking before you go to bed.
4. Can drinking Pedialyte before you start drinking prevent a hangover?
No, it will not. As you drink, you will still continue to lose fluids and lose the benefit of the Pedialyte in the process.
5. What else can I take aside from Pedialyte to help with a hangover?
Drinking water, eating foods such as bananas, or taking other products enhanced with electrolytes such as Liquid IV or Gatorade.
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