A Cure for Hangovers?

Drinkers of the world unite! No longer will we have to suffer the retching sickness, the pounding headaches and bothersome fatigue that hit after a night on the town. Quite possibly, the greatest service to man is now on offer: a hangover cure in 30 minutes.

It comes in the form of an IV drip and Dr Elliot Nadelson from New York. He boasts rapid rehydration recovery for those who’ve partied too hard (and who don’t have the time to be hungover) with just a short house call and administration of a tailor-made IV solution. An effective solution to that pesky hangover because he claims IV hydration has a 100% absorption rate whereas all those glasses of water you’re downing only offer 50-60%. Unfortunately this is a service only on offer in New York (and Las Vegas…obviously) so until we get a chance to trial it in good old London I guess we’re stuck with the traditional methods down below.

Where the heck does your hangover come from?
Basically the key factor that will have you feeling worse for wears is dehydration. Combine this with the series of enzymatic breakdown processes goin down in that liver of yours and wham that’s your hangover right there. We could get all scientific but rather give you a headache (similar to one you might get with a hangover) we instead found this nice video, filled with some doodles and pretty colours to explain:

Hangover cures?
There are lots of ‘cures’ and popular myths that are supposed to get you over your hangover, some of them may be bang on the mark, others way off. The problem is there isn’t any sure fire way to cure it, aside from prevention in the first place...but let’s be honest that’s not going to happen. Everyone’s got their own hangover cure, years of them has led me to finding a bottle of sprite and packet of Salt and Vinegar Mcoys to work fairly well, but here are some other remedies:

Hair of the dog
Good god no! Downing another drink can only postpone the inevitable, you’ve come this far you might as well see it through.

Water
Your saviour: having a drink of water before you go out, in between rounds and before you go to bed will help. Alcohol is a diuretic meaning it causes your body to loose water in its bid to get it out of your system, i.e. once you break the seal and take more trips to the toilet. Less water in the body is the cause of your headaches the next day so having a glass on standby is essential.

Eating before you go out
A definite help, foods with fat and carbs can slow alcohol absorption rates giving the body more time to process and breakdown alcohol. Remember though this will only help on the night BEFORE you go out, not after.

Exercise
You’re gonna be dehydrated and tired so if you can actually bring yourself to actually doing any exercise (first of all hats off to ye crazy person) it’s only going to heighten these problems. It won’t really help the hangover per se but might wake you up a bit, some fresh air might alleviate any nausea and as long as you drink plenty of fluids will help towards burning off some of those beer calories you took on the night before.

A shower
Commonly misunderstood, many take the shower in a quick bid to ‘rehydrate’ themselves. Showers can only really do two things: Cold shower: get you a bit more alert. Hot shower: raise body temp to prep you for sleep and sleep through the worst part of hangover.

The fry up

Another myth, the only thing this is going to do is distract your stomach and has little beneficial effect on helping your hangover as it doesn’t contain any of the nutrients that might. The only foods that arguably help are eggs (not fried!) as they contain cysteine which the body can use in alcohol breakdown and fresh juice, its fructose sugars giving some energy and increasing the body’s rate of getting rid of toxins.

Glass of milk before you head out
‘Lining the stomach’ thus slowing the absorption of alcohol. A nice idea and might help a little, but the reality of the situation is most of the alcohol will actually be absorbed in the small intestine. Also alcohol is more readily absorbed by the body over other nutrients, including the ones in milk, so even if you do drink a glass before you head out the alcohol drunk later will be absorbed first.

Coffee
Bit of a tough call this one, some people swear by it but typically the advice is that coffee just gives you a caffeine boost making you feel more alert and ‘over’ the hangover. Infact some claim coffee has a dehydrating effect which could make the headache worse, although some studies claim this not to be true and coffee as beneficial. This one is down to personal preference.

Happy drinking and recovery everyone!!