Thai Health Min recommends drinking warm water to treat hangovers

[webfact]

MOPH recommends drinking warm water to treat hangovers

BANGKOK, 18 April 2016, (NNT) - The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has warned holiday makers traveling back to the capital not to consume alcohol and has recommended drinking warm water to treat a hangover.

MOPH Deputy Permanent Secretary Dr. Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoen made the comment, saying that many Songkran revelers are likely have a hangover from excessive drinking and lack of sleep.

He suggested those who are planning to be behind the wheel, to rest for at least eight hours before driving and, if they still feel exhausted, to pull over and take a 15 minute nap before continuing their journey.

He added that stopping for refreshments and alternating drivers are also good road accident prevention practices.

He stressed that seat belts are a must for everyone on the road, and the wearing of helmets is mandatory for those riding bikes.

Dr. Suwanchai pointed out that those coping with a hangover should stop drinking alcohol and start drinking warm water to hasten recovery. Eating porridge and easily digested meals would help their body to recover.


-- NNT 2016-04-18

[keith101]

maybe advice from a Health Minister would be for people to drink less instead of warm water for a hangover but TIT

[ChrisY1]

Not too sure if warm water would cure a hangover after downing a bottle of Lao Khao........but then......

[jaltsc]

"The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has warned holiday makers traveling back to the capital not to consume alcohol and has recommended drinking warm water to treat a hangover."

Talk about a message falling on deaf ears. The way most people who consume excess amounts of alcohol will interpret this message will be:

"If I consume a lot of alcohol, then I can drive home if I drink a glass of warm tea".

When, what is recommended is tho drink 8 to 10 glasses of water slowly over the course of the morning after one has been drinking, in order to replenish the excess water that the kidneys eliminated due to being stimulated by alcohol consumption.

A better message would be...Don't Drink and Drive (Again falling on deaf ears) and at the same time have numerous road checks resulting in the arrest of anyone found to be driving with .08 BAL or above and immediate confiscation of the motor vehicle, which would be impounded for a minimum of 3 months, with the owner of the vehicle paying for storage during that time.

[leeneeds]

Health minister

alcohol meter at 0.00

any impairment on skill set thai drivers already have,

is a recipe for more carnage.

[thesetat2013]

Hard to believe they actually think Thailand could become a medical hub in ASEAN with quotes like this coming from their minister. It is almost scary if it weren't so comical. I think the best laugh the health minister ever gave me was when he said there was a new mental disease caused by focusing too much on politics back when they had the reds and yellows on the streets

[Misterwhisper]

Hard to believe they actually think Thailand could become a medical hub in ASEAN with quotes like this coming from their minister. It is almost scary if it weren't so comical. I think the best laugh the health minister ever gave me was when he said there was a new mental disease caused by focusing too much on politics back when they had the reds and yellows on the streets

Well said, thesetat. But when you think about how he got his job (and probably also his PhD), it becomes clear why an alleged academic can come forward with such drivel that seems to come straight from the mouth of a 10-year-old.

[Strangebrew]

So good idea to stop for refreshments like another case of Leo and switch drunks who are driving good idea a lot of thought went into that statement.

[kimamey]

Drinking water will help a hangover although I don't know if warm water is better.

He could have mentioned trying the Buddhist fifth precept. Failure to do so can result in failing the first.

[Mudcrab]

"The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has warned holiday makers traveling back to the capital not to consume alcohol and has recommended drinking warm water to treat a hangover."

Talk about a message falling on deaf ears. The way most people who consume excess amounts of alcohol will interpret this message will be:

"If I consume a lot of alcohol, then I can drive home if I drink a glass of warm tea".

When, what is recommended is tho drink 8 to 10 glasses of water slowly over the course of the morning after one has been drinking, in order to replenish the excess water that the kidneys eliminated due to being stimulated by alcohol consumption.

A better message would be...Don't Drink and Drive (Again falling on deaf ears) and at the same time have numerous road checks resulting in the arrest of anyone found to be driving with .08 BAL or above and immediate confiscation of the motor vehicle, which would be impounded for a minimum of 3 months, with the owner of the vehicle paying for storage during that time.

You are advocating lifting the blood alcohol content to 0.08%??

Unbelieveable.

[Redline]

Your fired!!!!

[terminatorchiangmai]

If he would have done some research he should have said Sprite is the best cure for hangover !

