It’s happening again, the pounding headache is back. All you can remember is drinking alcohol like you were drinking water after weeks in the desert. What’s even worse is that you might have errands to run, a dog that needs a walk, and clothes to wash, but you are feeling so groggy and tired.

What if there was a way to minimize the effects of an alcohol hangover by taking a look at vitamins? Vitamins are the fuel that your body bootstraps when in times of peril (like when feeling a hangover).

Understanding how hangovers work and where they come from is important to know how vitamins might be able to target the issues at hand. By understanding this, we can then answer the question: "what vitamins are good for hangovers?"

What causes hangovers?

The body combats alcohol in its system by using antioxidants to neutralize the harmful consequences of alcohol. If the body cannot fight off alcohol properly, stress is placed on your body leading to a harmful immune response when it tries to digest alcohol. Research has found significant correlations between the amount of biomarkers of oxidative stress in the blood and reported hangover severity. This essentially means, the less antioxidants your body has, the higher the severity of a hangover is.

In addition, immunologic disturbances may occur from excess alcohol consumption as the body reacts to its toxic effects. Alcohol triggers your immune system to produce an inflammatory reaction. One major sign of this process is the overproduction of cytokines, essentially the body’s immune system in overdrive, which causes physical and mental discomfort.

According to one study, concentrations of cytokines were significantly increased during the hangover state compared with the concentrations in normal conditions. Increased cytokine concentration is also noted to affect the brain and nervous system which results in the ‘cognitive’ alcohol hangover effects such as memory impairment and mood changes.

There is a direct link between oxidative stress and the inflammatory response to alcohol, in relation to the alcohol hangover. Several studies in humans have shown that reducing the inflammatory response is associated with decreased hangover symptoms. Thus, by reducing inflammation, the body will experience less severe hangovers.

Since we know how alcohol affects the body now, we can easily see which vitamins target each of these issues the best.

What vitamins help hangovers?

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is great for hangovers as it is shown to reduce oxidative stress. Vitamin C is known to boost the production of antioxidants. Does Vitamin C help hangovers? It most definitely does, so make sure to take vitamin C for hangovers.

Vitamin B6 and B12

These two also are shown to reduce oxidative stress. These two decrease the level of C-Reactive Protein and interleukin-6, which are biomarkers of inflammation. They are powerful anti-inflammatory vitamins. The series of Vitamin B's for hangover prevention are known and well researched, and it is a great idea to include Vitamin B12 for hangover recovery.

Vitamin B1

Vitamin B1 is found in mung bean sprout powder which is very powerful in reducing inflammation levels in your body. Vitamin B1 is also found to be an important factor in the flow of electrolytes, which proper balancing is required for.

These are the best vitamins for your hangovers as these vitamins prevent hangovers from becoming too severe. Even better, if you take these vitamins before your night out, you will reduce the likelihood of a big hangover the next day. Therefore you can still consume good amounts of alcohol, but without feeling so sluggish afterwards.

Unfortunately, it has been shown that vitamins from the local drugstore are ineffective as they are not made with quality ingredients, and multivitamins are not effective at helping the body recover.

An optimal mix of quality vitamins are needed to target hangover prevention. Tomo Labs offers a quality and affordable hangover supplement. Their product, Tomo, has been extensively researched and battle-tested to prevent severe hangovers from occurring.

Alcohol is a diuretic (this means it gets rid of sodium and water from your body). Tomo is water soluble, so you take it with water in order to replenish the body of the essential fluid it needs. Tomo is rich with amino acids (L-Cysteine) which further helps to fight off the pesky effects of alcohol. Not to mention, Tomo is made in registered FDA (Food and Drug Administration) facilities.

Ultimately, by knowing how alcohol works, we can easily understand what vitamins we need to take. Avoiding even one nutrient can still make you feel suboptimal due to the broad consequences of alcohol. Therefore to really feel back on track, you need to replenish all the deficient nutrients. By taking a vitamin supplement like Tomo, the chances of going about your day while walking on Cloud 9 are much higher.

Check out Tomo, The Post-Alcohol Recovery Supplement here. 

By Alex Tutu.