Party Rx: Hangover Makeover

The sun is rising, the room is spinning and your stomach is churning. Its official, you’re seriously hung over. Feeling nauseated, shaky, thirsty, tired, and achy, you promise yourself you'll never, do this again. But invariably, you will. Hangovers will happen. 

And when it comes to hangover prevention, there’s always the standard medical advice of not drinking to excess in the first place. – Yeah right. The best advice any realist can give is to drink clear alcohol. Dark liquors, red wines and dark beers contain substances called congeners. Congeners are toxic byproducts of the fermentation process and though they contribute to the flavor, aroma and color of alcoholic beverages and are widely responsible for headaches. 

Once the damage is done there are scads of remedies to get us back on our feet. From the factual to the folklore, we’ve sorted through them all and identified the best antidotes.. 

Breakfast with Mary 

Yes the “hair of the dog” approach will almost always do the trick, or at least postpone the misery until it fits better with your schedule. The liver attacks poisons in a certain order with ethanol (alcohol) first, then methanol (methanol is the substance that makes you feel bad) second. So, simply hit the liver with another dose of ethanol and your body will stop processing the methanol and Eureka, you’re buzzed and the world is beautiful again. 

Pass the Water 

Dehydration is one of the key players in a truly epic hangover. When your body gets dehydrated and can't get water from its normal supply it steals it from anywhere it can, including the cells of the brain. The brain shrinks and pain-sensitive filaments connecting the outside membranes to the inside of the skull become stretched, giving you a headache. 

Pill-Popping 

Before you even fully wake-up enough to feel the full brunt of the hangover, take a few Aspirin or Advil, crawl back in bed and let these pharmaceutical wonders work their magic. A word of caution though, there several types of pain killers that don’t play well with alcohol, the most common is Acetaminophen (Tylenol). The mixture of alcohol and Acetaminophen can lead to horrendous liver damage, so steer-clear. 

Chow Down 

Once the nausea has passed, food is your best friend. Food doesn't absorb alcohol, but it does increase alcohol absorption and increases the speed with which the body processes alcohol. 

In the end, keep in mind that the effects of a hangover only last about 24 hours, so be patient. You'll soon feel better and ready, inevitably, to do it all again!