Parties and holiday feasts are seldom complete without alcoholic beverages. But sometimes it happens that the next morning you need to be sober and fresh, because it is a work day, or you need to drive and go somewhere.

There are many ways to sober up quickly. They are also useful in the case of uncontrolled consumption of alcohol, threatening the appearance of such unpleasant symptoms as bad smell, headache, alcohol intoxication.

In this article, I will talk about proven ways, which I personally used and they helped me more than once.

Important: After drinking heavily in the evening, it is better not to drive in the morning! It is better to go to work by cab or on foot, as the body still does not have time to remove all the alcohol from the blood, and your head does not have time to rest properly.

What is sobering?

Medically speaking, a person is sober when there is no trace of ethanol in his blood. The liver is responsible for the process of sobering up (elimination). It produces special enzymes that help to eliminate ethanol through the kidneys, skin pores, and respiratory system.

It takes an average of 30 minutes to an hour for most people to come out of a state of light intoxication. The following factors influence the speed of sobering up:

• General state of health. Drinking has a particularly acute effect on the well-being of those suffering from liver, kidney, gastrointestinal, heart and lung diseases;
• Gender. Women need less booze to get intoxicated. The fact is that an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) is involved in the process of breaking down alcohol. Women have less of this enzyme than men. Therefore, women’s alcoholism is more difficult to treat than men’s;
• Weight. The higher the percentage of fat in the body, the slower a person gets drunk, but it also takes him a long time to sober up, since lipid compounds are extremely reluctant to part with ethyl. And there are far fewer ways to sober up quickly for morbidly obese people than for active people with a standard build;
• Eating the night before. A hungry person gets intoxicated much faster than a well-fed one. The point is in the mechanism of alcohol absorption. If the stomach is empty, assimilation of alcohol will begin already in the esophagus;
• The experience of drinking strong drinks. A person who has never drunk too much before risks overdrinking than the one who knows his norm. And a single shot of vodka will have a fundamentally different effect on a teetotaller and a drunkard with experience.

If at a young age you can just wait until the body itself recovers, at a more mature age it already needs help to get rid of the symptoms of a hangover. How to get sober quickly and without harming your health? We will tell you about this below.

How to sober up quickly?

Before looking for answers to this question, we need to understand what happens to your body when you consume strong drinks.

We consume a toxic product that causes dehydration and headaches, therefore, any liquid will be beneficial. As soon as you wake up, drink water. The more you drink, the better: your kidneys will take care of the removal of toxic products. There is also a more effective sobering technique – replacing water with milk, as it is an excellent filter for alcohol (but this method does not combine with some foods: fish, cucumbers, etc.).

The next thing to do is to take a cold shower in order to recover and banish drowsiness. Caution: If you have a weak heart, it is better to replace the contrast shower with a warm one, as sudden temperature changes can provoke complications, up to and including a heart attack.

Do not drink activated charcoal or sorbents in the morning. It will not save you, because all the alcohol is already in the blood and the body is dehydrated. Drink only water, coffee and milk.

How to get rid of bad smell of alcohol?

So, you’re back sober, but the bad smell from the mouth remains and it’s not so easy to get rid of it. Usually just brushing your teeth and rinsing your mouth doesn’t help.

The reason for the bad smell in the mouth after drinking alcohol is that after ethanol enters the body, it is broken down in the liver, resulting in acetic acid, which has a very nasty smell. All this indigestible nastiness is eliminated by the body in three ways: with breathing through the lungs, with sweat through the skin pores and with the urine.

That’s why it’s almost impossible to beat bad breath with a gargle or chewing gum: the ambergris comes from your whole body, not just your mouth. Finally the overbreath will evaporate only after the body has completely broken down and eliminated all the alcohol. Depending on the strength and quantity of drinks consumed, this process may take from two hours to a day.

So what can be done to speed up this process?

There are some methods. However, it should be noted that the procedures described below will not fool the police breathalyzer. The smell comes from your lungs, sweat, and it is almost impossible to get rid of it, but there are a few ways that can help to drown out the smell of overbreath for a while.

1. Take a contrast shower. As we already know, the smell of alcohol comes out with sweat, so go to the shower;
2. Have a proper breakfast. For example: scrambled eggs with low-fat steak or a bowl of strong chicken broth. These meals are rich in amino acids and protein, which help the liver process the rest of the ethanol more quickly;
3. Drink small cup of natural coffee. The coffee contains many aromatic oils that can temporarily obscure alcoholic fumes. In order to maximize the anti-alcohol effect of the drink, make it without sugar and milk, and before you take a sip, hold the liquid in your mouth for a few seconds;
4. Drink several cups of water (preferably with lemon juice). This method is effective to drown out the acetic acid (the main source of bad breath odor) in your body;
5. Brush your teeth. The best way to do this is to use a toothpaste with a killer minty scent. This not only removes alcohol residue from your teeth, gums, and tongue, but also helps to block out the smell from areas the toothbrush can’t reach: the back of your tongue or the back of your throat;
6. Rinse your mouth and throat thoroughly. It is best to do this in two steps: first with plain water, then with a sanitary mouthwash for the mouth and gums. These products also tend to have an odor of their own that can overpower the alcoholic one;
7. Use pharmacy hangover remedies. Very effective are antihangoemic drugs containing unitiol or succinic acid. These substances affect the metabolism and thereby accelerate the elimination of products of alcoholic decay from the body;
8. Give up your car, or walk to it in the fresh air. The optimal walking time is 20-30 minutes. As you walk, your condition will improve considerably. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water.

If the smell does not go away, eat a bag of seeds or nuts on the way. Another good way to block the smell of alcohol are herbs, such as parsley, cilantro, mint and bay leaves. But it is not recommended to chew mint gum – it will only increase the ambergris.

One last thing: all of these methods have already proven their effectiveness many times over. But this does not mean that now you are free to get drunk before an important meeting or work. Remember that strong alcohol is usually completely gone from the body only in 16-24 hours.