DIGITAL NEWS: (Research) Final Idea

Once we had our idea we started the research needed for it. We needed to look into the hangover cures that we have chosen: the 'hair of the dog', the lemon, keeping hydrated and the fry up.

The 'hair of the dog'
The 'hair of the dog' theory is probably the worst advice anyone could give and it's not scientifically proven either. This myth means that drinking more alcohol after a night out will ease the effects of your hangover. The phrase comes from an old idea that if you were bitten by a rabid dog, you could be cured by eating the hair of the dog that bit you.

The extra sip or two might provide the mild numbing effect to theoretically ease you back. But it's only prolonging the inevitable. And now there are even more toxins that need to get out of the body. Many experts and medical sources will state that drinking in the morning to forget the night before is one of the key indicators that person might have a drinking problem. In a 2009 study, people who routinely used a little 'hair of the dog that bit them' drank 2 to 3 times more alcohol than other adults in the study, and they had significantly higher rates of alcohol dependency. Basically, you're just prolonging your misery. Your liver still needs to break down the hangover-inducing toxins in your morning brew.

Pros: Drinking more may numb you and prolong the pain of a hangover for only a short while. 

Cons: Drinking excessively for a 'cure' is dangerous and may cause alcohol abuse in the long term.

Source: http://www.two-views.com/hangovers/hair-of-the-dog.html#sthash.kd1A8Zaa.dpbs
Photo source: http://www.neworleans.com/restaurants/hair-of-the-dog-new-orleans-bartenders-best-hangover-cures/

The lemon
Rubbing a lemon on your armpit is a hangover cure from Puerto Rico, it is supposed to keep you hydrated and as a result, prevent headaches. They believe that you must rub the lemon on the armpit of the arm that you used to drink, otherwise it doesn't work.

Source: http://www.two-views.com/hangovers/puerto-rican-remedy.html#sthash.HXoRavqs.dpbs

Keeping hydrated
Drinking a glass of water after every alcoholic drink is a well known hangover cure, but most people don't do it because why would they have a glass of water when they can have another alcoholic drink? However, the water doesn't make you feel any less drunk.

Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning that it stimulates your body to increase urine production. That in turn depletes your body fluid, specifically, the water in your body. This depletion can cause dehydration if you have consumed a lot of alcohol. So drinking water is what most doctors and scientists agree as the best way to get that much needed water back into your body and eventually cure the hangover.

Source: http://www.two-views.com/hangovers/water.html#sthash.GBrFJxEh.dpbs

The fry up
Glutathione is the most important molecule you need to stay healthy and prevent ageing, cancer, heart disease, dementia and more. The body produces its own glutathione but toxins from poor diet, pollution, medications, stress trauma, infections and radiation all deplete the glutathione. This leaves you susceptible to unrestrained cell disintegration from oxidative stress, free radicals and infections. The liver also gets overloaded and damaged, making it unable to do its job of detoxification.

The secret of glutathione is the sulphur chemical groups it contains. Sulphur is a sticky, smelly molecule. It acts like fly paper and all the bad things in the body stick onto it, including free radicals and toxins like mercury and other heavy metals. Normally glutathione is recycled in the body - except when the toxic load becomes too great - which explains why we are in trouble when drunk. However, we can increase the molecule in the body and one of them is eating more sulphur rich foods.

In the fry up scene, we specifically identify onions to help with hangovers. This is because onions are rich is sulphur and therefore, help increase our levels of glutathione.

Source: https://www.livestrong.com/article/335859-food-sources-of-glutathione/
Source: http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/12/what-is-glutathione-and-how-do-i-get-more-of-it/

The science behind the M&Ms
I researched about the science been hangovers which created the idea for our M&Ms scene. I found that enzymes in the body transform alcohol into acetaldehyde, which is then broken down by glutathione in the liver, into acetates. These then get absorbed into the body, however, when we drink more, our stores of glutathione start to run out, meaning that more acetaldehyde is left to absorb into the body. Since acetaldehyde can be between 10 and 30 times more toxic than the alcohol, this is when we begin to experience the pain of a hangover.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq1F4It-3RM
Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/your-complete-guide-to-the-science-of-hangovers-180948074/

Research into Broadditch Farm
Before we went to Broadditch farm we researched into it and their annual HauntFest. I found that they put events on for summer, Halloween and Christmas and this years Halloween fest is on the weekend of Halloween. They have a mix of five different haunts, including four haunted houses, Spooky Castle, Thirteen the Freaks, The Edge and Biometrix SubZero, and a corn maze, called MassAcre.

