How To Avoid Hangover

Hangover treatments are specific to what drink you have taken. But in general there are some precautionary measures you can always take to avoid hangover. The specific treatment for a particular drink will be discussed in details at a later stage.

Okie dokie:) Jokes apart, here is some geeky stuff but you can really avoid hangover if you go through these guidelines and follow them before and during drinking. Remember , if you know how to drink, you will never complain about negatives of being high.

Before you drink:

• Eat. Fill your stomach with a healthy meal of starches and essential vitamins and minerals. Note that I said healthy. The food will absorb the alcohol and lessen it’s effects on you. If you decide a greasy bar burger or drippy pizza is your idea of a good meal you may regret that idea when the grease mixes the wrong way with liquor and carbonation and you end up staring at the toilet bowl.
• Hydrate. Drink lots of fruit juice and water now. Think of it this way, for every glass of non-alcoholic beverage you drink now you will save yourself from having to drink two glasses in the morning.
• Prepare your favorite hangover remedy and place it in an easy to open container in the fridge. If you do over indulge the last thing you will want to do in the morning is gather ingredients, mix things and worse yet, run the blender.
• A clinical study from 2004 suggests that drinking prickly pear fruit extract several hours prior to drinking will reduce the symptoms of a hangover.

While you drink:

• Grab a bite to eat at the bar. This is where greasy fries would be okay to eat because it is a snack that will keep your stomach full and add extra material to absorb the alcohol. Bar peanuts, popcorn, any type of food will do the job.
• Choose the booze carefully. Again, dark spirits contain more congeners, light spirits fewer, cheap liquor more. More congeners equal more headaches. Stick with quality light color drinks most of the night to reduce your hangover.
• Memorize this rhyme and abide by it, it will save you a lot of pain. “Liquor before beer, never fear. Beer before liquor, never sicker.”
• Alternate alcoholic with non-alcoholic beverages. This trick will slow your alcohol consumption down and still give you something to drink. Choose water, fruit juices or light carbonated beverages. If you are worried about what your friends may think order a mocktail or dress up a straight virgin beverage with a garnish and lie. Call Sprite or 7-Up with a lime a Vodka Tonic or orange juice a Screwdriver or cranberry juice with a lime a Cape Codder. They are probably too drunk to know the difference and who cares anyway, you will feel so much better in the morning than they will, HA!
• Consume less than one drink per hour. Your liver breaks down alcohol at the rate of one beer per hour, so spreading out your drinking over many hours will give your body a chance to keep up with you.
• Once you make it home and before you crash on the bed force yourself to drink a glass of water and take some Vitamin B. This is also not the time to take any headache medicine (Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, Aspirin) as they could seriously damage your liver.

Important: If you experience tremors, stomach pain, or see blood in your vomit seek professional medical attention IMMEDIATELY. You may have overdone it too much and should go to the emergency room right away.

What Causes Hangover?

Here are a number of factors that play a part in whether or not you will get a hangover after a night of drinking. Many of the causes are obvious and most of us know what our own limitations are. It goes without saying that the one true way to avoid a hangover is to avoid or severely limit the amount alcohol you consume. However we don’t suggest you to stop drinking altogether. But you should be aware of why and how is this alcohol creating these bloody hangovers. May be one day you may gain control over your hangovers if you know how they originate.Well that is what we are fighting for isn’t it?

