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.

Labels: