Beer in a bathhouse [benefits and harms of the drink]: can you drink alcohol?

This truly Shakespearean question arises with enviable frequency in the circles of admirers of the foamy drink. Indeed, beer in the bathhouse has been associated, for decades, with traditional Russian bathhouse culture. But, in fact, does it bring any benefit, other than moral satisfaction, or, conversely, is the devil really as terrible as he is portrayed to be? Let's figure it out.

The effect of beer on the body of a steaming person

A bathhouse, and especially a steam room, promotes intense dehydration of the body. Excess fluid even leaves the internal organs. Naturally, the water loss needs to be replenished, so you are very thirsty in the bathhouse. What happens if you drink beer during bath procedures?

Together with the fluid, all toxins and harmful substances leave the body; it is not for nothing that bath procedures are considered the best cleansers. But along with alcohol, a new portion of toxins and poisons enters the body. In addition, sweating becomes more active, which leads to excessive stress on the liver.

Harm from beer in the bathhouse:

dilation of blood vessels occurs, as a result they can burst and even cause a stroke;
blood pressure rises;
the body is overloaded under the influence of elevated temperatures and alcohol;
a cold drink promotes condensation and also causes sore throat and other colds;
attention is weakened, coordination of movements is impaired, as a result of which you can slip and get injured;
drowsiness appears, in this state you can fall asleep in the bathhouse.

As you can see, those who like to drink beer in the steam room are risking not just their health, but also their lives. If drinking alcoholic beverages in a bathhouse is dangerous, is it then possible to drink beer after a bathhouse?

Bathhouse for hangover

Is it possible to go to the bathhouse with a hangover? A hangover is a painful state in which a person remains after heavy consumption of alcohol. The effects of a hangover are quite unpleasant:

Intense headache;
Irritability;
Aversion to loud sounds and bright lights;
Feeling of dry mouth;
Exhaustion, loss of mental activity;
Edema;
Chills and cardiac arrhythmia.

All these symptoms arise as a result of poisoning of the body with the breakdown products of alcohol. Toxic substances disrupt metabolism, lead to loss of sensitivity, loss of coordination, and psychophysical instability. Acetaldehyde and acetic acid are responsible for the inhibition of normal processes and reactions in the body. Accumulating in tissues, they poison internal organs much more than alcohol itself.

To recover from a hangover, you need to cleanse yourself of poisons, achieve a balance of fluids in the body, activate metabolic processes, and improve blood circulation. Going to the sauna with a hangover helps remove toxins from the body. This is achieved through intense sweating. High temperature stimulates the production of the hormone cortisol and increases its concentration in the blood. The liver begins to intensively produce glucose. Energy is restored.

The bath accelerates the course of metabolic processes. The condition of blood vessels improves, which has a beneficial effect on blood circulation. Pores open and cleanse, skin respiration is restored.

One of the most positive results of visiting a steam room is the redistribution of fluids from the intercellular space back into the bloodstream. Excess fluids are removed from the body, swelling subsides, and the load on the kidneys is reduced. This is especially true for those cases when, after alcoholic libations, there is a puffiness of the face, swelling, and swelling of the limbs.

The restored energy metabolism affects the emotional state of a person: the mood improves, a thirst for life, vigor, and a surge of strength are felt.

How to visit a sauna with a hangover

Going to the bathhouse with a hangover must comply with certain rules:

You cannot visit the steam room on the day of the feast.
Before the bath you need to get a good night's sleep.
Refuse food and drinks before going to the steam room.
Take a contrast shower (warm-cool) first.
Brew herbal tea to drink between visits to the steam room. Black tea with lemon is also beneficial.
Enter the steam room for a short time. 5-10 minutes is enough for the first two visits.
On your third visit, you can steam yourself with a broom and spend 15 minutes in the steam room.
In between sessions, which last about a quarter of an hour, drink more liquid: tea, herbal decoction, fruit juice, compote. Any alcoholic drinks are strictly prohibited.
The first meal should consist of a liquid dish - soup with vegetable or meat broth, okroshka, fish soup.

This procedure will help not only cope with a hangover, but also restore strength and significantly improve your well-being. People with vascular disorders should use the bathhouse with caution. Procedures are prohibited for hypertensive patients and people with heart disease. And such a popular winter pastime as diving into an ice hole and wiping with snow is only allowed for strong young people.

Beer after visiting the sauna

It is not recommended to drink beer immediately after leaving the sauna. Body temperature and heart rate are elevated, and dehydration levels are high. In this state, alcohol is harmful.

You need to wait until your water balance and heart rate are restored. This usually takes two hours. After this time, you can drink a mug of fresh, live beer, in which case it will be beneficial for the body.

The benefits of beer are:

improving digestive functions;
rejuvenation and restoration of skin;
softening the respiratory system;
strengthening hair and nails;
positive effects on the nervous system.

The same recommendations apply to the sauna. Today, the sauna has become a place where you can relax, celebrate a birthday or other holiday, drinking alcohol.

Returning to the question of whether it is possible to drink beer in a bathhouse or sauna, it is important to know that a sauna also implies high temperatures, dehydration, and increased heart rate. This means that drinking beer in the sauna is not recommended.

How beer is harmful for men

Beer producers have achieved marketing success.
Thanks to advertising, this drink is surrounded by an aura of attractiveness and fun. Therefore, for many people it does not cause negative associations. Moreover, some believe that this drink is good for health. However, alcohol will always be alcohol, regardless of its concentration or type of drink. So it doesn't matter whether you drink 40% vodka or beer with a low alcohol content. In large quantities, they are equally harmful to the body. If you experience health problems due to drinking alcohol, call our paid ambulance. Free consultation right now!

Online consultation with a specialist on your issue!

License number: LO-77-01-019036

What can you drink in the steam room?

Since it is necessary to replenish liquid during a bath, beer can be replaced with other healthy soft drinks:

teas - black, green, herbal, berry;
diaphoretic infusions - from linden, raspberries, lingonberries;
kvass;
Birch juice;
plain, clean water.

You need to drink between visits to the steam room, in small portions and small sips.

When going to the bathhouse, it is important to remember that a bathhouse or sauna is intended to cleanse and heal the body. Only in this case will bath procedures bring true pleasure!

Read also: Hands go numb after drinking alcohol

What is beer

Beer is one of the oldest drinks; it is believed that the cultivation of grain crops began for its sake. It was considered a drink of the poor and was ranked much lower than wine.

Beer was made where the climate did not allow grapes to be grown. Beer is a Slavic word that meant any drink. Over time, only an alcoholic drink began to be called this way. Traditionally, “beer” is understood as a low-alcohol drink, which is obtained as a result of fermentation of wort with the help of brewer’s yeast.

It turns out that everyone's favorite foamy beer is alcohol. How does alcohol affect us in the bathhouse kingdom?!

A little about the physiology of drinking beer at high temperatures

The Russian steam bath, and especially the Finnish sauna, provide a complex effect on the body, associated primarily with high and extremely high temperatures. On the one hand, this triggers mechanisms of accelerated metabolism, on the other hand, it mobilizes internal hidden reserves, which, of course, are not unlimited.

Beer, although a low-alcohol drink, nevertheless makes its contribution to the formation of ethyl alcohol intoxication syndrome without fail. Let's look at the compatibility of two items such as a bathhouse and alcohol using a simple everyday example. How many people like to drink forty degrees on a sultry July afternoon? There aren't many fans, I'm guessing. We will not take seasoned professionals who consume everything that burns around the clock and all year round into account; this is a special case.

So, the average beer norm in our country is about 2 liters. With an average strength of an intoxicating drink of about 4.5 percent absolute alcohol by volume, it turns out that after introducing the specified norm into the body, we have 90 milliliters of ethyl alcohol, which, in terms of forty degrees, already gives an impressive 200 milliliters of vodka. Impressive, isn't it? Now let's look at the process from a purely medical point of view:

Ethyl alcohol provokes dilation of blood vessels, both main and peripheral. The same phenomenon is initiated by the increased temperature of the steam bath room. If the walls of the vessels are endowed with a sufficient degree of elasticity, this is good, but if they have pronounced signs of sclerotic damage. Then a rupture of the vessel wall can provoke local hemorrhage, even a stroke;
No matter what anyone says, food alcohol is a poison that is oxidized by liver enzymes. When taking bath procedures, due to the activation of metabolic processes, there is a large-scale elimination of toxins, primarily through the skin. By drinking alcohol, you radically increase the load on this vital organ;
During the production of some types of beer, especially those with long shelf life, cadmium-containing preparations are used to stabilize raw materials. Salts of this metal have a very active effect on the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract. Moreover, some clinical studies give reason to believe that the degree of exposure can provoke the development of gastritis, as well as peptic ulcers of the stomach and duodenum;
Alcohol, in some cases, causes an increase in blood pressure. In conditions of high temperature and humidity of the bath, blood flow increases. Why provoke a hypertensive crisis;
Research by Czech scientists indicates that the metabolic products of ethyl alcohol are excreted from the body of a person who has consumed it in a bathhouse 12% slower than under normal conditions, no matter how paradoxical it may sound.

