Sure shot ways to deal with hangovers

By The Standard and Newsday | Jun. 27, 2014

Here are various ways you can deal with the morning after, when you wake up after having partied the night before.

So you had a whale of a time the night before and you wake up the next morning feeling like you’d been consumed by a whale?

It’s the bane of partying and has plagued man since he discovered wine. It’s what led to Alexander the Great losing a battle and gave Shakespeare a queasy turn.

It’s also what gives many of us urban commandos a pain in the head. It’s the hangover!

But what really is a hangover? Medically termed veisalgia, is the after-effect following the consumption of large amounts of alcoholic beverages.

The symptoms An alcohol hangover is associated with variety of symptoms.

Depending on severity, they may include dry mouth, headaches, irritability, bloodshot eye, sensitivity to light and noise, or nausea and vomiting.

The cause Grog has a dehydrating effect (such substances are known as diuretics), which causes headaches, dry mouth, and lethargy. But what you can do is to chug down plenty of water between and after sessions.

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Ever felt a little nauseated after having more than what was good for you? Well that’s because alcohol affects the stomach lining.

The removal of the “downer” effects of alcohol in the brain probably account for the light and noise sensitivity the next morning, when you wish everyone and everyone to just hush!

The amount of tannin in the drink may also have an effect. Red wines have more tannins than white wines, and some people note less of a hangover with white wine.

Some people believe that sugar (often found in sweet cocktails) worsens hangovers.

Having that social smoke can also worsen hangovers, as smokers tend to smoke much more than usual while under the influence of alcohol.

There are the lucky few whop suffer very little, if any, hangover symptoms. Blame it on good genes!

Surprisingly, the amount of flavour additives in a drink will increase the hangover. So, dark alcohol like dark rum and red wine produces more of that killer feeling the next morning than say, vodka or gin.

The cures Common folk medicine has a wide variety of hangover cures.

Apparently, there seem to be nearly as many ways of curing hangovers as there are ways of getting off your face in the first place. Here are some of the more authentic.

Drinking a large amount of water before going to bed, and during the night, for rehydration (a little water is much better than none),
Eating mineral-rich foods, like pickles (chakana) or fish fingers and tartare sauce. Apparently, drinking pickle juice, the solution in which foods were pickled, in the morning is a staple hangover remedy in Poland,
Eating anything substantial, especially before going to bed, to “soak up” the alcohol in the stomach (pizza, sandwich),
Drinking some (not too strong) coffee (although caffeine itself may induce dehydration),
Orange juice/vitamin C,
Cabbage leaves or tomato juice,
Cysteine, which is available as the over-the-counter supplement N-acetylcysteine, is known to assist in processing acetaldehyde, best taken already while drinking and before going to bed. (Egg yolk is also rich in cysteine, and it is notable that many hangover folk remedies or morning-after breakfasts incorporate eggs),
The later stages of the consumption of alcohol cause more of a negative effect than the first, by consuming more alcohol (hair of the dog) the body begins processing the newer alcohol bringing a temporary relief from the effects of a hangover,
Taking a vitamin B1 (thiamin) supplement before going to bed,
The English breakfast or breakfast roll, a meal that is an all day breakfast,
In 2003, the fad hangover cure was a Russian pill, sold in Russia as antipokhmelin (anti-hangover), and marketed as RU-21 in the US.