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The Hangover Cureall?
By Joe Fier | September 14, 2007
As the weekend is only a day away, many of you partiers will find yourselves in bars or at a friend’s house throwing back a few. On occasion we tend to forget how much alcohol we’re actually consuming and what effects we’ll be feeling the next day. When drinking, you fall into the moment with your friends around, along with many other distractions, but we all tend to forget about our bodies and the aftermath that might occur the next morning. For some reason, there are a few lucky souls out there that do not experience hangovers, unfortunately I am not one of them. Maybe it’s something in the water they’ve been drinking that a lot of us have missed, but whatever the case, hangovers can be brutal and last for most of the next day. First, let’s start with a bit of what hangovers actually are…
Simply put, hangovers are caused by an overly dehydrated body, caused by alcohol. We often wonder when drinking beer or any other kind of alcohol, “Why do I need to keep running to the bathroom every 10 minutes?” Since alcohol is a diuretic, which is a drug that flushes the body’s fluids through rapidly, this forces you to urinate more often which eventually leads to dehydration. The first sign that many of us notice is a dry mouth and a slight lethargic feeling. By this time you should realize that your body is losing more liquid than normal and that it’s probably a good time to stop throwing down the beer and pour yourself a nice glass of pure water. Many times at this point water will almost taste better than any other alcoholic drink out there. You’ll never know how desperate your body and your mind needs water until you actually start drinking some.
There are many remedies that are scattered all about online and suggested by our friends. Personally, if I have had a little too much to drink the night before (which doesn’t happen often), I use a method my good buddy told me he uses:
- Before going to sleep after drinking God knows how much, drink as much water as your can. I aim for the tallest glass I can find and drink until my craving subsides. If it comes to even forcing it down your throat, it will benefit you the next day. Many times this step alone can prevent hangovers completely. The idea behind this is to hyperhydrate before knocking out for hours, which sleeping is also a time that the body normally dehydrates itself.
- Upon waking up in the morning, try to eat a bread-like item, i.e: a bagel, toast, or anything that can suck up some liquid inside of your stomach, thus retaining it for later.
- Drink a large energy drink. I know these things are really not good for you, but I make an exception when it comes to a time like this. I suggest not drinking coffee, because just as alcohol is, coffee is also a diuretic. The thought behind the energy drink is that there is caffeine to keep you somewhat on a normal energy level. These also contain carbonation and tons of sugars that seem to straighten out your stomach that feels like it has been twisted into knots.
- After the energy drink, drink a large, one liter bottle of water. Definitely drink this after the energy drink because the water forces the energy drink through the system much quicker than normal. You don’t want that energy drink sitting in you for too long. And that leads me to the most important, but grossest part.
- Flush yourself out! Find a bathroom and take care of business. The reason for this is pretty self-explanatory and should occur automatically after the previous steps have been completed. After doing your dirty deed, you should instantly be feeling much better than you did before entering “el baño”.
I am not going to guarantee that this is a cureall for a hangover, but it has proved to be successful for me and many of my friends. I do not suggest that you go party like mad, while throwing down a ungodly amount of drinks, just so you can try out my method. I don’t necessarily want to get a long list of complaints that my suggestions didn’t work from a bunch of angry, hangover drunks! 
Each Friday I am thinking of setting a trend about anything alcohol related. I am thinking that many topics about the good, bad, and ugly of alcohol consumption would be nice to read about while having the weekend right around the corner. Stay tuned to learn some new wacky information about all of this in the weeks to come. In the meantime, go have fun out there, but watch yourself and learn from those before you!
Topics: Alcohol and Health | 6 Comments »
September 16th, 2007 at 11:50 am
[...] a few of us might be feeling the effects of the last two nights. Continuing with my post, The Hangover Cureall?, I want to expand a little more with the alcohol hangover topic with a video. I found a pretty [...]
September 21st, 2007 at 11:20 am
[...] like to “relax” a little more on the weekends. I started with last week’s post, The Hangover Cureall?, pointing out what actually goes on during a hangover, along with a method to try and remedy [...]
January 10th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
good one there, now i know i can drink 20 bottles of chivas and not feel bad the next morning! yeah. thanks a lot there!
January 12th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Hey, whatever I can do to help the experience is enough for me. Have fun!
February 6th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
I don’t generally comment on blog posts but I had to drop by and tell you thank you for posting this, I fully agree and with a little luck people will understand your argument.
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