Thus, it can be argued that alcohol and sauna, from a purely medical point of view, are incompatible things. At least if drinking beer occurs before taking bath procedures. But what about the Germans, the meticulous reader will ask. In the southern federal states of Germany, drinking beer is elevated to the rank of a cult and the sauna does not stand alone.

The question is not what to drink, but when to drink

Obviously, the Bavarians and Swabians are very much in favor of drinking beer in the bathhouse. Northerners approach this issue much more strictly. In some places north of Berlin, even low-alcohol drinks are banned in the sauna industry. But in the fertile and abundant south, things are somewhat different.

Pragmatic Germans know anatomy and physiology as well as you and I, so they drink beer only after taking a steam bath. And even then, in about an hour or an hour and a half. Before this, they make do with completely harmless fruit drinks, juices, and herbal teas. For unwavering lovers of a foamy drink who love to drink a glass immediately upon leaving, the local bathhouse attendants offer non-alcoholic drinks. In a number of key positions, it is not much inferior to the classic one and does not contain ethyl alcohol in an amount that can have a negative effect on the body. Alcohol after a bath causes harm to the body on a much smaller scale, and the effect is not so acute, but rather blurred.

A word from Experienced! There is no doubt that such an ancient alcoholic drink as beer has its positive qualities. It is massively saturated with B vitamins, in particular riboflavin, microelements, primarily zinc and magnesium, which, in addition to increasing the motility of the heart muscle, play a positive role in general metabolic processes. Do not forget about the metabolic products of brewer's yeast, which have a beneficial effect on the condition of the hair and skin.

The processes of active sweating provoke a person’s loss of moisture, so beer after a bath will help restore the body’s water balance, saturating it with a number of useful elements and vitamins. However, it is worth emphasizing once again that for a positive effect a time interval is required, which should be at least 90 minutes from the end of the steaming procedure.

Alternative uses of beer

If you have definitely decided for yourself the question of whether you can drink beer in a bathhouse, then it is undoubtedly worth mentioning a number of other, alternative ways to use this drink while going to the bathhouse:

Beer steam inhalation. Its essence is to prepare an aqueous solution of beer at the rate of 750 ml of pure water per 1000 ml of beer. The resulting mixture is thoroughly mixed and in small portions, about 250 - 300 ml, placed on the stove stones. The resulting steam has a beneficial effect on the bronchi and skin, but it is reasonable to carry out such procedures no more than 2 times a month.
For the fair half of humanity, rubbing the body with beer foam will be an effective way. This unique mix of massage and scrub perfectly opens pores and helps suppress acne. In addition, it can be argued that procedures of this kind strengthen capillaries and reduce the risk of spider veins appearing close to the surface of the skin.
To strengthen hair, the egg-beer mask is well known and enjoys well-deserved fame. One egg is thoroughly mixed in dark beer in a volume ratio of 1 to 2 and applied to wet hair. No more than 15 minutes of such therapy is enough for not only the hair to become stronger, but also the hair follicles to receive the necessary nutrition.

Thus, beer and sauna get along well and are in harmony with each other, bringing tangible benefits to the overall health of the body.

Nervous system

The brain in a bathhouse, due to reduced oxygen supply and the general environment, works slower than usual. He feels good and warm. But the rest of the nervous system is pretty tense. The fact is that it receives signals from all sides about “wrong” conditions outside: “hot”, “humid”, “high pressure”, “little oxygen”, etc. This means that the nervous system must ensure that the body functions correctly despite any external conditions. Alcohol
inhibits the nervous system and disrupts overall coordination. Alcohol improves your mood, but the nervous system gets confused in its readings.

Is it possible to visit the bathhouse after a long feast?

Often after noisy events (corporate parties, birthday celebrations), many continue the fun in the bathhouse. Sometimes people deliberately do this, citing the fact that the steam room expels alcohol from the body in a matter of minutes. I will say right away that doctors do not recommend taking alcohol before a bath and steaming while intoxicated.

The reasons are as follows:

In the first hours, the effects of alcohol and hot steam on blood vessels coincide - muscle relaxation and vasodilation occur;
The heartbeat reflexively increases;
Blood supply to the brain decreases.

As a result, blood accumulates in the peripheral capillary bed. The brain experiences oxygen starvation, which leads to loss of consciousness and fainting. There is an opinion that a good snack slows down the absorption of alcohol, but after eating the volume of the vascular bed of the stomach increases, this increases theft of the brain. Therefore, you should not drink alcohol before the bath, and doctors also advise you to refrain from a heavy snack.

Is a bottle useful in a bath?

