Eating overly fermented kenkey may cause hangover – Medical Doctor

Medical experts have warned that eating excessively fermented foods like kenkey may likely push one into presenting symptoms of hangover.

Dr. Ernest Anim-Opare, a Medical Doctor at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital disclosed that persons who present conditions of hangover suffer dehydration, a situation that is often accompanied by other symptoms including vomiting and abdominal pains.

Hangover is said to be a set of symptoms that occur as as a result of drinking excessive alcohol than the body can accommodate. Typical symptoms include fatigue, weakness, thirst, headache, muscle aches, nausea, stomach pain, vertigo, sensitivity to light and sound, anxiety, irritability, sweating, and increased blood pressure.

While it has been established that some Ghanaian delicacies contain some level of ethanol, Dr Anim-Opare stressed that both male and female are only permitted to have maximum of 14 units of alcohol in their system.

According to him, the level of ethanol or alcohol contained in foods like kenkey cannot slip one into hangover except when the food is excessively fermented to the extent that the ethanol level shoots up to high levels.

“Alcohol is prepared through a certain process and it is when you get to have that breakdown, for instance allowing the kenkey to ferment over days and that same product that is found in alcohol which is ethanol is broken down to the acetaldehyde. So it is not direct as though when you eat kenkey you get hangover but when you allow it to ferment and go through the process that ends you at that stage then you may have similar effect,” he said on GTV Breakfast Show monitored by Mynewsgh.com.

The medical expert added that there is currently no medical cure for hangover. However, symptoms associated with the condition are treatable.