Why throwing up won’t save you from a hangover in 2022

Vomiting is a practice often associated with the disappearance of toxic cells in your body, many people believe that it will help you to reduce your blood alcohol level. This myth couldn’t be more wrong.

Vomiting to reduce your hangover is useless. When you vomit, you are not throwing out the alcohol, because it gets absorbed quickly. Whether you throw it up before bed or while you sleep, your body has already filtered the alcohol into your blood. Therefore, you would suffer from a hangover regardless. 

Unless you stick two fingers down your throat every time you have a drink, you won't feel any less devastated the day after. Because a beer on a full stomach can take an hour to be absorbed by the blood, it’s pretty much useless to consider getting rid of the alcohol from your body when you get home, because it is already too late. 

Twenty percent of the alcohol is already absorbed into the esophagus. Alcohol poisoning, therefore, cannot be cured by puking.

Vomiting is not only useless for your body, but also quite harmful.

Nobody, not even your body, expects the contents of your stomach to suddenly be expelled through your mouth. The stomach acid in the vomit is (surprise!) very sour. Often, therefore, vomiting can lead to damage to the teeth and infections in the mouth. This is because stomach acids are corrosive, enough to wear away at the enamel that covers and protects your teeth.

But it's not to be underestimated that vomiting will soon give you severe heartburn. Thanks to the urge of vomiting, the stomach sphincter, a ring of smooth muscle that connects the stomach and small intestine, may no longer be in shape, and may therefore be letting acid pass into the esophagus. Trust me, it's not a great feeling.

If you throw up, you also need to be careful that nothing gets into your lungs. This process is called aspiration, and it generally doesn't happen, because your lungs are protected by the epiglottis, a flap of tissue that sits beneath the tongue at the back of the throat. Its main function is to close over the windpipe (trachea) while you're eating to prevent food from entering your airway. Plus, should something ever pass through it, it will cough out, but your body might find the practice rather complicated if you are particularly drunk or even unconscious.

All those factors might sound terrible, but unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. If you try too hard to throw up and your body is particularly tired, it might end in cardiac arrest. You don't just throw up that great kebab you just ate, but also a considerable number of electrolytes such as potassium. These substances are critical for the electrical activity in the cells of your body, such as muscle cells.

If you vomit too much, your body's electrolyte balance can be damaged, leading to cardiac arrhythmia and even a full-blown arrest. Your heart may stop simply because you threw up too much. 

Vomiting is only really useful if you've eaten something you shouldn't have eaten or if your drink has been spiked. 

Then how do we keep enjoying our drinks without having to sacrifice our health? That’s why we are here for you. The best solution is to take Upswing pills before you drink. Upswing can bind with acetaldehyde covalently producing a stable compound, reducing the damage it causes to the body.

With Upswing, you won’t have to recur to vomiting to keep your body healthy, nor compromise your drinking. But remember, the best way to avoid a hangover is to drink moderately.