Traditionally, it is not recommended to bring alcohol into the sauna. Alcohol intoxication in a sauna leads to dangerous and sometimes fatal consequences:

Firstly, dilation of brain vessels due to overheating can lead to rupture of the vessel and cause hemorrhage in the brain.
Secondly, the sharp temperature change that occurs when doused with cold water after a sauna leads to vasoconstriction. Such actions can lead to the detachment of a blood clot and cause sudden death from arterial thromboembolism, heart attack or stroke.
Thirdly, increased evaporation of vapors from the respiratory tract increases the concentration of alcohol breakdown products (fumes) in the air, causing repeated toxic effects.
Fourthly, alcohol increases the load on the heart: heartbeat increases, shortness of breath appears.
Fifthly, injuries in the bathhouse due to intoxication lead to fractures, dislocations and head injuries.

Now let's figure out how alcohol affects vital systems. In a sauna environment, the influence has its own characteristics.

How to quickly eliminate the effect of alcohol on blood vessels and organs

It is important to take plenty of water. It is recommended to drink strong green tea

With excessive alcohol consumption, a violation of lipid-water metabolism is observed. In addition, frequent vomiting contributes to dehydration. In case of severe intoxication, specialist help may be required. You should call a doctor immediately if:

profuse vomiting;
the presence of red discharge in the vomit;
epilepsy attack;
strong internal tremor;
frequent fainting;
delusional ideas;
visual and auditory hallucinations;
suicidal thoughts;
aggressive behavior.

You can quickly eliminate the effect of alcohol on vital organs and systems and blood vessels using infusion therapy. The medicine enters directly into the blood, the effect occurs much faster than when taken orally. The exact dosage of drugs and the composition of the medicinal solution for infusion should be determined by a narcologist. Typically it contains:

painkiller,
sedative,
antiemetic,
antidepressants,
antiallergic,
glucose,
vitamins,
microelements.

The intake of magnesium and potassium ions is important. These microelements improve the functioning of the circulatory system and minimize the risks of heart attack and stroke. Under no circumstances should you use a proven hangover remedy like drinking alcohol again. The effect will be short-lived. Alcohol dilates blood vessels in the brain, so headaches may go away. But there is also another side to the coin. After some time, the person will experience a headache 2 times stronger than before.

Effect on the urinary system

The liquid in the steam room is released from the body along with sweat through enlarged pores. The kidneys temporarily stop producing urine. The product of ethyl alcohol processing (ethyl aldehyde) is not excreted, but accumulates in the blood, causing a toxic effect: headache and vomiting.

All of the above also applies to such a seemingly harmless drink as beer. This is due to the following reasons:

Beer contains ethyl alcohol;
The small percentage of alcohol is compensated by the impressive volumes consumed;
Beer together with high temperature causes functional disorders and flatulence.

Therefore, when going to the bathhouse, I will think carefully: do I need alcohol in the bathhouse, is it worth spoiling my impression of the holiday and harming my health.

Is alcohol good for you after a bath?

It is known that the sauna has a healing effect on the body: pores open, sweating increases, toxins are removed, and microcirculation improves. As a result, the body is cleansed, the skin acquires freshness, elasticity and a pink tint.

Taking a portion of alcohol after a bath in small doses (30 ml of strong drinks and 200 ml of wine) will not cause much harm to the body, but exceeding the amount will cause intoxication, which completely negates the benefits of the bath.

After a bath, a reflex vasoconstriction occurs, which increases resistance in the peripheral arteries. Therefore, hypertensive crises are possible, which are not so easy to stop. Alcohol breakdown products act similarly: they increase the formation of adrenaline. This substance directly acts:

on blood vessels, causing them to spasm;
on the heart, increasing heart rate;
on the brain, increasing the need for oxygen;
kidneys, disrupting the excretion of harmful substances by the kidneys.

The body works in extreme mode; if there are chronic diseases, their exacerbation occurs. A sudden development of a heart attack is possible, with fatal outcomes.

The basic principle of a healthy bath

Most of us visit the bathhouse to relieve nervous tension that has accumulated during the work week, to cleanse the body not only from the outside, but also to remove toxins through increased sweating. The healing effect is not achieved if alcohol is consumed after the bath or before the sauna.

It is better to do without alcohol in the bathhouse. Health benefits will come from drinks based on natural ingredients: kvass, herbal teas with honey. It is better to combine a sauna with a contrast shower and massage. And then in the morning you will not be bothered by a headache, but will be filled with a feeling of lightness and freshness.

With that, let's say goodbye, until our next meetings. Use the healing properties of the bathhouse for your benefit!