Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Who Needs a Hangover Cure?

Most of us have woken up the morning after the night before with an absolutely stinking rotten hangover right? How many of you have vowed never to drink again, or to lay off a certain drink once and for all? I bet just about everybody has as some time or another. But it's not the brand of booze of the evils of alcohol that got us into this state, it's us. We simply drank too much, period. Maybe we drank on an empty stomach of drank too quickly, but at the end of the day, no one pinned us down and poured the hard stuff down our gullets. Ok, armed with the obvious knowledge of self inflicted injury, just what can we do about this awful feeling? What is the best hangover cure around?

Well, there are a few things you can do to cure a hangover, depending on the severity of it and the condition of your stomach. But firstly let's just understand why we get a hangover in the first place. It's all down to dehydration. It doesn't matter how much you drink, alcohol will dehydrate the body and this dehydration can lead to a splitting headache the next day. Therefore, it's important to rehydrate your body before you hit the sack. Ok, so the thought of drinking huge quantities of water after sinking 10 pints of beer into your gut, is not what you might call the perfect end to a great night out, but believe me, it can save you an awful lot of suffering the following day when you finally awake from your pit.

If you failed to drink some water before you passed out on the bed, then get that tap running the moment you wake up. Drink as much as you can over the next couple of hours if your stomach will permit it. Another little known secret cure for a hangover is vitamin C. What vitamin C does is work against the effects of a chemical found in alcohol called acetylaldehyde. This little monster is what messes with you brain and the sooner you can get that out of your system the better. It's the likely cause for disorientation, loss of short term memory, general fatigues and that nasty nausea, which coupled with a splitting headache, is just the worst kind or hangover going. So, along with water as a nightcap you might want to pop 500 mg or so of vitamin C too.

You now understand that both water and vitamin C can be used as a prevention or a cure. I know which way round I like to use it! But if it's too late for prevention, then you need a hangover cure and another well known remedy is to put Ginger root through a juicer. You can buy it fresh as most supermarkets these days. Simply add your ginger juice to a glass of fresh orange juice (vitamin C again), and you'll soon be on the mend.

Some other known cures for a hangover are a vegetable juice cocktail, and particularly something with tomatoes in it, and some folks say that adding a bit of horseradish helps speed up the recovery process too.

Finally, a good couple of pain killers can work wonders for many folks. Over the shelf options such as Ibuprofen, paracetamol, and aspirin are among the favorites.

If you want to avoid hangovers all together, simply don't drink or drink in moderation. Although this is simple advice it's not always easy to implement, especially if you're in the company or hardened drinkers who just keep topping up your glass. But learning to say 'thanks but no thanks' could save you years or unnecessary suffering, and that's coming from someone who's had a history of the hangovers from hell!

Andy Maingam writes for Oriental Cures dot com where he has articles on The Acupuncture School and All Natural Cures. He also has other cure & healing related pieces on the site.

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Monday, February 26, 2007

How To Prevent A Hangover with Vitamins

Cat: Prevent Hangover

This is a post that might help you out on Holiday Eve and especially the day after.

Hangovers are caused by a combination of two things: dehydration and a chemical called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is a byproduct of alcohol metabolism and is what causes nausea, headaches and fatigue the day after you drink too much.

This Vitamin Cocktail should pretty much kill any hangover you might get after drinking too much on Holiday :

The amino acid L-Methionine (1-3 grams)
Vitamin C (1-3 grams)
NAC- N-acetylcystine
B-Complex

Swallow down this Vitamin Cocktail with about 16 ounces of water and i guarantee you wont be suffering from any nausea, headaches, or fatigue. Take these vitamins before you go out or before you go to bed and you should be pretty much pain free. Ive used this remedy many times and it definately works. Give it a try and let me know.

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Hangover Cure Tips

    By Carl Walker

  1. When you are looking for how to cure a hangover, first stop is to drink plenty of water. Alcohol dehydrates you, so your hangover will be lessened (if not cured completely) by drinking water. If you're drinking mixed drinks, such as vodka and tonic, you may even be able to alternate between an alcoholic drink and just a sparkling water. This technique works well if you're disciplined enough to use it. But if you lapse, then drink plenty of water before you go to sleep and again lots of water when you wake up the following day.

  2. Next step in your quest for how to get rid of your hangover is to take a vitamin B complex tablet before you go out for a night on the tiles. Vitamin B is really helpful in fighting your hangover - you'll really appreciate taking the tablet when you wake up the following morning.

  3. Your cure for a hangover can be helped by using a pre-recorded hypnosis session. You can download these almost instantly (see the box at the end of this article for one suggestion) and a hypnosis MP3 will help with your curing your hangover by relaxing your body and helping it to recover from the previous night's excesses.

  4. Another hangover cure, albeit quite drastic, is hair of the dog. One popular way to cure a hangover is to drink it away with more of whatever got you drunk the night before. Although popular, this method isn't recommended as all it really does is postpone the awful time when you have to face your hangover head on.

  5. Drink fruit juice. Like the drinking water method of curing a hangover, drinking plenty of fruit juice can be a good method to adopt in your journey for how to cure a hangover. You'll replenish some of the liquid that you've lost when you created your hangover in the first place. You'll also benefit from the vitamins contained in the fruit juice. If you can get hold of it, try pink grapefruit juice as this helps your body in lots of other ways as well.

  6. Get some fresh air. This is a useful cure for hangover. If it's safe to walk home - and you have other people to walk with you - then fresh air can help with the sobering up process. You'll also get some exercise as well, which should help with your do-it-yourself hangover cure.

  7. Although they are often used in getting rid of a hangover, you should avoid aggressive pain killers like aspirin and ibuprofen (read the label to find out what's really in your favorite hangover cure tablet) and stick with something like paracetemol instead. Ideally, stay off the pain killers completely. Ultimately they'll just give your body even more work to do as well as the job it's doing fighting your hangover.

Looking for a hypnosis cure for your hangover? Then visit About Hypnosis where you can find a hypnosis cure for your hangover, ready to play on your iPod or MP3 player.

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Sunday, February 25, 2007

How To Prevent a Wine Hangover

We've all been there. Those times in our lives when we swear that alcohol will never again touch our lips. These instances usually happen in the early mornings, with the cracks from the bathroom linoleum digging into our knees and our contact lenses glued to our eyeballs as if holding on for dear life, afraid that the heaves of our stomach will cause them to fall out.

With alcohol freely flowing - booze oozing out of bottles, people professing their love for each other, glasses of wine practically filling themselves up - it's easy to forget the hangover that awaits in the coming hours. Lurking in the bathroom, hiding beneath the sink or behind a closed shower curtain, this hangover is sure to pop into ours lives anytime we play the role of the unsuspecting partier, leaving us to swear off drinking for life or longer.

Though everything has a price, and a hangover may very well be the price we pay for a wild night out, drinking wine does not always have to cost you in the form of a hangover. Taking some precautions can mean the difference between feeling fine and shooting a beady eyed glare in the direction of every bottle in your wine cellar.

Drink Water

Alcohol dehydrates you, which is why the next day is met with a headache and the ability to drink three bottles of soda, five liters of water, and a pot of coffee without ever having to pee. The best way to thwart this is to drink a glass of water for every glass of wine you drink. While wine does contain water, the alcohol in the wine trumps the water's affect, disallowing you to utilize duality and count a glass of wine as both water and alcohol. Drinking a glass of water for every glass of wine will keep you hydrated, decreasing the chances of a rough morning.

Eat Before

Drinking on an empty stomach may seem like a good idea. As the sensation of wine glides down your esophagus, setting up residence by itself in your stomach and making you feel giddier than it would setting up residence next to a five course meal, drinking on empty can cause you to run out of gas in hangover Hell. Eating about an hour before going out drinking, however, helps to absorb the alcohol, keeping you from getting too drunk, too quickly. While you don't need to eat everything in sight, eating a meal containing bread or pasta is a good way to arm yourself with a hangover deterrent.

Don't Mix with Prescription Drugs

Several prescription drugs contain a label that says, "This medicine will increase the affects of alcohol." While some people may look at this and see it as a way to save money at the bars, taking a few pills and generating a virtual two for one deal is probably not the best way to save a buck. Prescription pills and alcohol can be a dangerous combination and when your body is met with a dangerous combination, it fights back, doing all it can to kick any dangerous substances out of your system. This can only lead to a wilder than intended night, and a morning full of mourning.

Know When to Say When

Though a saying usually equated with drinking and driving, knowing when to say when is also applicable to drinking in general. Even if you drink plenty of water, eat on a full stomach, and lay off prescription drugs, drinking huge amounts of wine can still cause you to get sick. When wine is flowing smoothly, it's easy to keep drinking without realizing the amount of alcohol you are actually consuming. Because the human brain has a late reaction to alcohol, you may be getting extremely drunk without immediately feeling inebriated. It's best to drink slowly, pacing yourself to avoid that one moment where you rise from your chair and realize, three drinks too late, that you've consumed far too much. Drink in moderation and remind those around you that friends don't let friends get hangovers.

