Prevention and Relief of Hangovers

Drinking excessively gives terrible hangovers.  So if you’ve any sense, avoid it whenever possible.

I avoid drinking more than one or two beers at a time for this reason.  I hate hangovers.  I hate having to sleep longer than normal.  It’s a waste of time and usually marks the loss of an actually productive day.

However, with the holiday season coming along, I know I’ll be in for several boozing parties that I will actually either want or have to go to.  For others gearing up their livers and their bodies for the holiday drinking, here’s stuff I’ve done over the years to avoid those nasty headaches.

1. Drink a 500 ml Gatorade before drinking.  Then before retiring to bed, drink another 500 ml.  Don’t be conservative about drinking lots of water during the parties too.  I’ve never had a hangover every single time I did this, no matter how much alcohol got consumed.  This is my plan A for the holidays!

2. The morning after a heavy drinking session, you will normally be suffering from a vitamin C and a vitamin B deficiency.  In order to normalize this and restore energy quickly (and potentially prevent further hangovers), take 2 tablespoons of dry yeast, 4 tablespoons of honey and a freshly squeezed glass of citrus, papaya or pineapple juice.  This should start the day right just when it’s about to be wrong.

3. If headache has already struck, do the following things.  Each one should help relieve the headaches a little bit, hopefully fixing it in the course of a couple of hours:
* Take a quick cold shower
* Do #2 to restore vitamin levels in the body
* Medicate with either aspirin or ibuprofen to soothe the headache
* Eat some carbohydrates
* Take any of the following, preferably in juice form: cabbage, celery, artichoke, beetroot, apple and tomato.  Make your own combinations to taste.
* Sleep for 1 or 2 hours