nightlife
don't overdo it Nothing may succeed like excess, but what happens when you do too much? BY ASHLEY ARNOLD PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN NOWAK
PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN NOWAK
You're at a concert. It's very loud but, of course, you wouldn't want it any other way. At the concert you begin drinking beer to loosen up and have some fun take the load of work from the week off your shoulders. The people you're there with are smoking the case of cigarettes they brought. Once the concert is over, you have to run to your car to beat the crowd and get out of the arena.
As college students, we can overdo just about everything: drinking, exposure to loud music, smoking and exercising. The problem is, we don't think of the consequences that follow, in most cases, till the next morning - hangovers, hearing problems, sore throats or sore muscles. Here are some remedies for the next time you overdose.
On New Year's Eve, she drank 22 shots of Captain Morgan in two hours. At 4 a.m., Joselyn Moore, Eden Prairie, Minn. senior, left with her boyfriend, Eric, to go stay at his parents' house in Topeka. After
he drove her around for three hours
while she was throwing up, they made it to the house. Moore says she only remembers passing out. Because she was so dehydrated, she had a dream about being thirsty and needing a glass of water. She remembers waking the next morning and seeing a water glass about 20 feet away. But she couldn't even move to get it. Moore remained in her jeans because she couldn't get out of them and into her pajamas. Moore says she will never again be able to drink Captain Morgan.
Pounding and spinning head, dry mouth, can't get out of bed in the morning. Hangovers are the cruel reality of the morning after a night of drinking. Approximately 75 percent of people who drink alcohol to intoxication will experience a hangover, according to Sant P. Singh, a professor and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the Chicago Medical School. The type of alcohol and the amount consumed play a huge role in the severity of your hangover. When large amounts
nausea, vomiting, thirst and dryness of mouth, tremors, dizziness, muscle fatigue and cramps, are more common. Occasionally your blood pressure can change and your heart rate can speed up.
When alcohol is produced, chemicals known as congeners are formed. Certain liquors have more of these in them brandy, wine, tequila, whiskey and other dark liquors and will cause a more brutal hangover. White vodka, rum and gin cause hangovers less frequently.
"I've always noticed that when I drink margaritas I feel worse in the morning than after a night of beer drinking," Moore says.
"I think you feel drunker in the bars
Everyone knows that drinking fast, without eating or without mixing it with a non-alcoholic drink can lead to trouble for the drinker. But what else? Singh says smoking, loud music, flashing lights and decreased amounts of sleep can make your hangover headache worse.
than when you're at your house drinking," Moore says.
Sitting in the second row at any concert would be a dream for many students. That dream became reality for Eric Konrade, Topeka senior. He attended a Rage Against the Machine concert and was seated right next to the speakers. After the concert was over, he had ringing and buzzing in his ears, but it eventually went away that night.
Fact or myth? Just 15 minutes of loud noise can cause temporary hearing loss. This is a fact, according to nationalhealthmuseum.org. Loud music, machinery or other loud noises can cause temporary hearing loss or tinnitus, which is the ringing you hear in your ears after loud concerts. Even though this ringing may disappear after a few hours or even as long as a day or two, constant exposure to loud noises can cause permanent hearing loss. The National Health Museum says that loud noise can damage the tiny hairs in the cochlea, a coneshaped tube in the inner ear that converts sound into electri-
thursday, october 16, 2003
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