Obviously, the full proof way of avoiding a hangover is to not drink at all. But, there's no fun in that; the fact that the Great Depression was preceded by a decade without alcohol is no coincidence. We all want the ability to eat, drink, and be merry. And we all want a glass of wine to savor. By simply being proactive in your drinking, you should be able to avoid regret the morning after. And you should be able to avoid the realization of why, when it comes down to it, a hangover is really just two four letter words.

Jennifer Jordan is the senior editor at http://www.savoreachglass.com. With a vast knowledge of wine etiquette, she writes articles on everything from how to hold a glass of wine to how to hold your hair back after too many glasses. Ultimately, she writes her articles with the intention that readers will remember wine is fun and each glass of anything fun should always be savored.

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Thursday, February 22, 2007

How to Cure Your Hangover Fast

Drank too much last night? Head aches, mouth dry, you are nauseous? That’s a hangover for sure. But why does that happen? Let’s see scientifically why hangovers occcur and how to cure them.

The hangover is caused by a combination of the toxic by-product of alcohol metabolism (acetaldehyde), dehydration, and Vitamin A, B (particularly B6) and C depletion brought about by the chemical action of alcohol on your system.

Some drinks give you worse hangovers than others due to the actions of impurities it contains. These impurities are called congeners. It's the ethyl alcohol (ethanol) that gets you drunk, but the amyl, butyl, methyl, propyl, and isopropyl alcohols that are also found in most drinks (more or less), and the concentration of these congeners determine how bad your hangover will be.

The white (clear) spirits have less congeners than the colored ones (vodka, gin, tequila as opposed to whisky and cognac) as they are filtered. Another special “impurity” which really gives you a sick feeling after drinking is acetaldehyde, a by-product of the natural oxidation of ethanol. This is usually contributing to the super headache one feels. What can be done about it?

There are lots of cures from folklore and each country and culture seems to have their own. Below you can read the result of exhaustive research, and popularity of cures among the published articles found worldwide.

Special Rule: If you forget to at night, take two oils containing Isobruphen. There are several names for this medicine, but do NOT take aspirin or other similar medicines. Only Isobuphen appears to work, and other painkillers with acetaminophen can damage your liver.

General Rule: Often called “hair of the dog that bite you”. a Bloody Mary cocktail seems to bring you back to normal. In conjunction with Isobuphen, a Bloody Mary can work quite dramatically. Here is my recipe, taken from a famous Japanese restaurant in New York;

• One shotglass of vodka (use the best you can find)

• Dash of lemon juice

• Worcestershire sauce

• 2 or 3 drops Tabasco sauce or more if you can handle it

• Pepper, salt and celery salt

• 5 oz tomato juice

Over ice in a tall glass add spices, then vodka. Fill with tomato juice and stir. Garnish with celery stick and lime wedge.

Special Rules:

1. Take a hot shower

2. Do deep breathing exercises in front of an open window

3. Walk in place till your heartbeat is about 115 beats per minute then stop

4. As you feel better, drink lots of pure clean water

5. Eat bananas. Bananas contain high volumes of fructose, and and potassium, which is one of the things you lose lots of when you drink. Bananas are also a natural antacid to help with the nausea, and are high in magnesium which can help relax those pounding blood vessels causing that hangover headache.

Obviously one would not like to drink too much and suffer the consequences of a hangover the next day, but following the rules above will alleviate most or all of the symptoms.

For more free diet and nutrition advice including feathres articles and magazines go to:

http://www.net-planet.oeg.health.html

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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

How To Prevent and Cure hangovers Easy and Quickly

It’s that time of year again we have hangovers and want to cure them. Of course, you should not drink to excess in the first place but if you do, here are some proven methods that will work to cure your hangover fast.

Had too many drinks? Mixed them, soft (wine) and hard (whisky) at the same meal. Your head is splitting; you have nausea, a dry mouth, are dizzy, and can’t get out of bed? That’s a division 1 hangover. How do you cure it? Read on.

What is a hangover?

The hangover above is caused by the combination toxic by-products after the metabolism of alcohol (in this case, the toxin is acetaldehyde) and it’s not a pleasant feeling! Added to this are dehydration, and depletion of Vitamins A, B (particularly B6) and C brought about by the chemical action of alcohol in your body.

