Make mine a G and Tea

5th September 2005

With the bank holiday almost upon us, bosses take note - drinking tea can help to cure a hangover and make you more productive at work

5 September 2005

With the bank holiday almost upon us, bosses take note - drinking tea can help to cure a hangover and make you more productive at work, according to results gathered from partygoers, the morning after the night before.

Thirty ‘twenty-somethings’ played a series of games to test their accuracy, speed of response, mental awareness and memory recall before and after spending a night on the town.

The games, found at http://www.tea4health.com/tea_hangmeter.html, were played three times: before partying commenced, the morning after, then finally after drinking as much tea as they wanted. Results were gathered to assess if there were any visible signs of deterioration in the subjects’ performance.

Nutritionist, Cath Macdonald, said: ‘The results show exactly what is happening to your body when you have a hangover. Alcohol has a natural diuretic effect; it switches off the hormone ADH (anti-diuretic hormone), which causes the body to lose more fluid than it takes in. Cells in the body that are used to a regular supply of fluid have their supply reduced so they pilfer it from surrounding tissues, including the brain – hence the classic headache! The results from the ‘hangover’ session - before tea was drunk - are pretty awful, many of them more than 40% down on their pre-drinking state, and 25% less than when tea had been taken.’

Cath continued: ‘After a night’s heavy drinking, the body is crying out for a repair remedy. The fluid tea provides would have helped enormously with any symptoms of dehydration, which could cause issues with speed of response, whereas the small amount of caffeine in tea would certainly have sharpened the mind, without causing the ill effects you might get from some other higher caffeine containing drinks. This would definitely account for the improved scores in the accuracy game. The research wasn’t carried out under laboratory conditions but anecdotally, it is a good marker and something bosses should be interested in seeing.’

With an estimated 11-17 million working days lost per year due to hangovers, many of them after bank holidays, at a cost to the economy of £1.2-1.8 billion, it’s something employers should take seriously.

The final session on the game came only 45 minutes after the ‘hangover’ readings were taken during which time most subjects had drunk two cups of tea.

The game is part of the tea4health campaign that encourages people to drink four cups of tea per day.

If you would like to determine if your performance is lacking, play the hang-o-meter.

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