Spooky Castle

Broadditch's website advertise the house as:

"In 1924, 9 year old Rose Masters disappears from her families annual Christmas party. Little did the hosts, their guests and other residents of the castle realise, that life as they knew it was about to change forever. Her parents Charles and Lillian, together with his mistress Evelyn are driven by anger and jealousy, they forbid anyone to leave the Castle until they find out what happened to Rose.

Several years have passed, the castle’s inhabitants fuelled by rage and hostility at their long false
imprisonment, have become sinister creatures, preying on anyone who dares enter."

This sounds like the perfect attraction for Halloween, full of fun, scares and thrills. 

Source: http://www.spookycastle.co.uk/spooky-castle/

Thirteen The Freaks

Broadditch's description:

"Dare you enter a subterranean world inhabited by sideshow freaks who have been rejected and
alienated by society. The heyday of the Freak Show has long since passed and so these human oddities have formed their own weird and twisted community in a dark network of tunnels.

From the bizarre to the outlandish, our oddball troupe of menacing monsters will disturb and unsettle
you. Your curiosity will be aroused as our tortured performers entertain you, with the deadliest show on
earth. Will you survive or succumb to our freaks murderous intent.

The show’s about to start and you’re the main attraction. So come and unleash your inner freak."

Source: http://www.spookycastle.co.uk/thirteen/

The Edge

Description:

"The Edge takes you to the very brink of terror and plunges you into a place of eternal damnation. This Netherworld is inhabited by forsaken fiends who are on an everlasting quest to quench their insatiable thirst for blood, feeding from the victims slaughtered within its depths. You’ll be overcome by the stench of putrid decomposing bodies, left in the catacombs by its vampiric occupants. As soon as these spectral beings pick up your scent, they are driven into a frenzy. They will hunt their prey through the eerie passageways of their lair until they can consume your life force. If they want to increase their number of the immortal clan, one venomous bite and you’ll be gripped with a mania for blood and be brought into the vampire fold. Will you escape the undead that roam within its ancient, decaying walls or be forever entombed in purgatory."

Source: http://www.spookycastle.co.uk/the-edge/

Biometrix SubZero

Description:

"Over 200 years ago, some of the greatest scientists in the world were recruited at the Biometrix facility to research advancements into human gene technology to make our soldiers the most ultimate fighting machines in history. Shortly after starting live testing something went wrong. The facility was sealed and the human subjects cryogenically frozen until future technology could solve the problem.

The year is now 2217, as a result of many wars the world has been turned into a frozen desolate landscape. In order to survive, chaos and anarchy have broken out. In a desperate attempt to restore law and order the Biometrix facility is reopened. Scientists begin experimenting on the cryogenically preserved humans. However they unwittingly unleash something so deadly it could destroy mankind."

Source: http://www.spookycastle.co.uk/biometrix/

MassAcre

Description:

"MassAcre is an intense and disturbing corn maze that will take you to the brink of terror. Fear and carnage awaits you in the killing fields of MassAcre Farm. The reclusive family who live on this remote abandoned farm have withdrawn from society and reverted to living like savages. Existing in squalid conditions in a ramshackle homestead, the inbred family live a depraved and fiendish life. Its crazed flesh eating occupants are on a murderous cannibalistic rampage and you’re on the menu. Preying on random strangers who have aimlessly wandered on to the farm, MassAcre’s monstrous corn dwellers crave your flesh. Follow pathways that twist and turn in the darkness of the eerie maze. This is your worst nightmare."

Source: http://www.spookycastle.co.uk/massacre/

Now I have researched about the farm I know what to expect when we go there. We can also create more in depth questions for our interviewee, now we know more about the HauntFest.