I prefer to mix it with a soda and a San Miquel light with lots of Manou for those hangover days.

[amdy2206]

I really do wonder who writes this c**p.

[emilymat]

I think you might be hard pressed to get any positive response if you stopped at the eatery connected to the petrol station and asked for a bowl of Quaker Oats. Still, you might be lucky.

[Moonmoon]

The best way to treat a hangover is to not drink at all

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Hangover ? Wake up 8 am in the morning,go straight to the fridge,a bottle of freezing cold red horse beer straight down.

As a recovering alcoholic of 10 years,i found it worked for me every time.

As the song says.Even the though the future is unclear,the fridge is always near.

[Cockwomble]

Ludicrous, best advise is not to drink to excess.

[attrayant]

"The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has warned holiday makers traveling back to the capital not to consume alcohol and has recommended drinking warm water to treat a hangover."

Talk about a message falling on deaf ears. The way most people who consume excess amounts of alcohol will interpret this message will be:

"If I consume a lot of alcohol, then I can drive home if I drink a glass of warm tea".

What's next, baking soda to cure cancer? Copper bracelets and magnets to realign your chakras?

I expect this kind of pseudoscientific nonsense from "Doctor" Joseph Mercola or David Avacado Wolfe, but what can you do when your premier health professional thinks it's possible to "treat" a hangover?

[Moonmoon]

Anyways I thought they got this in 7-11. how come the health minister dont know about it n recommend this instead?

[FredNL]

Morrons advising idiots !

[Winniedapu]

Amazing Thailand.

I imagine if drinking warm water did anything to cure a hangover, that remedy would have surfaced well before now. Perhaps something else that foreigners don't understand.

As I understand it, a hangover is largely due to dehydration, so drinking water may help at the margins, but then it wouldn't have to be warm would it?

I may have to wizz along to this guy's medical school, I'm just an ignorant farang.

Perhaps I could invent a cure for ebola. Or Zika. Or AIDS. Or something.

Was it this guy or Generall Prayuth who said that the answer to spreading diabetes in TL was for Thais to eat more rice?

[kimamey]

"The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has warned holiday makers traveling back to the capital not to consume alcohol and has recommended drinking warm water to treat a hangover."

Talk about a message falling on deaf ears. The way most people who consume excess amounts of alcohol will interpret this message will be:

"If I consume a lot of alcohol, then I can drive home if I drink a glass of warm tea".

What's next, baking soda to cure cancer? Copper bracelets and magnets to realign your chakras?

I expect this kind of pseudoscientific nonsense from "Doctor" Joseph Mercola or

, but what can you do when your premier health professional thinks it's possible to "treat" a hangover?

There's no cure for a hangover but rehydration is recommended to ease the symptoms even in western countries so bearing in mind this will be a translation from Thai he's probably about right. I seem to remember that drinking water before sleeping is better. Of course not drinking too much in the first place is the best advice which he mentions as well.

So I wouldn't be too critical.

[Winniedapu]

"The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has warned holiday makers traveling back to the capital not to consume alcohol and has recommended drinking warm water to treat a hangover."

Talk about a message falling on deaf ears. The way most people who consume excess amounts of alcohol will interpret this message will be:

"If I consume a lot of alcohol, then I can drive home if I drink a glass of warm tea".

What's next, baking soda to cure cancer? Copper bracelets and magnets to realign your chakras?

I expect this kind of pseudoscientific nonsense from "Doctor" Joseph Mercola or

, but what can you do when your premier health professional thinks it's possible to "treat" a hangover?

There's no cure for a hangover but rehydration is recommended to ease the symptoms even in western countries so bearing in mind this will be a translation from Thai he's probably about right. I seem to remember that drinking water before sleeping is better. Of course not drinking too much in the first place is the best advice which he mentions as well.

So I wouldn't be too critical.

I would. After a disastrous Songkran road toll, the least I would have expected him to say was 'don't drink - not at all if you're driving'. There is no level of alcohol in the blood that does not diminish judgment and responses.

But no. This lad obviously meant well, but actually doing well seems beyond him. The distance between intent and execution seems to be relative to your proximity to Thainess.

[brommers]

The real point is being missed here. It is not how effective or not the advice is in reality, because coconut water would be much better, but that some fat ass paper pusher has to be seen to be doing something in order to retain his position. So he issues a statement that a three year old could do and is duly awarded a salary increase for his heroic efforts.