Why do you hurt me sweetie

• The ethanol contained in alcoholic beverages has a dehydrating effect which causes headaches, dry mouth and tiredness. This effect can be lessened by drinking plenty of water before and throughout your night of drinking.
• Your liver breaks ethanol down with the aid of enzymes produced by liver cells. These chemical reactions do many things including impairing the liver’s ability to supply glucose to tissues, in particular to the brain. Glucose is responsible for the brain’s energy and the lack thereof results in fatigue, weakness, moodiness and decreased attention.
• Congeners are the by-products of the process of alcohol fermentation and exaggerate the symptoms of a hangover. The more congeners consumed, the worse a hangover is likely to be. Dark spirits such as brandy, whiskey and red wine contain more congeners than lighter spirits like vodka and white wine. Likewise cheaper spirits have had fewer of these impurities removed and are more likely to cause a hangover.
• Some people believe the sugar in sweeter cocktails contribute to the severity of hangovers.
• Smokers and even some non-smokers tend to smoke more when they are drinking and this can lead to nicotine poisoning which will also worsen hangovers.
• Some people are genetically lucky when it comes to hangovers and rarely, if ever, suffer the effects.
• Weight is a factor. The less one weighs the more that person will feel the effects and after effects of alcohol.
• The older you are the more likely you are to have a severe hangover. This is usually not a factor because we tend to take it a little easier as we learn from the mistakes of the past. But you have been warned.
• There is something to be said about psychosomatic effects. If you think you will get a hangover, you probably will get one. Look on the bright side and save yourself.

Finally, the more you drink or the more you guzzle in a short time span, the worse your hangover will be.

HANGOVER: An Introduction

A hangover (veisalgia) describes the sum of unpleasant physiological effects following heavy consumption of drugs, particularly alcoholic beverages. The most commonly reported characteristics of a hangover include headache, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, lethargy, dysphoria, and thirst.

The Six Stages Of Hangover

One Star Hangover: No pain. No real feeling of illness. Your sleep last night was a mere disco nap, which has given you a whole lot of misplaced energy. Be glad that you are able to function relatively well. However, you are still parched. You can drink 10 sodas and still feel this way. You are craving a steak bomb and a side of gravy fries.

Two Star Hangover: No pain, but something is definitely amiss. You may look okay but you have the mental capacity of a staple gun. The coffee you are chugging is only exacerbating your rumbling gut, which is craving a rootie tootie fresh and fruity pancake breakfast. There is some definite havoc being wreaked upon your bowels.

Three Star Hangover: Slight headache. Stomach feels crappy. You are definitely not productive. Anytime a girl walks by you gag because her perfume reminds you of the random gin shots you did with your alcoholic friends after the bouncer 86′d you at 1:45 a.m. Life would be better right now if you were in your bed with a dozen donuts and a meatball hero watching the E! fashion awards. You’ve had 4 cups of coffee, a gallon of water, 3 Snapples and a liter of diet coke, yet you haven’t peed once.

Four Star Hangover: Life sucks. Your head is throbbing. You can’t speak too quickly or else you might puke. Your boss has already lambasted you for being late and has given you a lecture for reeking of booze. You wore nice clothes, but that can’t hide the fact that you missed an oh-so crucial spot shaving, (girls, it looks like you put your make-up on while riding the bumper cars.) Your eyes look like one big vein and your hair style makes you look like a reject from the class picture of Grover Cleveland HS, class of ’84.

Five Star Hangover: AKA “Dante’s 4th Circle of Hell.”
You have a second heartbeat in your head, which is actually annoying the employee who sits in the next cube. Vodka vapor is seeping out of every pore and making you dizzy. You still have toothpaste crust in the corners of your mouth from brushing your teeth in an attempt to get the remnants of the shit fairy out. Your body has lost the ability to generate saliva, so your tongue is suffocating you. Death seems pretty good right now. You definitely don’t remember who you were with, where you were, what you drank and why there is a stranger still sleeping in your bed at your otherwise empty house.

Six Star Hangover: Otherwise known as the “Infinite Nut smacker”
You wake up on your bathroom floor. For about 2 seconds you look at the ceiling, wondering if the cool refreshing feeling on your cheek is the bathroom tile or your vomit from 5 hours ago. It is amazing how your roommate was as drunk as you, but somehow managed to get up before you. You try to lift your head. Not an option. Then you inadvertently turn your head too quickly and smell the funk of 13 packs of cigarettes in your hair. Suddenly you realize you were smoking, but not ultra lights… some jackass handed you Marlboro reds, and you smoked them like it was your second full time job. You look in the mirror only to see remnants of the stamp “Ready to Rock” faintly atop your forehead… the stamp on the back of your hand that has magically appeared on your forehead by alcoholic osmosis. You have to be to work in t-minus 14 minutes and 32 seconds and the only thing you can think of wearing is your “hello kitty” pajamas and your slippers.