Stuck with a hangover? While your Western doctor might suggest drinking more water, a visit to a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine might yield advice along the lines of toufu, watermelon, green tea and even lemons.
Overindulging in alcoholic beverages is harmful to the human body, but many people place their hopes in products touted as being able to break down alcohol, or even in patent medicines to increase their capacity for drink. Doctors emphasize that there is no product capable of mitigating the harm alcohol wreaks on the body, and the ones that are available today are not useful either for breaking down alcohol or bringing the penitent drinker a clearer head. Less in the glass, they say, is the only solution.

The problems alcohol brings are not limited to cirrhosis of the liver, a condition most people are aware of. Alcohol can also cause hardening of the liver and nervous disorders. Su Yingfu, a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, says that studies show drinking too much alcohol can lead to bone damage or even bone death rates in about 5 percent of cases. Each week, any intake over 400 cc of alcohol means more bone that is held without oxygen and perishes as a result.

Although many products are available on the market, Xiao Dunren, a doctor of internal medicine specializing in the liver, stomach and related organs, says, "To date, there is still no mention in the medical literature of any product or component that can break down alcohol or shorten inebriation times." The alcohol that has gone into the body is already there, and there is nothing to be done to mitigate its effects.

Xiao says that alcohols effects on the human body fall into two categories. On the one hand, alcohol in its original form, ethanol, has a direct inhibiting effect on the central nervous system, reducing a persons self control. Another factor is the metabolic product of alcohol, aldehyde, which must be transformed into ethanoic acid in the liver, a process that places a load on the liver.

Whether or not a person will become intoxicated, and how long those effects will persist, depends entirely on the absorption of a persons digestive tract and the metabolic ability of his liver. People might say that eating eggs before drinking, or using certain other products, will make alcohol entering the body immutable, but the majority merely delay the absorption of the alcohol. Taking in more water is more likely to hasten ones recovery from a bout of drinking.