[kimamey]

"The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has warned holiday makers traveling back to the capital not to consume alcohol and has recommended drinking warm water to treat a hangover."

Talk about a message falling on deaf ears. The way most people who consume excess amounts of alcohol will interpret this message will be:

"If I consume a lot of alcohol, then I can drive home if I drink a glass of warm tea".

What's next, baking soda to cure cancer? Copper bracelets and magnets to realign your chakras?

I expect this kind of pseudoscientific nonsense from "Doctor" Joseph Mercola or

, but what can you do when your premier health professional thinks it's possible to "treat" a hangover?

There's no cure for a hangover but rehydration is recommended to ease the symptoms even in western countries so bearing in mind this will be a translation from Thai he's probably about right. I seem to remember that drinking water before sleeping is better. Of course not drinking too much in the first place is the best advice which he mentions as well.

So I wouldn't be too critical.

I would. After a disastrous Songkran road toll, the least I would have expected him to say was 'don't drink - not at all if you're driving'. There is no level of alcohol in the blood that does not diminish judgment and responses.

But no. This lad obviously meant well, but actually doing well seems beyond him. The distance between intent and execution seems to be relative to your proximity to Thainess.

It's a good idea to read posts before you comment on them. At least that's what I try to do.

If you read mine you'll notice that I was replying to the post by attrayant where it was suggested that the drinking of water could help in the case of a hangover was pseudoscience. I pointed out that it was fairly common advice in normal medical circles in the West.

I also noted that not drinking is the best option which he did as well.

I think you need to remember firstly that these statements will have been translated From Thai and we all know how it's not all that precise even done properly which often it isn't.

Secondly maybe he's being realistic. Around 95% of Thais claim to be Buddhist and lay members of the religion have 5 precepts they are supposed to try to follow. The fifth of these is to seabstain from substances which cause intoxication and heedlessness. As you'll know there are things of temples and monks here. If they can't stop drunks getting behind the wheel what chance has he got. He also deals with the other great killer, tiredness.

He seems to be making an attempt to deal with some of the problems that occur during this holiday and at other times. It's not perfect but he seems to be doing more than the monks and police.

[Thongkorn]

The best way to treat a hangover is to not drink at all

The best way to treat a hangover is NOT to drink

[attrayant]

If you read mine you'll notice that I was replying to the post by attrayant where it was suggested that the drinking of water could help in the case of a hangover was pseudoscience. I pointed out that it was fairly common advice in normal medical circles in the West.

Just to be clear, that is not what I said. It's always good to stay hydrated, regardless of what ails you. By all means, stay hydrated when you've got the flu. But water is not going to treat the underlying cause or even reduce the symptoms. Lack of water might worsen your misery, though. Likewise when you're drunk, water won't make you any less drunk. Lack of water might increase your suffering, but that doesn't mean water is a "treatment" for intoxication.

And remembering that this came from the Ministry of Health, they should have known better. Furthermore, I refuse to grant any language barrier handicap. A country's chief medical officer should be, at a minimum, functionally capable if not fluent in English. If he's not, how is he supposed to be staying up-to-date on medical journals and research?

[DDbkh]

I think you might be hard pressed to get any positive response if you stopped at the eatery connected to the petrol station and asked for a bowl of Quaker Oats. Still, you might be lucky.

I think the 'porridge' he refers to is the normal Thai (Chinese) breakfast dish called 'Khao Tom ( moo, gai etc')

It is well known that 'warm water' is very soothing for the gut and assists rehydration - certainly more than an ice-cold beer.

This minister has obviously bowed to the inevitable that Thai people will not be told what to do (strike a chord with any Brits???).

One has to question whether the rise in drunkenness (measured by road deaths) is caused by people saying 'don't tell me what to do' ??

[Skywalker69]

Hangover is simply a sign of dehydration. Alcohol is diuretic. So before you go to bed drink a large glas of orange juice.

[cyberfarang]

I really do wonder who writes this c**p.

It`s not crap but very good advice.

Drinking excess of alcoholic drinks during hot weather conditions can cause acute hypoglycemia the affect of taking blood body sugar down to dangerously low levels, which can cause coma or even be fatal, especially tourists that are not used to tropical high temperatures. It happened to be on my first holiday trip to Thailand, was admitted into hospital and put on a glucose drip.