TENTEN: Dr. Kujtim curing holiday hangovers

It's a holiday season and we had to find a medical expert to give us few tips for post-festum blues. Dr.Kujtim Pllana is an experienced anesthesiologist, born in Prishtina but working in Germany.

If you’re have been waking up with a pounding headache and questionable life choices in this holiday season, a doctor’s advice might just be something you need to read, except in Dr. Kujtim Pllana’s case, you’d better hope it’s anesthesia and not last night’s tequila that put you under.

Born in Prishtina, Kosova, in 1986, Dr. Pllana didn’t just survive medical school at the University of Prishtina; he thrived. After earning his degree and making the leap to Germany, he’s now a senior anesthesiologist at intensive care at Universitätsklinikum Jena, proving that coffee-fueled nights can lead to actual miracles.

Before trading Balkan home remedies for German precision, Dr. Pllana was super active in everything helpful, from Red Cross volunteer gigs to mentoring medical students. In Germany, he climbed the medical ladder with stops at Eisenach and Nordhausen, finally earning his license in 2018. (Yes, we have asked him about hangover IVs, and no, he doesn’t recommend making a habit of needing them.)

When he’s not keeping patients pain-free or saving lives in the ICU, Dr. Pllana enjoys photography, traveling, and a little sport—presumably because even doctors need hobbies that don’t involve a stethoscope. Fluent in Albanian, German, and English, he’s a bridge between cultures and a role model for young medics, especially from Kosovo. He is frequently in Kosovar media, speaking from Germany on a range of subjects, from COVID vaccines to latest medical breakthroughs.

So, while Dr. Pllana might not endorse your fifth beer as a hangover cure, he’s there for his patients if things go south, so they can at least go through tough life lessons while dreaming.

1. If your childhood neighborhood was a medicine, what would be its side effects?

It’s a good question. Childhood neighborhoods and just the warmth of community, family, friends can be a medicine for lot of health issues. One side effect from growing up in Kosovo can be tinnitus :) That buzzing, ringing noise in your ears you can’t quite identify.

2. Which Kosova-born artist would you prescribe as a cure for holiday blues?

Ah. Is there a better way to cure holiday blues than Sabri Fejzullahu? Especially the “Shpirt magjie” with those lyrics “I don’t know how to be a poet…”

3. How did growing up in your community shape your ‘chemical equation’ for success?

Plenty of lessons to learn for medical professionals growing up in our communities, most important of which is to always be ready to improvise when you run out of material :)

4. If you could add to the city’s water supply with one personality trait of yours, what would it be?

I would spread one important trait to my compatriots, especially those in my profession: The ability to work under high pressure without panic.

5. What’s the most bizarre 'medical' home remedy you encountered growing up?

We love to use kos (thick yoghurt) for everything, but there’s some science behind it. Iodine and its unshakable persistence are important in our society are and dairy products (such as yogurt and cheese) do help to get enough iodine in our body.

6. What’s the medicine against promaja?

Ahhh, the famous, mysterious Balkan sickness for which there is a simple medicine: close the doors.

7. As an experienced anesthesiologist, what’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about patients' perceptions of anesthesia?

I’ve had all sorts of weird experiences from patients throughout the years. It’s especially bizarre when people fear anesthesia more than the surgery itself. One patient who was about to lose a finger after a necessary amputation kept asking, “Will I wake up again after anesthesia ?” - Yes sir, you will wake up, but we can’t guarantee you will have one all the fingers in your hand.

8. How do you balance the ‘chemistry’ of healthy eating with the ‘alchemy’ of the sometimes unhealthy food during visits to Kosova?

I’m a very wrong person to ask this question because I don’t anything, ever when I come to Kosova - I just eat in a completely uncontrolled way everything put in front of me.

9. Some people take cocktails of vitamins with IV to feel better and refreshed. Is this a myth or real thing? Does vitamins' cocktail over IV really help us feel refreshed and stronger?

Well, I have to be honest. I didn’t even know this was considered a myth and had to check it out and it seems the jury is out on whether or not IV helps you, especially after NYE party hangovers. But logically, alcohol depletes nutrients, but B-complex vitamins (B1, B2, B6, B12, folic acid) help the brain and body recover from a hangover. So sure, take cocktails of vitamins, IV or not, they always help.

10. You just mentioned it’s the holiday season. What’s your professional opinion on beer as a hangover cure? What about rasoj?

My completely personal opinion but based on some “modest” personal experience, but beer is BOTH good and bad after hangover. In many ways, hangovers are just alcohol withdrawal syndrome, so having a beer or a Bloody Mary, may relieve some of that awful feeling after binge drinking - but drinks with electrolytes are still better. Rasoj (the pickled cabbage water) is the real deal to cure hangovers. My grandma would say that together with kos, it’s a cure for every possible illness one may have. Unless you’re lactose intolerant that is…