You are now suffering the effects of a mild overdose of a depressant drug, and your nerves in a hangover state are only reacting to it. So in addition to all the above, you are also depressed and feeling low!

Some Preventive Measures (Prevention is also the cure)

Firstly, don’t drink on an empty stomach, ever. Always eat as you drink, and always something oily, including oil or butter by themselves.

This is an old trick from girls who don’t wish to get drunk at parties. 5 teaspoons of olive oil before drinking!If you are still conscious as you are about to sleep, have a large glass of water or two.

These glasses of water can solve the dehydration problems caused by the drinking.

Also be sure and take painkillers with Ibuprofen being the one to go for not, aspirin! Aspirin will nothing for you or your hangover.

Waking up is really difficult, and you need something to help.

You won’t feel like eating or drinking anything, but if you are really up to it, try.

The Red Eye.

It’s not the most pleasant taste, but is known to really help and cure hangovers fast.

To make the Red Eye mix in a blender some whiskey, fresh coffee, some Tabasco sauce, a raw egg, pepper and orange juice.

It’s really an acquired taste to put it mildly!

If you can drink it and keep it down, you will feel normal in about 15 minutes.

If you are really brave, and really sick, try the Black Mary.

Here you mix coffee, tonic water, honey and orange juice.

This is equally Am unpleasant taste just like the Red Eye but most people agree it works faster. And agreeing that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then follow the following guidelines.

1. No mixed drinks.

If you drink hard liquor, drink it straight or with ice. No soft drinks or juices with it. These mixers will serve to get you drunk more quickly, and add a great deal more of toxic material for your body to rid itself of the next morning.

2. Drinking means no dairy products at the same time. No milk, cheese, ice-cream and cream sauces. These are the vomit agents! Stay away from them.

3. Remember only time (and metabolism) sobers you. Coffee, fresh air, walking, and so on, does nothing at all to rid you of the toxic materials that cause a hangover.

4. Do not mix low alcoholic drinks (wine for example) with high alcoholic ones. Mixing these will get you drunk very quickly and sicker the next day. Stick to low or high, but do not mix. Remember this rule.

We all know we shouldn’t drink to much but if you want to prevent a hangover or cure one quickly, the above will work and work fast.



On all aspects of health and more on illness visit our website for a huge resource of articles, features and downloads and at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

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Monday, February 19, 2007

How to get rid of a Hangover

A hangover can be one of the most terrible feelings you ever experience. If you’re badly hungover you don’t want to move, you don’t want to eat, you don’t want to drink, and you really don’t want to go to work. It’s painful, and you want it to stop as soon as possible. “Make it go away,” you mutter, growing even more conscious of the throbbing sound in your head, “just make it stop.”

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The best way to deal with a hangover is often not to get one in the first place, which really isn’t too difficult. Of course, you could avoid getting a hangover by not drinking alcohol at all, but many people don’t really see the fun in that. It is not realistic, you might say. If you do plan on consuming alcohol, then take some preventative measures. In other words, prepare for the battle you know you’ll have to face. First of all, don’t go drinking on an empty stomach. If you have food in your stomach it’ll help you absorb the alcohol more slowly, which is generally a good thing if you don’t want to feel terrible the next morning. Also, make sure you’re hydrated, since the majority of the symptoms of a hangover come from merely being dehydrated.

Once you’re out on the town, be cautious with your alcohol choice. Drinks with high sugar content or sulfites (like wine) will probably make you much worse the next morning. Also, it helps if you stick to one drink the entire night; your stomach won’t be as upset as when you gulp down ten different kinds of drinks from Long Island Tea to Sucking Cowboy. Moreover, you’ll probably end up drinking less. Drink water while you are out too in order to try and stave off dehydration.

When you make it back home, drink a big glass of water or two; this is one of the most important prevention steps. Stay away from Tylenol since it’s hard on your stomach and liver if you take it with alcohol, but a multivitamin will probably do you some good.

When you wake up in the morning, hopefully you’ve avoided the worst of a hangover. If you’re still hurting, don’t reach for the coffee nor the Tylenol. To relieve your headache, take a couple of aspirin instead and drink more water, and if you’re still feeling nauseous don’t go to work. Lie if you have to, say you have the stomach flu, since your body is filled with toxins and will take some time to recover. When you can finally eat, something full of vitamins will work wonders, and some people have a lot of luck with fattier foods like hamburgers to help replace nutrients and settle the stomach.

John Wellington provides readers with up-to-date commentaries, articles, and reviews for health, skin care, and other related information.

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